About to start a wildlife removal business and I need good traps

Advanced, Comstock's ,Safeguards or WCS, listed in alphabetical order. I'll almost never buy another Tomahawk, they are not sturdy, I refrained from using the "J" word. A friend bought some in the last couple weeks, he's very disappointed in their "quality". There I said it for you J.

Dave:
Have to add one more to your list!
Try Leon Wickenkamp.

pick65

Dave,

I'm surprised with the Tomahawk comments. Have you talked with Greg Smith about your issues? The professional series are extremely durable. I can stand on the 5 x 5 x 16 chipmunk trap and not only does it support my weight, but it still works afterwards. I cannot say the same thing about the Safeguards.

Trapperjim,

In terms of the best trap, there is no correct answer. It will depend on target species, how they are used and how you treat them. Instead, I'd recommend asking yourself if you need gravity door or spring door traps. As a general rule, gravity door traps are cheaper and Williams makes a very sturdy affordable trap. The biggest issue I can say about gravity door traps is that they are all 1 x 1 wire (at least those I'm familiar with).

If you're looking for 1/2 x 1 wire look at the professional series from Tomahawk, Safeguard, and I also classify Advanced and Comstock in this category. The wire tends to be thicker and the traps are made to handle more captures and abuse. Of course, this also means that you'll pay a lot more for these than for regular series and off brand (TSC) names.

Another factor to think about is if you want a pan/treadle system or a wire trigger system. Wire triggers are great for blind and walk through sets, but you may find it easier to bait pan/treadle traps.

Also, look at specialty traps (especially for squirrels). WCS, Fields Development Supply, and Tomahawk all offer multi-catch traps for squirrels. Some require nose cones and are easy to swap out trapped animals with fresh cages while others get mounted directly to the structure and have to be removed before another can be put in its place.

You can check past issues of WCT Magazine as well as doing a search here for past threads where this topic has been discussed.

Eric, I talked to them years ago about a couple other similar issues, I got a wave of the hand to go away. My friend didn't want to comment despite my encouragement so I said it. I'm pretty much done buying cages in my career so my opinion doesn't matter.

Appreciate the advice

I'm guessing that we have a few hundred cages, most of which are Tomahawks. I guess I'm more than a little shocked at what Salys said about their quality. I got my first one 26 years ago and still use it. We buy some nearly every other year so you would think if they had a bad batch, we would know about it. The last couple of years the Tomahawk cages were darn near indestructible.

I also agree that Comstocks are an excellent trap and that they gotten even better since they're now made by guess who? Yep, Tomahawk!
I also agree that the Wickenkamp is an excellent cage but it's got a gravity door and not quite as versatile.
We probably own 30 Comstocks and 30 Wickenkamps and we also like the WCS squirrel cage.

Salys, are you sure that you don't have your Tomahawks confused with your Safeguards, because that's one cage that raccoons wreck just about any time they get in one. Let me know the size and model of the Tomahawks that you guys are having problems with. This has got my interest now. Send a PM if necessary.

LOL Dave, I was at work when this thread was started and as you know my recent health issues have had me rather distracted.

I prefer the Comstocks. I have limited experience with most of the others. Tough traps. As Dave mentioned the Tomahawks
I have recently gotten, don't really seem to be built much better than the other cages I could buy here in town. But to be
fair I will wait until I have taken a couple coon in them to really give an opinion.

I have gone almost exclusively to Comstock's and Williams traps and unless something spectacular comes around I don't see me changing from those. Good luck with your business.

Salys, are you sure that you don't have your Tomahawks confused with your Safeguards, because that's one cage that raccoons wreck just about any time they get in one. Let me know the size and model of the Tomahawks that you guys are having problems with. This has got my interest now. Send a PM if necessary.

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I agree with Paul 100%. There are different grades and different prices of Tomahawk. Just depends on what you want. Safeguard are the ones I don't care for. Just me.

"Best"? Best is a very subjective term. Everyone has a different criteria for what is best.

Most of my cages are the Safeguard Professional traps and have held up fine for five years now of part time work. Absolutely no damage from any animal or weather.

I've had some Tomahawk Pro's for a few years that have held up well to the animals but weather does seem to be working on them more than the Safeguards.

I'm using Freedom Brand for my swing down, ring lock door traps and I'm very happy with their performance. The wire is Speed dipped so I'm not really sure if it's galvanized. I'm keeping a sharp eye on them to see if they are holding up and so far, no problems.

And of course, I use both Comstock and Advance for my wire trigger traps. Both work excellent and I'm sure I'll be using both for years to come.

Comstocks (depending on size) are powder coated. I am getting ready to order some soon. If you purchase Tomahawks powder coating is 15% extra. I'm frugal minded like that, especially just starting. So, being Paul mentioned, they are both made by Tomahawk I'm really leaning toward the Comstock... Unless, I keep reading this thread.

I know about Wicks but 90% of my cages are spring loaded, locking doors, that's what works for me. I have several Advanced that aren't lockers but they are species specific for me.

add clips to anything and adjust as needed...........

I have a coupla Hilltop coon traps. Very, very tough traps; separate bait door, gravity-lock catch door. Don't know if they're still available.

It is the trapper,,,,not the trap........

I thought you were a trapper, not a fortune cookie creator....lol.

I don't want to get beat up but no one mentioned Havahart. How come?
Just curious...

coonwacka, just for you I'm going to give my impressions of the Havahart. We have about 15 of the old style coon-sized Havaharts. Those are the ones that have a mesh door, not a solid one. They still work well after 20 years.

Then they came out with the solid door which the raccoons would grab a hold of and twist and let themselves out. Then they came out with the two door cage that was long enough to catch alligators but didn't spring very well. Then they came out with the "one hand set" cage which was so named because the raccoons could let themselves out with one hand.

We own lots of Havaharts because customers are constantly giving them to us. If I every figure out how to make them work well, we will have a lot more cages for the guys to use, but don't hold your breath.

We have hashed the best trap topic over and over again.There are several Types of traps that can do the job. It is just a matter of what you like and if they hold up to the task at hand and the system of work that you do.Some of the things I require in a trap is having the ability to transfer a captured animal into a transfer cage which requires a rear slide release door for the best results.

I found out real quick after losing a couple of coon catches by trying to transfer from a standard extended front door cage trap. It can be a challenge mating up a transfer cage to a tradtional trap without a few escapes. We probably all have done that one a couple of times by now.

In the beginning we all just bought traps that we thought would get the job done and vested as little $$ as we could at that time. Then as your experience grew so did your understanding of what you liked and preferred in equipment.

I have had most all makes and models over the years but our inventory is mostly safeguard traps. For the $$ they work well for us. I know without question I only prefer spring loaded door traps with the exception of a couple gravity door types from Dekalb.

Too many bad experiences over the years that cost me animal losses or misses with some gravity type door traps. Some like them but overall spring powered doors or stronger traps are the way to go as experience will show you.

I like Jim Comstocks traps for certain set ups and other traditional cage type traps for other various appllications. We all find what works best for us and with the tools available to us we sure can make fast work of most wildlife removal issues. If not I can fabricate things to work with what tools I already have available.

The best answer is getting a couple of each if undecided and work them to find what you like the best. In time you can standardize your equipment as you see fit.Just buying any type at first will get your feet wet but a rear door access trap is great as is a smaller grid wire trap. Time will teach you what you need to know.