howard weasels are considered a speices of interest in Mo you better ask your C.o but I don't believe we can trap them in mo

Sorry I got "cross threaded". The lead weight idea was for the Koro rodent traps. The spring is so powerful on those, it seems to take a lot of effort to overcome the friction. On a previous post on this thread, someone suggested it would not fire with 4 oz weight on the pan, but would by adding the 5th oz. So my idea was to maybe add 3 or 4 oz to the pan to pre-load the trigger with enough weight to lighten it up. Otherwise, it seems to me some of these smaller guys like a weasel or rat could run around on it all day long and nothing would happen. Or maybe not. Maybe they do work well for them as is.


Some say you can alter the sensitivity of the Koro RT by bending the dog.....others said it didn't help. Having messed with it a bit I am pretty sure if their head is in it when it fires, they are going to be DOA. Bad a$$ little trap!

My idea on the BMI 110's....which seems to me to be on the large end of what you might use on a weasel or norway rat......was to staple a piece of light plywood or even cardboard to the bell trigger, so the only way past the trigger was through a hole slightly larger than 1 inch. Large enough they would try to pass through it, but small enough they would have to push on it to do so and fire the trigger in the process. My experience with the BMI traps is they are pretty sensitive as is. My Dukes, on the other hand, are not. The triggers on those allow nearly a full inch of travel before they fire. Not nearly sensitive enough to nab what I'm after. I won't be buying any more Duke body traps.....at least not the 110's.

A guy might be able to switch to the BMI 55's to narrow down the opening to use the bell trigger as is (weasels, norway rats and such).

Tony:

As I understand it, MDC does not have a trapping season for weasels, but does allow you to take out any of them causing predator issues, such as with chickens. That is where my interest lies.

Will try this again with reduced size photographs:






Shows my enclosed end box and modification of the bmi 110 that would go in it.

SORRY howard just making sure I hate to see a fellow trapper get in a bind

Joe:

Thanks for putting all that together. Will take a look at the black box gopher trap.

What was your experience with the CMT 3 x 3 body grips? Seems they should be small enough for weasels or rats vs. a 110, which seems too large for both. On the CMT, it might depend on how easy it is to get the trigger to fire.

Also to consider are the RBG in 2.5" and 3.5". The thread you referenced showed some of those (larger I think) set in sewer pipes. Seems like those would make some nice pass through traps (may need pan trigger mods).

Speaking of pan triggers, do any of these body grip traps come from the builders with pans already installed? Seems like such a popular modification, somebody would be doing that. That is what caught my attention with the Koro traps to begin with.

Joe....thanks for the info. Gopher trap is looking better all the time!

BTW, I never got any opinions on my mod to the BMI 110 bell trigger. The one with the hole in it. As I recall, hole is only 1 1/4" to 1 1/2" diameter. Would it be likely that a weasel or rat would set that off trying to wiggle through that hole to get to the bait in the back? I think they would if they could be enticed to try to push through it.

When set and open for business, end cap with hole in it would be set in place to filter out any cats and such. As shown, only held in place with a rubber band. Would probably use light wire when in actual use.

As shown, plywood is just stapled to the trigger wires. Without something like this, it seems to be a 110 is on the large size for these smaller targets.

A smaller 50/55 in the 4 1/2 x 3 1/2" range might not need this. Wires alone if the trap is sensitive enough might be good enough for one of those. Especially the BMI 55 with bell trigger. Open it up so they take the center route and if need be close up the hole some with light wire.

Follow up on the CMT 3 x 3 body grip. On a whim, I decided to order the 3 x 3, as well as the 3 1/2" and 2 1/2" RBG's. In a predator control setting, I'm not too concerned what happens to the fur. And certainly don't care about what happens to a rat. Whatever it takes to catch em!

On the 3 x 3 CMT, the one I got worked perfect. A nearly flawless fit between the dog and trigger clip. It was easy to set, stays set when you handle the trap, yet is sensitive.....it takes very little pressure to move the trigger and fires when it does move.

The same was true of the 2 1/2" RBG......not the same with the 3 1/2" RBG.

From what I've seen, when folks set about to "tune" the triggers on these traps, most spend time fiddling with the dog.....which is only half the equation. The other half if the fit of the trigger clip, which in my mind is the most critical aspect of the trigger mechanism. It is the trigger clip rotation that pries the dog up and off the kill bar that allows the trap to fire. A sensitive trap will have the dog only a hair's breath away from the edges of this clip, such that the moment the trigger whiskers move, that clip starts to pry the dog up. The second part then is the dog has to be fit close enough so that the moment it moves, it loses it's grip on the kill bar and the trap fires.

I've got a number of these traps where the fit of the clip is really good. Like all my BMI traps. Others, like the Duke, the fit is sloppy......on some the tips of the trigger whiskers can move well over an inch before the dog lifts enough it gets close to firing. If you pre-load it like that, the whiskers can flop back and forth as much as in inch or more. I have one Duke rigged with a pan than when set, has the pan cocked up 1 1/2" higher than when it is pushed down enough it will fire with a bit more pressure. Yes, you can pre-load it, but that is just a sloppy trigger.

Sloppy triggers are easy enough to fix if the fault is in the dog......not so if the fault is with a lose, sloppy fit in the clip. It may not matter with a large animal like a muskrat.....one that is moving when it hits the trigger.....but for smaller wary stuff like a rat or maybe a weasel......that trigger has to be light to the touch....meaning little pressure needed to get the trigger to move, and a close fit so it will fire when it does. You can fix a clip that is too tight....drill out the rivet, remove the clip and file it down. You can't fix one that has a sloppy fit. Since it is likely these are all stamped, it would be curious to know how some of them fit well and others don't. Even from the same company.

Related to the sensitivity, the CMT 3 x 3 and 2 1/2" RBG both have much lighter springs than the 4 1/2 x 3 1/2 BG's or the 3 1/2" RBG. So the friction of the kill bar against the dog is much lighter. Same principle that adversely affects the KORO rodent trap. The spring on the KORO is so powerful it takes a lot of weight on the pan to overcome the friction. The target animals for that (rats, weasels and such) are not heavy enough to overcome that amount of friction. Either the pan has to be made larger to give it more leverage or else the pan needs to be pre-loaded with some weight. I'm thinking both. Maybe glue a 2 x 2 square of 1/8" bar stock to the top of the pan? Something that weighs about 3 to 4 oz?

You can fix a sloppy fit.


Squeeze or squash the trigger using a vise and a hammer or a pair of vise grips. Tremendously improves triggers that came sloppy from the factory.

Not sure I understand what part of the trigger mechanism you are talking about? How and where to squish it?

Of the traps I have, the two with the most slop are the Duke and a Victor. The slop in the Duke comes from the kill bar catch hole in the dog being too large.....nearly 1/32nd oversize. A noticeable gap, yet both bottom edges are in contact with, and rest upon the whisker clip. But when the whiskers move to rotate the clip to pry the dog up, the tips of the whiskers have to move nearly 1 1/2" before the clip rotates around far enough to start prying. Dog then starts to creep up and eventually fires. Trigger is loose and sloppy and when it does fire, you can almost feel is starting to slip before it fires. You might be able to fix that by bending the dog down to close the hole. BTW, all three hole settings on the Duke have the same loose fit.

The Issue with the Victor is the slot in the whisker clip is too deep, so when the trap is set, the dog is not even touching the clip. Gap between the two may be as much as 1/64th or more. When set, the tips of the whiskers can freely flop back and forth as much as 3/4". Good news is when trigger whiskers are pushed, it takes very effort and travel to fire. It is sensitive in that regard. Trigger is crisp and breaks clean with no creep. This one would be a good candidate to rig with a pan trigger. As for the slop created by the too deep slot, I'm not sure how to fix that. You might have to live with that?

But ideally, for my intended use, they should have a light, crisp trigger. Of those I have tried, the BMI's come the closest to it out of the box. The little CMT 3 x 3 is about the same.

Lock the bottom of the trigger into a vise so that 1/2 or 3/4 of the entire trigger is above the vise. Lightly tap the top with a hammer until the top is mashed down a little. Set trap and test it. If it needs a few more taps, do it. If it won’t stay set, squeeze the trigger with pliers and start over.


You can do the same thing with vise grip pliers, but it’s easier to explain it by talking about using a hammer. I wish I could post pictures from my phone, a picture really makes it easy to understand

Spot on Aix! Dubur the dog first, then it will be repeatable.

I was incorrect,straightening increases tension.I think it is a great trap for what it is intended for-rats and squirrels.I don't consider it a weasel trap.I do think there is more you can do to lighten the tension,like chamfering and polishing the pan hole and polishing the dog end.Wax could also be added but I think you would get a lot of wacked fingers in the process.Like I say,I don't consider it a weasel trap but it works well on our red squirrels which weigh 8 oz and great on spotted skunks that run from 8 oz to 1.5 lbs..It is the best trap I have found for spotted skunks due to consistent strikes and quick kills.They are buggers for getting to far in body grippers before the trap fires.This leads to a mad,spraying animal that requires another form of dispatch.

I haven't tried these rat traps yet but they are easy to set and easy to keep your fingers out of.I think they will be good in boxes for weasels.

I wasn't talking about skunks.Only spotted skunks which are much faster,slimmer and more agile.I don't have any trouble hitting striped skunks where I want with body grippers that are strong,well adjusted and tight.I've taken several with BMI 55's but a 60 would probably be better.The Koro single spring rodent trap might take a striped skunk but it's little small.I like the Bridger 155 for them.