It’s a fine coon trap probably the most well made out there. Stabilizing is a matter of ground conditions and the individual trapper with a little thought should be able to figure out what works in different situations no matter what DP he uses. I consider Gary The Godfather of the coon dp craze. LOL. Made a lot of guys better coon trappers

Yep. Laying them on the ground might even be a better idea during extended periods of significant rain to prevent the bait from getting totally washed through the drain hole.

Well In freezing weather you just zip tie the trap to a rod or a stick stuck In the ground.
An das to laying them on the ground you just may have those coon playing around with It and never getting caught. To set that trap off with a pull type trigger It's going to need to be pulled tight. And If that coon Is pushing the trap around It's going to just about impossible to set It off. I can see a lot of traps being cleaned out with out a catch. They clean out enough traps with out being caught when they are actually stabilized.

You're using the wrong bait or combination of baits if you're having DP's cleaned out by coons and not catching them.

X2!

I have trouble with mice eating my bait on the ground. Then I tried dry catfood. Like the coons left. Go back to fish. Started catching some. I trapped around a federal fish hatchery. Trout u should see the coons the numbers and size. I catch a few in dp. But I end up going to 160 body traps. I tried fish (cut bait) dry catfood fishfood and wet catfood. The fish does best.

Hers's what I do with great results. If your using a DP like the lil grizz (my fav) and not something like the Diablo with a bait door (which I like too), I screwier a reg size marshmallow on to the trigger. Then I dump 6 to 8 pieces of dry cat food under the marshmallow, more will make it hard to set. Then I put some more dry cat food on top of that( about 4 to 6 pieces) and two mini marshmallows. It works incredibly well, give it a go.

All i've ever used was grizz's when they first came out, sometimes the stabilizer is hard to use but there's lots of ways to work around that, and yes the trigger pivot tends to freeze up with rust if not used in a while, a drop of mineral oil fixes that with no oder . The pull only trigger is fine as it is, I've rarely had a coon work the trap and not get caught as long as you make sure the trigger is free moving and you don't jam it up with too much bait. I've used them flat on the ground, and even hanging upside down, they just work...

Coon, squirrels, mice, and I'm sure others can clean out a DP quite easily no matter the bait. As far as laying the trap on the ground I've never tried it but it makes no sense to me and not the way they are designed to be set.

Lots of critters clean out the DPs before the coon comes along. I'm not laying mine on the ground.

Ain't doing it right then Beav, gotta leave some for the others. You know people can have a great catch without using duke traps lol.

I'm still not leaving my DPs laying on the ground. LOL

No one says you have to but it does work. The point is they don't need to be stabilized SOLID just enough so they stand up to keep mice out a little. Even with dukes I only ever push the stabilizer in maybe 2".

Now If some DP manufacture would put a small Chinese hat on the stabilizer It would make these traps pretty much mouse proof.

I'll call Duke and have them get right on It. LOL

I've never had any problems catching alot of coons yearly in The Original King of the pipe type dp traps The Little Grizz Getrz. I have at least a few of all the copies that have come along in the years since then and they work fine too. I have always liked the V type stake/stabelizer on the original Gruzz's.And I have never noticed much of a difference in my catch no matter which trigger type was used.

Sure I would have rather paid around $130 per dz for my initial start up traps rather than the $235 per dz they were.But for years they were the ONLY type trap like that.And I still paid for them with the coons I caught the first season with them.I still used plenty of footholds and a few conibears.And I would add another dz or 2 DPs per year after the initial bigger purchase of 5 dozen.Alot of my Little Grizz Getrz traps are probably 15 years old or older and still catch coon just fine - a testiment to how well they were desighned and built.

I beleive the first copy of the little grizz getrz that I saw was the Duke that I saw at the NTA either in Goshen IN around 04 or the NTA after that was either in IL. or Ohio. I remember talking to Carroll Black and his wife at the NTA and Blackie was just beside himself about it he told me "They have went and copied that mans trap and stole his trap desighn" meaning Duke.I can remember Blackie and his wife coming across like that was not a very honorable thing to do.But then I heard the patent on the grizz was just on the stableiizer but that never made sense to me.You would think who ever had the patent on the original little grizz getrz would have held or had the patent on the whole trap ?
Out of some of the other dps Ive tried Id day the dagger is very well built.And the Z trap has very strong springs.Well now back to the original topic - I have always liked the V stake an stabelizer on the original little grizz getrz traps.I would prefer all of the knock off and copy brands of The Grizz to have that same V type wire welded to the bottom..The straight type stake like on the duke is ok but I like the set up on The Z trap even better.But I have caught and held coon in all of them.I for sure would not cut the V stake off the bottom of them for a few reasons and one being that some day they may be worth alot more in their original desighn and condition as an antique even.
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I don't think ur going catch many coon lay on ground without stabilizer stuck in, like the beav stated, coon play with trap, I always ram stabilizer in to hilt, in rainy weather, I go with a styrofoam cup, I started using DPs more last season, first time ever use a white styrofoam cup in rainy weather, it rain a lot the first nite season. Notmuch in DPs the first nite. An was raining I think on Sunday the next day when checking or very muddy an bunch coons to skin. Left almost all DPs go from opening day, without relure or rebait , just check, an some were half flooded, had styrofoam cup, the next day, had all sorts coon after rain storm an dry up lil in DPs with cup on top. Without relure or rebait , from rainstorm, was using adc cherry smelling trail mix, pellet bait

Anchor the trap to a concrete block and lay the trap half way under it.

I am going to give them a run this yr. I just replaced springs and rivets on almost 4 dz of dukes. I have a 1.00 in spring and 2 rivets. I have new traps now plus clean trigger up too. If I have to replace springs on lil grizz. I will only have 6.00 in each trap. Only give 5.00 each for them.

That would work but I hate the thought of hauling around all those cinder blocks.

That's the bad thing about anything that's worth a hoot. if it works and you cannot get it and its not protected , someone will copy it. or try to steal it. At least I made several improvement's on the Dagger, the shape of the housing and restraint holds better with less spring pressure, the 2-way shaped trigger which virtually eliminated the bait theft by raccoons, increasing catch ratio by almost 12 to 1 ratio compaired to other straight trigger traps according to some. I like gary, ran into problems with patent attorneys as what was to be covered on the traps. I thank goodness seen what the attorney was doing and canned his tail and found an attorney who would do it the way I wanted it, and got it right. we finally got the infringer shut down and even got a small settlement out of him. I heard he packed up and left Iowa. What else would you do when the world finds out what you really are.