Have you ever tried one of Kirk's?

No, I have not tried a trap that exists only in memories of the past or in collections.

I need a trap that is durable and has a great trigger so there are no misfires and no escapes.
That is why I use Comstock traps.
And in case you wonder - I get no free traps or discounts.

Kirk's traps do not exist only in memories or collections! Some of us own them and use them.

They are work horse traps, no misfires, no escapes and as durable as any trap on the market.

I do not have anything bad to say about Jim's traps either and own several of his too.

We have and use several of Kirk"s power door traps often. Really like his beaver trap. They all have performed very well for us and have held up to abuse as well.. We also have several of Jim"s traps also. Sure glad I bought my traps when Kirk was still making them himself. His triggering system took some time in its design.

Kirks are best I have. In a class of there own

I guess if I hadn't invited kirk to spend a few days at our home in Sept of 2007 after the New York State Trappers Convention and showed him the very first conibear style wire trigger, cage traps I had invented in 2003, you guys wouldn't have the traps you like, which was basically my first invention. I had a number of variations of what kirk made, that worked o.k., but saw a need for better. From there I knew I could improve on the trigger by utilizing the power in the first powered door traps, with powered lock bars to stabilize the trigger and at the same time get rid of all the unnecessary springs, clips etc. It took 3 months to engineer, but it worked. Simplicity as always proves best, fewer parts in a totally self contained unit. Glad so many guys like the powered door, wire trigger traps. For those in Canada, our beaver traps are certified.

So where can I buy a new, economical priced Kirk trap today???

Good morning sir, I was wondering what you’d been up to lately.

When I was in the market for a few powered cage traps, Comstock’s were what was available. I am very satisfied with the 12x18 beaver trap. It’s more versatile than I expected it to be. I really like the additional width. Right or wrong, I feel as though it creates a more inviting opening.

Aix, Glad to hear the beaver traps are working for you, as they work for us too. I'm not going to take credit for having thought everything out as to how well they would work, but was pleasantly surprise when they exceeded expectations. Never expected to be able to just throw them in and have them stay set and never even gave upside down setting a second thought until I was in the field trying them out. It just seemed "right." I make my living with them and have done so for 11 years since we made the first ones. These traps invited 3 more beaver into them today in our ADC work, for a total of 1,674 since October 29, 2010. I've always been a numbers guy, records. Tomorrow we will hit 800 beaver for the past 4 years. This year we have caught 93% in cages. A couple of years ago we were at 97% for the year. Seems to be no shortage of beaver this year either.

Jim, why don't you make the trigger with less travel?

Yea...

No, I have never tried a Kirk trap.
The praise here sounds good.
If available would give them a very brief look.

The trigger travel is subject to whatever the user wants to make it on the 9x11 and 12x12 traps. I have left the travel longer on the beaver traps purposely so that the beaver or otter are more deeply into the trap when it fires, pretty much centered when the trap goes off, which has worked very well. Got 5 more today, 10 in the past 3 days, pairs at 3 colonies all cleaned. You can make the the trigger travel almost zero on the 9x11 and 12x12 traps buy using a small grinder to take down the short tab on top of the swing bar to where ever you want it to be. You could reduce the travel to little more than a bump. The factory traps start with a few inches of travel, but can be altered. They can be made shorter after the fact, but not longer of course. I guess some might be worried that an animal might get by a trigger without firing it. If set on the ground, because the triggers are essentially a door on a hinge with the ends of the wire rotating in an arc, I have put sticks down through the cage on either side of where the wires swing in the arc to keep animals from bypassing. Good with baby animals. The newest trigger wires are made to fall off after a catch is made so that the are less apt to get bent, then just popped back on. If they are bent they can easily be straightened outside of the cage before attaching. There are no points to stick an animal.

The last thing I want to do is have to grind the trigger on a brand new trap althoughthat's exactlywhatwehad to do to make it function the way it should. The 12x12 comes with enough slack that otter can get through without setting the trap off. That's a pretty big problem with the otter bringing $300 on the live market. I have yet to talk with anyone who uses them who wants that much travel.

To make a trap function "they way it should," is subjective. There are tradeoffs no matter what you do. You know every trapper has is own way of doing things, likes and dislikes, preferences and ways he will modify virtually every trap made, to suit his own specific situation. My best example of personal preference had to do with something as simple as handles on a cage trap, two. In less than an hour two trappers called. One said, "oh I love the two handles." A few minutes later a second caller said, "I like the traps but I don't like the two handles." I rest my case. Because many trappers use the 12x12 for beaver, the extra travel is a plus. I have caught 61 pounders in them and heard of them up to 63 pounds in the small traps. They barely fit. Charlie Dobbins was one of best at it, someone I admired. He shared a lot of great ideas in his writings and books. I sought him out at every convention to see what new idea he came up with and how he made traps work all the better. In the 70's when I trapped with Thorpe I added springs to the Blake and Lamb #1 single long spring double jaw traps before anyone made them, 120 actually, and they worked very well, the first double jay, double #1's ever made. I still have some. When I trapped bobcats in California for 8 years I pulled the jaws out of my 1 3/4 Northwoods, reversed them and popped them back in to create the first offset jawed Northwoods traps ever made, superior because it was only a slight offset with round edges that other traps did not have. I could hold a cat by the tip of one toe without injury and lost but 3 catches in over 1100. I drilled and swiveled the base plates for a center fire trap and added swivels to many dozens of them. I added springs to the weak side on some, put heavier springs on others, left many as is. I replaced the steel pan bolts, drilled over sized holes, added stainless bolts with washers. I put large links on the ends of the short trap chain to accommodate 2 opposite facing dog swivels for quick connects to 10 foot grapples. I beefed up the dogs on my 7.5 CDR traps because they needed the strength to hold up. I cut the levers down on my Victor #3 coil spring traps and rewelded them shorter to pick up less dirt and fire quicker, added base plates too. I built my own 660's from Belisles, made my own 660 self supporting conibears, made stretch conibear traps from 160's 220's and 280's. I took a lot of pride and satisfaction in what I did as Charlie did and never complained to anyone that out of the box traps weren't exactly what I wanted. I guess over the years I have modified just about every trap I have ever set in one way or other to make it my trap for my own situation. Another way to have approached this might have been to say, "the traps are really solid, well made, with fast closing doors. The trigger travel was a bit longer than I wanted so I took a minute and made the simple adjustment to make them work for my situation."

No. When someone claims to build the "best cage trap ever made ". It should actually be the best. Maybe the design has changed in the last few years but the one I ran for otter was definitely not well designed. Had to add a rod to keep the springs on the doors from breaking the cage wire. The doors have decent speed but are not the fastest on the market.

Sure they are great for beaver. But a $200 cage should be able to catch more than beaver well.

Don't get me wrong, I have a few issues with Kirk's as well.

The 12x12 traps were first built for raccoons as we already had a great beaver/otter trap in the 12x18x39. The 12x12 has been used successfully for badgers, armadillos, 'possum, porcupines, otter and beaver, even catching fox and bobcat, with the single door traps a great fisher trap. In the single door traps used for fisher, videos have shown the factory trigger travel works as it should, no misses. I have stayed with the larger 12x18x39 cage traps for both beaver and otter in my nuisance work as I like the wide opening, which is more like a 660 in width. Besides all the beaver, we have taken quite a number of live otter in them in dry sets on land and of course in incidental beaver sets under water. Since otters travel together in groups a lot of the time and stay very close together, it is quite common to double in them in the wide 12x18 traps. Besides the many doubles, I have heard of one triple in them, all pups and one trapper who caught 5 large male otter on the Washington coast under a house in a dry land set. As surprised as anyone, Marci said they were all 20 pound males. Washington is loaded with otter. Jonathan Munsterman had a great video of 6 otter coming out single file from under a house. In the East we have skunks and woodchucks under houses. Washington has otters.

I'm so glad Charlie Dobbins made us realize there was a lot more that could be done with most any out of the box trap. Many of us had never understood what could be accomplished with some cutting, welding, grinding. After reading his books I couldn't wait to start tearing traps apart and rebuilding them with confidence. If someone feels there is a necessity for a faster cage trap, springs can be added to the lock bar or our traps quite easily by making one cut in the lock bar spring rod and slipping one or more springs onto the bar, then welding the cut, all of which takes little more than a minute. But, there is strong, stronger and sometimes way too strong. I remember pushing the limits beyond what was practical with footholds. I took a Northwoods 1 3/4 and made it into a four coiled trap, with 4 large springs. I put it together, set it, placed it on the bench and stepped back, only to watch the trap base buckle and bend while the trap folded under the additional spring tension. Also, though not everything can be altered when constructing new traps, some things can be changed. If a trap with a short travel is required it could be custom made at the factory very easily by simply putting a shorter rod on top of the swing bar.

You, my friend, are missing my point.

I know we can't make everyone happy, but our goal has always been to do the best we can, listen to everyone about everything and make adjustments when necessary. What we really appreciate is when so many trappers who have any kind of issue have the respect for us to contact us privately about their concerns so that we can work together to make changes and improvements. Its' only after you get into inventing, manufacturing and working with all the factions from suppliers to trappers that you realize what a challenge all this is. Though there is an occasional nay sayer, there are more positive testimonials than we can count.

So what improvements have you made to the traps from customer opinions?