It does not matter which way you wrapp it around the post, but in the design he uses, the cord has to be on the same side of the post as the bait stick, as correctly shown in the picture.
The bait stick is pinched between the stone and the toggle stick (here called trigger pin).

Two videos of Paiute deadfalls:

The more common design:




And the design like in the picture, with the cord wound half around the post:

[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/09mS_OcpL1c?si=tCFcbkaQIK_K7H9t[/video]

If your state has a jaw spread regulation then that drop log IE your jaw is going to be way way past it

My favorite deadfall above, back when I was a kid it’s what I used before I could afford actual traps, caught a lot of rats, coon and even managed to catch a 30 or so pound beaver with one, the beauty of the scissor type trap is that it needs less weight then a figure 4 type where the common wisdom is that you need three times the target weight to anchor said target, with the scissor deadfall my drop log was just a sapling maybe two inches in diameter with a ten or fifteen pound weight on the end

[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/JdSTjxfThOM?si=QAY3M5_-cH6r0LSA[/video]

The old video above is worth the watch it’s old enough to be black and white and shows some guys dropped off in the bush with only an ax, one thing they show is the accidental killing of a bear in a deadfall it’s an interesting video

Thank you.
I had seen this video once an was searching for it for quite some time now, because of the bear deadfall.

And I like its subtle ironic tone.
All you need is an axe... (and an experienced woodsman attached to it).

Since this came back up here are some pics. I built a pretty fancy hunting cabin in the middle of nowhere. We were all camping in our own tents. There was one big wall tent that was sort of a mess hall and a few young bucks were staying there. A pack rat was causing trouble. The owner of the fancy cabin and mess hall tent only had mouse traps and clearly was not savvy on preparing for such pests. The boys really got a kick out of the trap and its fun to impress the unfamiliar lol. Wonderful to here the thumps in the middle of the night.

here, except it's too long in this picture, 50 cm is more than enough. The key is to make a good notch, so that jays and nutcrackers don't set it off too easily.

Thank you :-)


I remember having seen this kind of toggle + pedal trigger before, in one of Shawn Woods' videos, attached below.
I like this desgin. Easy to make in any size and adjustable in different ways.

Can you perhaps recommend Russian websites or literature on historic trap desgins?
Stuff in Kyrillic script is hard to find when searching in Latin and speaking no Russian.

The tutorial on how to make flying squirrel.

Kind of an inversed deadfall concept, were the deadfall log pulls down a noose that traps the animal.
(Likely from the Sakhalin region?)

These log traps are easy to make, but snow almost always sets them off, and so do birds because the bait is so exposed. They're an option when you find yourself somewhere where there are sable, but with no traps and just basic supplies. A good design for opportunistic poachers working in taiga (oilfield workers, seismic surveying engineers, road workers, ....)