For those of you not familiar with where body grip traps originated, they were invented by a Canadian trapper, Frank Conibear, and manufactured by Victor as the Conibear in the late 1950's.

Subsequent to the time this revolutionary trap came on the trapping scene as the Conibear, perhaps because of patent limitations ending, or because others wanted to capitalize on its popularity, it evolved under several different brand names - all popular versions today.

I am not sure who, or by what authority, some powerful individual or group in the trapping industry decided it is no longer conventional to refer to this style of trap as a "Conibear." Thus the generic, all encompassing "body grip" assigned to them. I have always mused over the semantics and logic ascribed to this transitional descriptor. Wasn't the original wrench still now a wrench - no matter the brand name? A broom is a broom, too. Oh well.

While looking through my trapping library, I came across this entry that I thought would be of interest:

Conibear History

I have another one, but cannot get it posted from Photobuckets for some reason. I'll work on that one.

For your reference, interest and reading enjoyment into one of trapping's origins.

Jonathan

Victor holds that name as a registered trademark and is the one raising the stink . Certified letters were sent out to cease and desist use of that after the new guy came to power . He claimed folks were using the name to gain in sales .

Guess would be like someone calling a string trimmer a weed eater without their permission . Most are selling stabilizers and had been using that in advertizments for years without any trouble until of late .

Drifter

Jonathan, The conibear trap was is as important a transition as was percussion to cartridge shells are now.
Most individuals have no idea the impact and importance of this device and what a turning point in the history of fur harvesting this has done!
I happened to be fortunate enough to acquire a quite a few of these forunners or original predecessors to the modern Victor Conibear.
I do have one original of the first 60 pan models ever made for Frank and of course many of the subsequent improved experimental ones used on the Eric Collier line.
They have an ingenious trigger mechanism , No rivets at thier swivel point and springs are totally different to the modern ones , These old protos are extremely strong yet!
If I knew how to post pics , I,m sure some may find it enlightening as to what an original trap actually looked like.

parlecoup if you would email me the picture I would be glad to post it for you .

Drifter

upstate, can you describe the trap you purchased?

I will need help from my computer savy son,If he visits me today!

I remember some of the first articles that came out about the conibears in Fur Fish Game and Outdoor life. It was very unusual for Outdoor life to write anything about trapping.

I have a few of the older 10's and that is the only 1 taht I have ,I believe it's called a 120 because of the 1 spring . Now they have 2 springs and are called 220's. Correct me if I'm wrong .....

When was the mohawks made in relation to the conibear?What other killers or body grips were in earlier production?

110's are the conibears with 1 spring, and 120's are the same size trap with another spring added on the side.

Upstate, I remember ordering my first two when they first came out in the late 1950's - a mail order through an ad in FF&G Magazine. I can't remember how much I paid, or who from - probably E.J. Dailey Trapper's Supply in Ogdensburg, NY. Over the years I bought more. I probably have about 3 dozen of the original, square framed #110's that I use to this day on occasion for muskrats. They are almost as good as new from the day I bought them - never even have had to replace a trigger.

CS, I believe the larger trap in your photo, as you suggest, was the precursor to the now #220. I have about 3 dozen of those original #220 square ones as well.

Drifter, I recall that account, now that you mention it. I had completely forgotten about it to include it in my post. Thank you for that clarification. It is an important piece of the Conibear and body grip language puzzle: Solved!

Jonathan

PS: This is how I rig my old #110 Conibears for deep water muskrat runs, using a piece of the old plaster lath:



The spring's ring is adjustable on the lath vertically, and is locked into the desired position by stuffing some of the trap chain and its ring into that of the spring.

I still think the origins go back to the mouse trap. Just someone realize they could make a "pass thru mouse trap" and have it work too.

[quote=coyote snarer]I have a few of the older 10's and that is the only 1 taht I have ,I believe it's called a 120 because of the 1 spring . Now they have 2 springs and are called 220's. Correct me if I'm wrong .....


The 220 sized trap with one spring is referred to as a 210. Great for bottom edge mink and muskrats.

~ADC~

Alaskan, The mouse trap is exactly what triggered Frank Conibear's unquiet mind - to integrate that same principle into a trap design of some type that could catch much larger animals by the neck or upper body.

Jonathan

Fellows,
My brother and I each won a 110 at the first meeting of the NTA
Sept. 13,in 1959. Moose Island, Midvale Ohio. They proved to be able to produce rats in the shallow runs, under ice, high water and even on dry ground in rats slides. Guess I probably own 7-8 hundred of them yet. When we had rats to trap in all our drainage ditches, we would run up to 500 daily. Used pretty much the setup Jonathon displayed previously.

got my first one in 1968 when i was 9 years old.took me a while to figure out how to set it.took a little longer to figure out an animal was suppose to pass threw it ,and not step on them little wires.lol

Superdave the mohawk was put out around 1966.The killer types of stopthief,oneida killum,little throttler,phelps were all long before the conibear.

i hate to be the party pooper,,but "body grip Traps" have been around since the 1800`s and several were put on the market in the 20`s,but mass production did`nt start till the 60`s

Donnie, I am an infant historian here at age 66, with my ink drop, on Frank's reveal/invention that provoked and spawned a trap the trapping world had not seen in almost 300 years.

In "party pooper" mode, as you so stated, I would be more than enlightened if you would kindly fill me/us in with what you know in that emphatic declaration.

Are you talking about the Conibear or mouse trap? The mouse trap, as we know it, has mixed reviews as to who invented it first: The first mouse trap was invented by William C. Hooker of Abingdon Illinois, who received US patent 528671 for his design in 1894. And then, another dude was credited with the same deal, only three years later - James Henry Atkinson was the British inventor who in 1897, invented the prototype mousetrap called the "Little Nipper."

Without being crude, brash, or the least bit condescending, can you kindly fill in the blanks for clarification of that ink, and fill in the blanks for my own personal edification?

Where does Frank Conibear fit into this equation? Are you suggesting that he does not deserve credit for his invention that revolutionized the trapping world forever as we know it?

I do not know much. Thank you for your reveal in the waiting.

Kind regards,

Jonathan J. Weber

Kelly, We must be close to the same date of being hatched on the planet. I thought I had bipolar tendencies with my meager addiction to the original #110 Conibear trap.

If, after time, since your brother and your introduction to the #110 in in 1959, and subsequent acquisition of 7-8 hundred of them to trap muskrats, wherever you were in Illinois, bruised my bipolar frontal lobe. Thought I was addicted with a meager 3 dozen.

Are you both, after all this time, still getting therapy/treatment, or are you confined to residence in a "coop" without choice of commitment, still wearing straight jackets without short sleeves?

I trapped muskrats in Wisconsin marshes near where I lived for 40 years when I lived there. I worked out of my duck skiff back then. My trap of choice for pecking around feeders and push-ups was the Victor 1-1/2 long spring then - might of had about 150 of them at most, as I recall.

My best year was in the 1981-82 season - caught over 1,800 in the open water season. After ice up is when I planted my 3 dozen #110's, probably out of dollar greed at the time more than anything because muskrats were bringing, on average, about $7 - a far cry from the 25 cents to a dollar max that I got for them as a kid in in the early 1950's. Picked up about 300 more in the deep runs with the rigging in my earlier photo.

Are you still locked up in rehab? Tell me where you are. What are the visiting hours? I'd love to learn how to catch muskrats with my few #110's in the open water. Can we schedule an appointment?

Jonathan