330 belisle nailed me good.

Well; I pulled a beaver out of a set on nuisance job day before yesterday. The 330 belisle looked like it killed him instantly. The stabilizer stakes were just as I left them. It was just before sun-up, but light enough that I could see. I had the trap about three feet deep on bottom. My battle plan was to hold the jaws with my setting tongs, and shimmy the trap back down the stabilizers. I've done this several times over the years, keeping my arms dry in the process. I had just pulled safety catches off when it fired. I felt pain, but not terrible, as the trap went down into the water. I pulled I up and felt nauseated. I could see the ring finger on my left hand facing a direction it shouldn't be. It was still in the trap. My first thought was I broke the heck out of that one. I fished the tongs off of the bottom and began the process of getting out. Anyone who knows me can tell you I've had plenty of experience in this department. Once free I pulled the finger out and gasped. Undoutably the sharp edge of tongs were in a bad place when it fired. My finger was hanging down by a small piece of skin on the bottom. The cut started just under the fingernail and went toward the first joint. I pushed it back together, tucked it under my armpit, and headed for urgent care.
Well, the X ray "according to their words showed that it obliterated the end of the bone. So, 11 stitches, some through the fingernail. They said they used I as an anchor, now my trapping will be minimal for a while. I 'll try to post pictures as this has now moved into the second worst catch I've ever made on myself.

Why is it always Marty that gets popped?

Finger Tips are over rated. Most of the best craftsman I know are missing at least 1. It shows you are experienced!

As long as your nerve is ok it wont give you long term issues though. I have fractured/cracked the tips of mine a few times as well as some knuckles. Never obliterated the bone, but the pieces will fuse back together, and since its the tip it will work fine. Working a lot with steel and welding has not been good to my hands.

That make s me wince just looking at it.

Ouch!

Dang Marty you are always getting yourself in a tight spot

You need to use nerf traps Marty.

Yikes!!

Wait a minute? Thats the second worse?

Holy smokes man! That makes me cringe!

Maybe belisles are not as profitable as the experts claim? They seem to leave the damage reports out.

BTW that don't look too humane.

You guys ain't been here long enough. I know EXACTLY what he's talking about! I recall the story as if it were yesterday.

I know the story also ADC I was wondering if this time he caught the other one

Marty,
Big time owweee! I will keep you in my prayers it heals up for you.
You will have to pay attention for infection.

Ouch! My biggest fear is getting nailed by a Belisle... bound to happen one day.

WOW! Did it hurt?

One lesson I learned was that a Victor 220 was faster then I was. I was holding the jaws open on one with one hand and had a dead coon in the other hand. Rather than drop the coon and use two hands to hook the springs. I thought I'd just quickly throw the trap down. I couldn't believe it actually caught me by my thumb and pointer finger. For me, the pain only lasted about 5 seconds. Then everything went numb. It took a good month for my thumb to be back to normal.

This is the proper way to get caught in a Belisle. But don't fret, not many have as much experience at it as I do!

A very tuff club to join....the 330 Club....Where do I send the Special Embroiderd Patch.........thats gonnah hurt for some time...Speedy Recovery. And thanks for those awesome Pics !! And I hope your right handed.....

330 club is tough. 330 Belisle club carries a little *asterisk. Those are some wicked traps. They get my 100% attention when setting those suckers.

Holy Cow! A Super X at that! I only use the Belisle Classics. Sold all my Super X's, too hard to stabilize, IMO. But, love the safety hooks and strong springs of the Classics.

ouch! welcome to the club!

Good thing you're in an open Water State! ... Seriously glad you weren't on Ice covered water. I hope you heal fast!

"My protruding parts not caught by a trap*****yet****ears, nose, and left testicle." Must be something about the right one that we missed......Hope all goes well for you.....I would never have told anyone....but that is me.........jk

OUCH! Hope it heals with no permanent damage!

Chris

OUCH!!! that doesn't look good. Never had my hands in a 330 but have had them in 220's a few times. Man I feel for you.

I get what you’re saying, but every 280 and 330 deserves our full attention. Reverence is more like it. Imo, belisles are the most user friendly BGs I own. I don’t remember setting a different brand one for beavers in nearly two years. They’re the safest BGs I own, and that’s important to me.


I treat every big BG like a loaded gun. I got a wake up call with a Bridger 330 one night. I put it on a stabilizer to take a picture for this forum actually. I don’t remember why the safeties were off, but they were. I reached nearby to move some grass for the picture, and WHAM! I sure didn’t expect a trap just sitting on the stabilizer to fire, but it sure did. Missed my hand/arm by INCHES.

Never again. I returned to my policy of treating the large BGs like loaded guns. No body parts in the danger zone unless it’s wearing one of Bob Best’s safeties. No exceptions, ever.

I had a turtle in a Belisle 220 one day. I forgot my setters, and of course it was the one day I didn’t have my emergency paracord setters in my back pocket. I pushed the turtle out and managed to get both of my thumbs caught. It wasn’t comfortable (NOTHING like this guy’s plight), but I just could NOT get my thumbs out by pulling. I ended up stepping a H-stand into the levee then put the spring eye on the stabilizer’s arm and compressed a spring. Repeated. Lesson learned there too. Those jaws obly closed inches. I can not imagine a full strike from a 330!


I dang sure plan on keeping my scrote away from em! Good grief, I thought I knew what a bad day was like!

Ouch, did you cry? I know I would've squeezed a frozen tear or two out. I've been blistered up by some 155s and was ready to swear off conis , can't imagine that brute biting.

Thanks everyone.... I broke a finger last year and reworked all my traps. I don't know why this one fired, but the setting tongs caused the cut. Here's the Xray

Please tell the other story.


Important that people know what kind of dangers to avoid LOL

Owwww! Freaking owwwww!!! That tops anything I did,

Ohhhh.....it’s gonnah leave a mark...

When I first started trapping I was messing with a new 330 and managed to catch my bare foot, I don't even remember how. The dog spun around and was being driven into the top of my foot. I was yelling at my wife to get the setters and she was laughing so hard she could barely walk across the room, needless to say it really hurt and I learned to be a little more careful.

Good thing it was a humane trap!

Didn't feel humane!

Close tight don't they.

Secondary use for rubber boots: Catch pee running down leg?

Id fill a knee high Judging by those pics.

They were made for Canadians for a reason. Lol

Who is handling 330 membership cards this season?

There is a JV league for 220s. I belong to both.

Yeah, that's gonna leave a mark.

what

look at the Brightside- you now have something to post on the Trapping Gross Out Story thread

I like belisle traps for the power and tight closing only. I find the safeties awful to get into boxes because they seldom slide down the spring arm to get out of the way. For pole sets underwater for beaver, one safety is always on the wrong side meaning to have to fight with it to get the safeties off, or like I always do, set the trap, take the safeties off and then put it on the pole...which defeats the purpose...

Also, Stabilizing the trap with sticks is about impossible on the first dog notch because the space between the jaws is so darn tight

I much prefer sauvageaus, and prefer not to be bit by any of them thanks. My routine to set a bodygrip is always the same,but it will happen some day

So none of you guys use a safety latch ? It’s the last thing I remove from the made set.

Ahhh, brings back memories. It wasn’t a trap that bit me but a winch on a swing away auger. Mid December I cranked her up fast but it didn’t lock out. The crank smacked my gloved hand as it whirled back down. My boss rushed over knowing my hand was prolly broke. It wasn’t but we were both surprised at the blood. It blew the tip of my middle finger out like a squished grape. I haven’t thought of that in years till I seen those pics. I was split to the back of my nail. The shots in the tip of my finger was the worst of it. Your finger gonna be sensitive from here on out.

Admittedly, no, never. First trap I ever set was a 220 Victor and got bit on the thumb. That settled that, learned to never have any part of me inside the jaws.

A lot of things I should do but don't lol

That is nasty! I hope it heals quickly.

This was obviously staged for demonstration purposes but the 330 (non Magnum lol) was truly on my arm and under full pressure. Thought I would post it again to show the easiest procedure we have found for removing arm/foot from large body grip.

It seems like one spring is always easier to get at than the other when caught. Fully compress easy to get at spring FIRST:


Engauge spring hook on easy spring and remove setter:


Attach setter to awkward spring SECOND.No need to fully compress or latch awkward spring, just a couple strokes will open trap jaw enough to remove arm.

cool. I do carry a rope in my pocket for times like that. Not perfect, but will work.

How long does it take to compress a spring with that setter trapset? Any of my caulking guns take a bit of time to squeeze all the way to the end

I would use the same method with a rope, as far as the spring order. It would just take longer and put more torque on whatever was caught. I think the key is to stay calm, thinking through which spring to do first etc helps calm you down and makes the whole situation less traumatic.

As far as time, I would say as fast as you can squeeze 8 - 12 times depending on where you grab the spring and what trap it is. The closer to the coil end of the spring the fewer strokes required but you don't have as much leverage. Closer to eye end = more strokes but more leverage as well. Most caulk gun handles travel 1/2" or so before the rod moves, that = lots of extra strokes. This has positive engagement as soon as handle is squeezed. 12:1 ratio to make squeezing easier than standard caulk gun also.

Cool. When I am walking into a place, I often just bring a rope. I like to work fast so I hate threading the rope through the eyes, but it is lighter. Plus I have a habit of losing trap setters.

Cool setter design

I agree. Stabilizing the SuperX is tough no matter where the dog is set on the notch, IMO. That's why I sold all my SuperXs. I still like the strong springs and hooks on the Belisles and only use the Classics now.

OW! Hope you heal up quick.
Well...I wasn't going to mention it but. Couple of weeks ago I was pulling a line. It had froze rain and snowed keeping me from driving my truck way down in this river bottom. Having to walk down and carry back at least 40 pounds of traps and whatever I caught, I threw every thing out of my pack frame pack including conibear setter. I always have a rope in my pack frame for setting conibears in case i leave the setters in the truck.
It is still fuzzy what happened. I set off a 220 conibear in the brush with hickory staff and in the end, It was attached to my big toe. This was through a barnyard boot. I figured I could just work it off over the boot. Nope. I frog hopped over to where my pack frame was, got my rope and got out. no harm done.
first time a conibear ever got me. Carry a rope. It's light.

When hooked on the jaws the above setter can be used as a safety as well. Also squeezes jaws together when setting dog. Not as light as a rope but has a few more uses so.................

Jerry said to tell you those belisles sure have improved his catch. (of beaver)

And a whole bunch of other words I cant post when he saw it. The tame version was son of a buck that looks like it hurt like heck.

Ashamed to admit this but it was setting a #4 longspring against my chest once and caught my belly. Left a bruise too! So glad nobody saw it. About five years later I was picking up all my 220 buckets and thought I had sprung all the traps before tossing the buckets in the truck. Enough said.

Two years ago i was setting a 330 mag for beaver. Compressed both springs, set the safety latches and then realized that I didn't bend my trigger wires out a bit. (was a new freshly dyed trap). Anyhow, I figured, "heck, the safety latches are on, shouldn't be an issue to reach in and bend the wires out a bit". Next thing I know, I'm both hands deep in a fired 330, standing there in shock on the river bank as if I'd been in a car accident. Nobody around, setters about 10 feet away. The first thought is extreme panic. The pain was pretty bad and my immediate thought was that I'd broken both wrists. I was able to come to my senses and think rationally. Somehow I was able to free one hand on my own, no clue how, then use the setters one handed to get my other hand out. Both wrists and hands were pretty swollen, bruised, and skun up but I don't think I actually broke anything. Went on about an hour later to lay a room of hardwood floor. I have had on and off wrist pain ever since then though. Wouldn't wish it on anybody.

I made these and they work great. You can buy other safety devises I find these work fine.

I keep my triggers tuned so that they don't fire when you breathe on them. Once I have the trigger set, I take the safeties off. I don't trust them anyway. Stay out of the kill zone!
Now for the real truth. I would rather get caught in a 330 than come back the next day to see a sprung trap with the safeties still on!!!

My thoughts exactly!

I always use a an additional safety gripper when setting 330's, here's another technique that has helped with trap safety latches. I install a piece of inner tube that helps keep the latch engaged when I'm setting.

After I set the trap, I slide the safety latch up onto the spring , I invert a lot of my 330's with triggers down and this assures me that the safety latch won't catch or reengage when the trap fires.
Lastly, I remove my safety gripper.

Hence the nickname "Sundance" emphasis on dance seriously though that's gotta hurt. I dread the day a Ram pwersanre gets me...I'm literally a little scared once the safeties' off. Marty, hope it heals fast. Dad was a carpenter for 29 years. He was the best. Pple know him all over for his prowess. He only has 3 complete digits out of 10. On his hands. Some are cut off at first knuckle, some missing nails, some have the tips cut off. You'll be just fine:)