just caught my thumb in a conibear

OUCH!, one of the loops came off of a 220 conibear and I had forgot my safety device, I was able to wiggle my thumb out, nothing broken though.What tools does everyone carry to help get out of one?

thanks

Ouch.
At least it wasnt a 330.

small coil of rope with a loop in both ends --- mine is usualy baling twine and meant for a one time use.

Wrap some light guage wire around those safety’s ...so they stay in place..like in the pic

Did it hurt right away??? My old boss used to ask me that when i hit my thumb with a hammer!

some safeties can use a little more bend your lucky only 1 came off i've had to drive a plastic felling wedge in a 160 to wiggle out 330's i use those wire re-bar ties around the jaws when your in the clear snip it

Ouch

The only thing keeping that tight is the rust.lol.

yup it sure did, LOL

Trapper Ron's safety setter

I'm not sure that I understand the rebar ties, could you explain it a little more? where is exactly do you wrap it on, is the twist pointing to you? do you do it before you set the trigger? I am a little slow LOL

It smarts. Hopefully you're not setting your 220 on land in ark.

Just reading the title made me wince!

That's gotta be a sharp intake of breath event?

Where do we send your membership card. Must be renewed every year.

Slow down. Pay closer attention. Keep your parts out of the danger zone.

We all have gotten our junk caught in our zipper. ONCE!

We did not then begin to carry extra equipment to dejunk our zippers did we? Nope. Best lessons are learnt the hard way.

no, I was doing a water set, my first time for beaver

Added Carry strap so there's no excuse to leave it behind.

330-Trapper, I like how you put that flagging tape on the spring. I have that same great setter, but am bummed because I lost the spring the other day.

It has happen to everyone sooner or later, if not it will.

good point 330 having the handle slip out of your hand when compressing the springs ain't for the faint of heart either

Tip; big conis in water, don't tie off trap until last

If you end up with both paws caught you can still walk out.

Don't laugh I know a guy that had to drive for help with a 330 on both hands, and no it wasn't me.

I carry a 12" 3/8" rebar with T handle & J bend on bottom. Use both feet to hold trap to ground & first pull up on spring that caught thumb or finger can reach safety latch. Then pull up on other spring to get hand out.

Thats a replacement spring on mine in that photo. From a hardware store

Remember when I sent ya to the Basic Sets forum for body grip tuning? Well this info is there too!
The coni rope data awaits you there.

I don’t think I’d set a 220 for beaver, personally.

I caught two fingers in a 330 one time. Lost all the feeling in one finger for a month from it. After that if I’m dealing with conibears I am never more than an arm length away from my conibear setting tool, and I’ve needed it a couple times. Buy one, it will get you out of a pickle. Without one, or at least a coil of rope, there will come a time where you are out in the field and you get snapped by one, and you will not be able to get it off. And if you already staked it down, or tied it off, you better hope you can get the stake out with one hand or have pliers to cut the wire. Worst case scenario, you’re stuck there till someone finds you. If someone finds you.

not big enough?

Here’s a link from a post a while back. Pics of getting arm out of 330 with an RTS Setter on page 3.
https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/7081973/re-do-as-i-say-not-as-i-did#Post7081973

280s work for beav's, but I wouldn't use a 220.

yes, this here is sound advice.

I've used new Bmi's and Belisle 220s in small bankholes, but that was years ago.

Now I use 280's if there's a small bankhole

I have caught beaver in 220s before but I wouldn’t set them intentionally for beaver.

thumb hurts more this morning, I am an idiot LOL

Did the same several years back , but mine happened when taking a coon out of it. I had to drive home with it on my thumb though , so I could use a piece of rope to decompress the spring. I couldn't feel nothing for 2 months in that thumb.

220's hurt worse than 330's. My sympathies.

I agree with others, I've caught lots of beavers in 220's but the bigger ones did a lot of rolling before succumbing. Go with the bigger body grippers.

We all make mistakes
Its what you learn from your mistakes the matters


And we all make mistakes.
That was with an NHRA duke#3 some time back.

LOL

Yep been there with a 330, I can tell you from experiance it will feel better when it quits hurting.

Well set enough body gripping traps you'll catch all sorts of thing's in them I've lost track of how many times I've caught myself .
Thankfully knock on wood I've not been pinched in any of my BMI 330 magnums .

I suggest keeping 12' of 5/8" Derbyshire line with a bowline tied on one end wrapped around your waist while out setting or checking 330's and pay attention to what you're doing and what's in the area .
Allan

That reminds me of my middle finger 2 years ago, with a big stihl gas hedge trimmer, I had to have reconstructive surgery

I don't know all the makes and models but I did recently take those dinky safeties off an old Duke 330 and replaced them with Bridger 330 safeties from Minnasota Trap Prod. On mine... one was actually upside down and one was right-side-up originally! The most dangerous trap in the world. Now it should be ok I think.

Ouch!!!

Those Duke springs are strong too.

A 220 is not a beaver tap, especially if you are just starting out.

Trapper Ron's conibear safety setter. When I'm setting 330's. A piece of rope when setting 220's or smaller. Maybe someone could post a picture of one. I don't have the know-how with this Trac phone lol

thanks, I am ordering one now

Ouch

i got my thumb down by the base in a 220 belisle. fisher set on a leanin pole, my 8 year old son was waiting in the truck, he heard me yellin for him to come help. it squeezed my thumb down to about a pencil size diameter, after we got going down the road and i came back down to earth i looked over at him and he says "dad, you sounded like a cat" one of those Art Linkletter kids say the darndest things moments! lol

The caulking gun-type setters only need one hand to operate. That could make a big difference one day.

The easiest way to get out of a #330 is not to get into one. Purchase this safety from WCS or Coon Creek and say good-bye to conibear fear.

Toe Pincher, I just spit my coffee out reading that. “Sounded like a cat”, I bet you did too! Lol. Something my 5 year old would say to me

John

I use a spring loaded conibear safety tool I bought from Murray’s years ago

The only downside to being self taught, is the teacher.

host gif online
Same thing here..#3 Duke

Northwoods 155 got me on the thumb this year and it brought me to my knees. One spring made the corner and came down the side closest to my thumb. I felt like I wanted to throw up.
Wife got me out with some setters.

Hopefully no one ever gets both hands stuck in a 330

You need to quit chewing your fingernails.

I thought he chewed that thumb off to escape.

Haha

I am going to have to check those out, I never really thought about replacing them

Yep Perry County Trappers will chew there way out or if they can get to a knife-cut it off!!!

Made your conibear set into a urine post set did you!!!!!



B

I don't know which hurt more-conibear whackin end of my thumb, end of finger, or gut!!!!

RJ trap setter but best advice gun safety keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction at all times. Conibear safety keep body parts out of jaw radius at all times.

And always treat the trap like its set. I had a situation this year where a 330 in a stream was knocked over by a stick and debris. I thought the trap was sprung. It was not.

And be careful not to fall into a trap. I once was standing above the 330 on a beaver slide. The shore or ice I was standing on gave way & I fell towards the trap but luckily didn't get pinched.

Caught my thumb in a 110 few weeks ago. It was cold that morn and hurt like heck man.

I got my thumb in a 220 this year. I thought I was going to have to drive home wearing it. I eventually got out and I remembered it for 2 weeks solid.

Everything seems more painful when it is cold out

You just got to get tough and mean when you're setting them conibare's. Caught my thumb and index finger in a 110 when I was setting it. It was so cold and hurt like h-LL that I had to whack myself in the nuts just to make the pain quit so I could get them out.

I consider myself a pretty tough dude and I pride myself on making good decisions and staying calm when I’m in the suck. This was a 155. One of the springs came around the corner and made it almost all the way to my thumb before friction stopped it. It hurt so bad it took me to my knees and I felt like I was going to throw up. Wife had to get me out with a pair of setters.

I was teaching a kid how to make a 220 fisher cubby. Had trap all set in the box and rubbed some lure on a branch above the box. Went to throw the stick in the box and whack. Caught my index finger and middle finger all the way up by the hand. It was on the side of each finger and I couldn’t even spin them. Needed his help to get out after he heard some colorful language. He was real shy to start with. After that he opened up asking questions. After he laughed at me

Good thing your wife was there to help Cheech

I caught a hunk of hand meat in a 160 Belisle one time. The problem was, I was caught on the outside of the trap!
Belisles have funky jaw bend that will bite you if your hand is touching the side of the trap when it goes off.
Then for even more fun, you have to figure out how to compress the spring on the side where your hand is in the way,
Then once the springs are compressed, opening the jaws pinches the hand meat even harder.
If it ever happens to you, just chew out. Its much easier.

Had 330 fire on thumb an 1 safety hook on spring came off,hurt for weeks , I believe trapper art told me northern beaver trappers or more than 1 , who got caught in hand below ice when checking trap or something an froze dead , not get out, nothing play around with, I rember him say that not really like 330 s an into snares more under ice, I no longer use 330 s much

Partly for that reason, I'd love to switch almost excusively to snares under ice, if I could figure out a good & efficient way to bait them.

Losing your balance while placing a set coni and falling into it is something to be aware of at all times. Especially for older trappers.

exactly what I thought of bfore, it could happen, I concerned I could do it

This works great! I just did this to 3 dozen 330’s. Thanks for posting it.

Welcome to the club! When I was alot younger I had gotten two 220's for Christmas. Decided to go set one maybe catch a rabbit. Nope caught both hands on top of each other. Not so pretty being about a half mile from the house. (Kids)

Both hands would 1 tough escape, I imagine.

Yes it was painful with the trigger buried in the back of one of them. I don't remember how I got out but have alot of respect for the body grippers that are out there now.

Caught my pinky in a Duke #3 right where the lever comes up on the side of the jaws.

It hurt so bad I began sweating, felt like I was going to puke, and felt like passing out. Ruined everything! Took all my traps down the next day, and waited a couple months to start trapping again.

Ended up losing the nail

Grew back eventually.

Your right Swamp Wolf, I have lots and lots of stories from trappers that have had our setter make a difference one day. LOL

One thing is, a regular caulking gun does not reliably compress and hold the spring closed. They are designed to create pressure, when the caulk starts to flow the pressure is relieved. All the pressure is on the thumb piece, which eventually fails to hold the pressure from trap springs. Some fail right out of the box if the spring is too strong, some take several compressions before they fail. But the all fail very soon.

The RTS Setter is actually designed to not only create pressure but to hold it as well. So it can be used on all size body grip traps without slipping or sliding back.

welcome to the club
I am a member of the 120 club
220 club and
330 club

when ya gona catch up?

Yup, we're at least tied traperjohn! LOL

For all of that, plus sheer volume of catches you may all bow down to me. I da king!