Talpex "Woodie"

[camies 1]

Read an article about adding a small chock called a 'woodie' to a talpex.

Link here

 

Anyone tried it??

Edited September 13, 2009 by camies

[Rolfe 2]

I use the Talpex trap almost exclusively nowadays but have never seen the need for that little device (it came to my attention a while back now). It is easy to set the Talpex in such away that the trigger plate sits half-inch off the bottom of the mole run........so i can't see the point of using such a device.........but each to their own i suppose.

 

Rolfe.

[OldTrapCollector 377]

Cam

 

Think bigger moles, bigger holes and bigger traps - not Talpex - they are for Victor Out O' Sight traps which are twice the size of a Talpex

 

Yanks do tend to overcomplicate things unnecesarily too - simplicity is the key when trapping anything

 

OTC

[camies 1]

Yes to all that, thought that it was unusual so thought I'd ask.

You never know until you do.

 

Rolfe

Nice to find someone else that prefers Talpex, I'm in the minority here even though the soil is really light round here which suits Talpex a treat.

Edited September 16, 2009 by camies

[Steve Albano 21]

Here are a few pictures I snapped of a Talpex and Out of Sight side by side. I agree with OTC that the out of sight is bigger than it needs to be. Without the little woodie, the trigger pan is a little too high. In fact with the little woodie in place, the distance between the bottom of the trigger and the bottom of the tines on an out of sight is about the same as what it is on the unmodified Talpex.

 

I set the out of sights without the little woodies, though I think they're a great idea. But I have to set the traps low in the ground, with the tines dug in a bit below the level of the floor of the mole tunnel, so that way the height of the trigger is about right.

 

The last photo shows that the little woodie just wouldn't work on a Talpex. It leaves almost no distance between the bottom of the trigger and the bottom of the tines. Seems to me that you'd almost always have the mole trigger the trap in a position where it was too low to get caught in the tines.

 

Also notice that the spring on the out of sight is a lot higher than on the Talpex. This is not good in terms of leverage and mechanics. The amount of pressure the trap applies to the mole is greatly reduced the farther the mole is from the pivot point of the trap, so with that larger distance on the out of sight, you need to have a much stronger spring, which makes it harder to set and less sensitive. Whoever designed the Talpex was really putting some thought into it.

Edited September 17, 2009 by Steve Albano

[heart of wales 19]

I have Yet to miss a mole when using exclusively talpex traps,without the add on so currently I dont see the need to modify,I find them ideal for where stock are grazing or the soil is very fine such as an allotment.