fenn traps only half catching

[paulus 26]

yes they will ive caught rats in mk4`s placed on bare concrete inside the door of a building where the rats were climbing in through a gap in the door.

[kenny14 656]

Thinking about it ,it does seem that the tunnels too big a fen catches by scraping its catch off the tunnel ceiling into the trap jaws if the tunnels to high its going to make for bad catches ?. i only make my wooden tunnels a inch taller than the trap or two bricks high ?.

 

That's not the intention, and though they are designed to jump when sprung, they shouldn't be hitting the ceiling. A correctly set Fenn should be able to catch no matter how high the ceiling.

 

The Fenn trap was designed to kill within the confines of the tunnel or hole, not to be used with free space above it. I have categoric proof of that in the form of development documents written by the inventor (amongst other things)

 

So, the Fenn does have to be set so that it can fire cleanly but no more, big holes or tunnels are no good, simple as that.

 

OTC

 

The 'tunnel' is purely and simply to reduce the chances of non target captures (and is a legal requirement). The reason smaller tunnels were recommended was to prevent larger mammals or birds entering.

Throughout the design and testing process emphasis was strongly placed on the reduction of non target captures, hence the smaller tunnel recommendations.

 

Big holes or tunnels 'could' be less effective simply because an animal has more chance to bypass the trap either by going around or over it.

 

My preferred set up is to have a small entrance tunnel at either end of a chamber which just accomodates the trap width wise, and is at least one and a half times as high as the sprung trap. Though as has been stated, I too have caught many hundreds of Rats with Fenns set on a run in an open building.

Edited May 30, 2012 by kenny14

[micky 3,325]

Thinking about it ,it does seem that the tunnels too big a fen catches by scraping its catch off the tunnel ceiling into the trap jaws if the tunnels to high its going to make for bad catches ?. i only make my wooden tunnels a inch taller than the trap or two bricks high ?.

 

That's not the intention, and though they are designed to jump when sprung, they shouldn't be hitting the ceiling. A correctly set Fenn should be able to catch no matter how high the ceiling.

 

The Fenn trap was designed to kill within the confines of the tunnel or hole, not to be used with free space above it. I have categoric proof of that in the form of development documents written by the inventor (amongst other things)

 

So, the Fenn does have to be set so that it can fire cleanly but no more, big holes or tunnels are no good, simple as that.

 

OTC

 

The 'tunnel' is purely and simply to reduce the chances of non target captures (and is a legal requirement). The reason smaller tunnels were recommended was to prevent larger mammals or birds entering.

Throughout the design and testing process emphasis was strongly placed on the reduction of non target captures, hence the smaller tunnel recommendations.

 

Big holes or tunnels 'could' be less effective simply because an animal has more chance to bypass the trap either by going around or over it.

 

My preferred set up is to have a small entrance tunnel at either end of a chamber which just accomodates the trap width wise, and is at least one and a half times as high as the sprung trap. Though as has been stated, I too have caught many hundreds of Rats with Fenns set on a run in an open building.

Your right, fenns will catch on a open run but thats not the point ,the fenn is designed to be a kill trap not a glorified gin trap ,the height and width of the tunnel is critcal to the efficient working of both the m 4 and m6,,when a fenn fires it has a tendancy to throw what ever fired it off of the the plate resulting in a foul catch but you should know this allready after catching many hundreds of rats on open runs

[kenny14 656]

Here's a link to a video which I shot a few years ago which demonstrates how a correctly set Fenn will jump and catch efficiently regardless of ceiling height.

 

[micky 3,325]

what don't speak ,don't lie ,but is that the way to do it!

[heritage 202]

After reading the above post and watching your video I'm curious....why ,knowing what you know regarding the correct use of fenn traps and the legal requirements for a tunnel did you set the trap illegally ?

[paulus 26]

After reading the above post and watching your video I'm curious....why ,knowing what you know regarding the correct use of fenn traps and the legal requirements for a tunnel did you set the trap illegally ?

a tunnel does not have to be a tunnel as such, inside a building could be classed as a tunnel,as could inside a drain or on the inside of a hole.

[kenny14 656]

After reading the above post and watching your video I'm curious....why ,knowing what you know regarding the correct use of fenn traps and the legal requirements for a tunnel did you set the trap illegally ?

a tunnel does not have to be a tunnel as such, inside a building could be classed as a tunnel,as could inside a drain or on the inside of a hole.

 

Thanks for answering that paulus .

 

Legally the trap has not to be set 'in the open'. The trap in the video was behind a sheet of corrugated steel leant against a fence. There was 1 1/2 inch wire mesh at both ends to exclude larger animals and birds, so the trap was set within legal requirements.

[heritage 202]

I am familiar with fenns and also with the legal requirements that governs there use but on the video there was no tunnel present,neither natural or artificial ......so what measures had been taken to prevent the capture of non-target species ?

[heritage 202]

Thankyou for the reply but Inside a building... ? I think that's stretching the definition of a cubby a little far...

Edited May 30, 2012 by heritage

[kenny14 656]

Personaly,..I like to see a target species, encouraged and guided, to walk over the pan,..as opposed to simply placing a trap on the ground, and allowing the critter to mouch around, like a pig, hunting truffles and stumble onto it. Obviously, such a method can produce results, but, it goes against the grain, and for me,.rather defeats the object of the Fenn trap.

 

But, each to their own...

 

This particular Rat had avoided entering any tunnel containing a trap, this was proved by many hours of video footage. I could've simply shot it on several occsasions but I like to get to know my quarry as much as possible, and even after many years there's always something more to learn, so I tried different set ups and videod them to see the results. The Rat 'stumbling about' was in fact it being extremely cautious and wary of the trap, but in the end it couldn't resist the chocolate spread on the underside of the tradle plate!

Edited May 30, 2012 by kenny14

[kenny14 656]

Thankyou.

 

You're welcome.

[The one 8,494]

We could all play with words setting a fen in a grass tunnel is still a tunnel but legal?.

[kenny14 656]

We could all play with words setting a fen in a grass tunnel is still a tunnel but legal?.

 

And probably wouldn't stand up as a defence in court. Whereas the setting situations I describe would!

[moley 115]

I run a few tunnel traps around the farm to keep the rat numbers at bay. The tunnels were getting well used but the rats were running up the side of the tunnel and missing the trigger plate. I then reduced the width of the tunnel in the middle to just wider than the trigger plate. This has done the trick and I am catching rats most days.

 

One thing I have found is that about 3/4 of the rats I have caught in these mk4 traps is that they are trapped around the back end only. sometimes only at the root of the tail. They are not dead in the trap and I end up finishing them off with the airpistol. I have removed half the width restrictor so that the rat has more room to get caught as the have to slalom over the trigger plate.

 

Anyone else had this problem? and any solutions would be welcome.

 

Cheers,

 

Yorkie

 

if your catching by the back end , you need to make the rats hit the plate with thier front feet, not their back feet, so either a jump stick front and back or set your trap more fickle, the laws covering traps and tunnels are a bit scetchy at the best of times, but setting in open buildings cannot be counted as a tunnel , i,m sure the laws have just recently bin re-worded , fenn have a guide line for setting a positioning fenns , in it , it says there should be no more than half inch clearence as the trap jumps, we all get foul catches from time to time , but placing in the correct sized tunnel reduces the foul catches by a long way