Fenn Or Bmi Magnum Traps?

[trenchfoot 4,243]

I'm in need of a few more traps. Mainly rat, but mink and squirrel could also be on the cards. I have always used Fenns, but get a few half caught rats and pass throughs/trap jumpers. Are the BMI type traps any better in this respect? And if s, any tips on tunnel types?

 

All help greatly appreciated

 

Trench

[Outlaw Pete 2,224]

Trench, my man ..... Just blowing through here, having tasted the black gold ..... But, yes; Rats? What's the fascination with Fenn traps for them? Hateful f**king things, truth be told.

 

Ever seen a rat actually hit a Fenn Mk 4? Often as not, it's Not that f**king pretty. Rat tends to get caught around the chest or belly. That's, obviously, wider than its spine, at the neck.

 

Up shot is that the larger body mass absorbs the blow(s) and stops the other end of the jaw connecting with the neck.

 

I've actually looked up perfectly well and properly constructed tunnels, and seen rats kicking and struggling, in Fenn 4's, as the spring coldly takes its part in the battle of attrition that rats lungs are never going to win.

 

Hold your breath for sixty seconds. Then tell me that's a 'Humane' way to die.

 

Fenn Mk 4. Expensive. Bulky. Ineffective at its job. What is the fascination?

 

 

Kness snapper trap? Half, to a third the price. Chuck a hundred of them in a sack and saunter on. When they fire? The rat dies. SNAP!

 

 

Mink and squirrel? Fenn Mk 6 will do to those what the 4 does to rats. Imbra or Juby is the kiddie there.

 

'Whack! Smack! Lights Out! Goodnight.' Necked. Not knackered.

 

 

" BMI Type Traps "? Body Grips. Conibear. Species Specific. What ever ..... Yes. Just be sure to dig out the right sort for the intended

 

I'll f**k off, for now. Let others enjoy chewing the fat with ye, as I have

 

[trenchfoot 4,243]

Jesus Pete, you don't half blether when ya pished! makes sense-ish but still pish!

[micky 3,325]

Trench, my man ..... Just blowing through here, having tasted the black gold ..... But, yes; Rats? What's the fascination with Fenn traps for them? Hateful f**king things, truth be told.

 

Ever seen a rat actually hit a Fenn Mk 4? Often as not, it's Not that f**king pretty. Rat tends to get caught around the chest or belly. That's, obviously, wider than its spine, at the neck.

 

Up shot is that the larger body mass absorbs the blow(s) and stops the other end of the jaw connecting with the neck.

 

I've actually looked up perfectly well and properly constructed tunnels, and seen rats kicking and struggling, in Fenn 4's, as the spring coldly takes its part in the battle of attrition that rats lungs are never going to win.

 

Hold your breath for sixty seconds. Then tell me that's a 'Humane' way to die.

 

Fenn Mk 4. Expensive. Bulky. Ineffective at its job. What is the fascination?

 

 

Kness snapper trap? Half, to a third the price. Chuck a hundred of them in a sack and saunter on. When they fire? The rat dies. SNAP!

 

 

Mink and squirrel? Fenn Mk 6 will do to those what the 4 does to rats. Imbra or Juby is the kiddie there.

 

'Whack! Smack! Lights Out! Goodnight.' Necked. Not knackered.

 

 

" BMI Type Traps "? Body Grips. Conibear. Species Specific. What ever ..... Yes. Just be sure to dig out the right sort for the intended

 

I'll f**k off, for now. Let others enjoy chewing the fat with ye, as I have

I agree with most of what you say about Fenns but the Mk4 is not a bad rat trap ,better than the Mk6 in my opinion , as for Imbra or Juby traps these are rabbit traps not general vermin traps , they are very good at what they were designed to do [kill rabbits] and they will kill anything that approaches from the pan side but something like a rat or young rabbit stepping on to the pan from the other side [the burrow entrance]can be threw , through the tap and be caught by the arse end or tail , this is more common with the Juby as the tension lever moves faster than the jaws close.

[DIDO.1 22,844]

i never set fenns for squirrels, body grips everytime (or kania/tube traps) cant afford to recieve a call at 5 in the morning from a customer hearing a badly caught squirrel jumping round the loft.

[Born Hunter 17,783]

I think BGs require a modicum more of skill to 'set' than the FENNs do (but that's half the enjoyment in using them). For instance restricting the entrance between the bars to stop a squirrel trying to slip down the side of the trigger. I've learnt through a little experience trapping rabbits and had squirrels caught by the arse. Set well with experience and knowledge, they're fecking lethal!

 

I like the Mk4, can't remember the last time I had a poorly caught critter............ that's not to say death is instantaneous mind, I couldn't comment on that other than little sign of struggle.

Edited February 11, 2014 by Born Hunter

[Matt 160]

It's horses for courses the way I see it.

 

Depending on where and how you are trapping you should choose the most appropriate trap.

 

Fenns kill humanely providing they are in tunnels that are fit for purpose. The action of a Fenn throws its victim upwards and if there is too much clearance above the trap it will foul catch. Years ago I can remember having a chat with Mr Fenn himself on this subject and his opinion was that people didn't understand how important a low roof to any tunnel was. I think he was right and that the majority of problems with foul catches are because people make over complicated tunnels thinking that their purpose is primarily to protect from non-targets and forget that the tunnel is in itself an integral part of the set.

 

I've caught thousands of squirrels in Fenn Mk4 traps set in simple wooden tunnels in commercial forestry. Having said that, a Fenn would be my last choice in a domestic garden or roof space for the reasons set out by Dido. If you are charging premium prices, you should be able to use premium equipment, and for me, in that situation the Kania fits the bill perfectly.

 

 

But then, as Pete says, for value for money and simplicity you can't beat a Kness Snap-E:

 

[Outlaw Pete 2,224]

Jesus Pete, you don't half blether when ya pished! makes sense-ish but still pish!

 

 

It's just enthusiasm for a subject which has fascinated me for pushing sixty years.

 

Perhaps I should go back and edit my post to: " Use Snappers. " ? I see some people post like that. I don't

[moley 115]

have to say, i have had foul catches in all the traps i have used over the years, regardless of wether they fenn, bodygrip, cage or snap, i have little experience of kanias, if you trap alot , you will at some stage get a foul catch, you got to try your best to get clean catches and be as humane as poss by making the tunnels the right size , keeping you traps in good order ,etc, i think there are design floors in all traps that are available, but untill someone invents something that is fool proof , you just got to piss with the cock you got

[perthshire keeper 1,239]

pete top post! harks back the pms we had a while back....

 

matt i agree 100% all my natural tunnels ate 1 inch lower that the height of a fenn so i have do dig them down into the soil..i like no more than 1cm over the top of the trap..and even with that ive had little weasles that are near as dam m it out of the trap when caught. that picture of the rat in the fenn shows how imo all critters shuld be caught in them..rabbit included..

 

i would love to replace all my 6s with imbras juby or sawyer traps as their all THE trap for rabbits imo. but i just cant afford to with the prices of them...unless pete wants to send me all his over

 

as for magnums..body grips...bmi call them what you will i dont rate them over a fenn the one place i will use them is on a cage on the SIDE of a tree for squirrel or in a hole true rabbit netting for...rabbits. ive had a lot of stuff in them but only one stoat and one weasel as i think their just to slinky to get caught in them... as a rabbit trap their great in certain situations but to excel at rabbit and mink i use the 120 thats just the 110 with 2 springs on....pete will back me up on this..their fecking brutle!

almost all the mink ive had in 116s have been alive and thats just no good (ive never had one alive in a fenn, thou i did have a BIG feral polecat in a fenn last week and it was not happy!)

 

but for me..and ive used them in a professional capacity for years.. fenns are about the best we have at the min for every thing from mice to rabbits..and for mink its cages..

[trenchfoot 4,243]

Thanks for the input guys. Think Ill stick with the Fenns in the main, but build the tunnels a little lower. As for mink, all but one in the Fenns has been killed cleanly. The one that was still going was massive. The tunnel was 3 foot long, with a centre trap and it's arse end was still out the back! I thought it was a bloody otter to start with

[moley 115]

i agree with what your saying perthshire, i dont trap mink now, but when i did , i always had my fenns on a wire, if a mink was badly caught or still alive, i set up so it would drop onto deep water and drowned, not a fan of cages, tho i do use them, i have had too many animals with broken teeth and nails to think they are humane

[perthshire keeper 1,239]

i agree with what your saying perthshire, i dont trap mink now, but when i did , i always had my fenns on a wire, if a mink was badly caught or still alive, i set up so it would drop onto deep water and drowned, not a fan of cages, tho i do use them, i have had too many animals with broken teeth and nails to think they are humane

drowning wires are/were a god send! not only for less than dead animals but ones that shortly exspire... their best down the the water instead of their arse hanging out of a tunnel on a river bank

[EDDIE B 3,166]

In my opinion BGs are far superior to Fenns when it comes to killing power! I use them on mink and the 110 is more than strong enough for the job, and i cant remember the last time i had one alive in the trap!

Saying that, for an all round trap the fenn is probably the better option if your gonna use them on rats mainly!

[Outlaw Pete 2,224]

Could never bring myself to drown anything, personally. Sounds like well dodgy legal ground too. Wasn't that guy taken to the cleaners for sticking a squirrel in his water butt, a few years ago? Possibly even before all that new, animal welfare stuff.

 

Anyway, not my point. Point is; I have a Fenn trap here that I'd So like you all to be able to sit and handle! Photographs just don't do this Beast proper justice.

 

It's obviously a sort of prototype Mk 6 effort. Equally obviously would have been dropped due to cost of manufacture. It's made of serious steel and it scares me to death setting this thing for a photo shoot!

 

It's hanging on the wall beside me, as I type this. I affectionately call it 'The Mink Mangler'. It's a real piece of work! Only one I know of in existence. Not for sale, for love nor money.

 

I Love this thing! To me; It epitomises where Fenn would have liked to have gone. I've got a Mk 1 Vermin here. His first ever trap. It would probably just bend itself all out of shape, on a mink. I's like coat hanger wire

 

By the end of his Mk 3 series, he'd finally found the form we all know to this day. The Mk 6 being a bigger and beefier version of the Mk4's.

 

I now wonder; Did he make this beauty after he started producing the Mk 6 as we know it? Just to show what he could really do; If it was only an economically viable option?