Internet Mole Trapper

[northern lad 2,292]

A couple of weeks ago I was asked if I wanted to have a go at some moles on a local farm where I do a bit of airgunning/trapping,the farmer used to do them himself on a very small scale every now and then,he just dropped a scissor trap into the odd mole hill and caught a few doing this.Having never even set a mole trap before I did the obvious things ,reading plenty of threads on here,vids on Youtube etc.At this point I must stress he has never had a paid mole catcher on there,so I am in no way taking a fellas work,nor am I being paid in any way for it,he lets me wander the farm,doing my thing so one hand washes the other ,so to speak.So theres the background ,and heres how Ive got on so far First thing I did was buy 6 Duffus traps (sure their Chinese imports,fcuk up #1 ) and together with his few scissor traps,I set about the meadow....Rather than dropping them in the hills,I placed them in the runs between the hill and first fresh mound...The ground here is very light /crumbly due to the peat,so setting the barrel traps got a bit emotional as even after compacting the base of the run ,the sides were filling the trap in, So in total I set 9 traps....after a couple of days several of the barrels were triggered,but no catch after snipping the trigger wires I reset them.....The other thing I did this time was started wearing an old pair of gloves whilst setting them(Im a smoker) opinions varied on this ...some say gloves,some said rub soil on your hands,one guy even went to the length of posting a vid on youtube of him setting a trap with diesel on his hands to prove it makes no difference so the jury,s still out Anyway...next day ,first mole absolutely buzzing....yep,grinning ear to ear over a mole Came home like the great white hunter...the missus loved hearing all about it....even called me a sad t**t Anyway,not sure wether its because of the gloves or altering the trigger wires (Only change one thing at a time in future)Over the last week Ive had 14 ,the majority in the scissor traps (will be getting a few more when money permits) 3 of the traps have caught a few ,I believe these are in "main runs" (if the internets correct ) so Ive left them put,other areas caught one and nothing since,so today I lifted these and moved them to fresh ground.I put this up as someone posted a while ago about seeing how far someone would get by the internet alone.....so here it is ,I will post the results if anyones interested....vital lessons learned the hard way already,tying a discreet length of plastic bag to my markers,2 inches from the ground leads to plenty of exercise in a 10 acre field the following day :angel:When pulling a barrel trap out of the ground,dont have your face too close to it with your eyes wide open...apparently it temporarily blinds you Thanks for reading Dave

[stealthy1 3,964]

It's only practice.

[mad4it 695]

nice write up keep it coming

[northern lad 2,292]

Forgot to mention,this field is 200 yds from the front door,so I can check the traps in minutes(now Ive marked them better ) usually whilst walking the mutts....the downside to the close proximity....the wife wants to know why every time I nip to Tesco I come home with one dirty knee (like living with Poirot) and since when did steak knives come in sets of five sadly no one bought us a Hori Hori as a wedding present

[northern lad 2,292]

Just got back from checking the traps....out of the nine set,six had been triggered,resulting in 4 moles and two empty.Out of the 3 scissor traps 2 had gone off,both resulting in a catch .The 4 duffus type traps triggered resulted in 2 catches(more on that later) and 2 filled with soil,one being pushed up virtually out of the ground,and both full of soil,as I mentioned in first post ,the soil is very light /crumbly peat and Im assuming as the moles worked their way along the tunnel they've pushed the soil into the trap whilst moving forward The one that was almost out of the ground looked as if the mole had possibly tried digging underneath to avoid the trap(and succeeded ) Its definetly looking like the scissor types are more suited to the ground,these are pretty much every ball a coconut....Back to the duffus type.....The two captures were both around the middle of the body... so,what to next?? As I mentioned before I ,ve already shortened the trigger wires to make them more sensitive,so now I have lifted all 6 duffus and bent the triggers forward by about 10-15mm to see if it results in a better catch The other thing that crossed my mind with the two that fired but caught nowt were possibly TOO sensitive and went off before the mole had chance to enter the trap Going round in circles a bit,but its early days yet.....so that's it for today 9 traps/4 moles ATB Dave

[Nicepix 5,650]

  On 02/11/2015 at 15:17, northern lad said:

Forgot to mention,this field is 200 yds from the front door,so I can check the traps in minutes(now Ive marked them better ) usually whilst walking the mutts....the downside to the close proximity....the wife wants to know why every time I nip to Tesco I come home with one dirty knee ....................................

 

Tell her that you are working as a rent boy giving blow jobs to rich American tourists. It's not as embarrassing as admitting that you are a mole trapper.

[bryn27 89]

Keep going your on the right road.

[northern lad 2,292]

  On 04/11/2015 at 19:09, Nicepix said:

 

  On 02/11/2015 at 15:17, northern lad said:

Forgot to mention,this field is 200 yds from the front door,so I can check the traps in minutes(now Ive marked them better ) usually whilst walking the mutts....the downside to the close proximity....the wife wants to know why every time I nip to Tesco I come home with one dirty knee ....................................

 

Tell her that you are working as a rent boy giving blow jobs to rich American tourists. It's not as embarrassing as admitting that you are a mole trapper.

 

Cant give it away Clive,dont see anyone wanting to buy it

[northern lad 2,292]

  On 04/11/2015 at 19:11, bryn27 said:

Keep going your on the right road.

Thanks Bryn

[bryn27 89]

Wandering my round this morning and sat back to have a smoke for 5 mins.4 grouse sitting on the copers 20 ft. to my left then spotted a stoat working the wall just to their left.

Amazing to see the work rate the predator puts in to get something he couldn't see just yet. He hit more dead ends in the wall that I could count but continued on regardless, went missing for a minute or so and then popped up 2ft away from the grouse and under the copes.

They took flight just in time and he stood up proud wondering where's my dinner gone lol.

Just makes you really appreciate nature and how it operates on a daily basis.

best job in the world this!

[northern lad 2,292]

Sounds like your on a nice spot Bryn Whats your thoughts on smoking/setting traps,does it make a difference ,do you wear gloves??

[Gaz_1989 9,539]

Good read that Dave. Enjoyed that. Sounds like you are getting the hang of it anyway.

 

All the best.

[bryn27 89]

As a rule I don't roll a smoke but it was such a nice day overlooking the Tyne valley I had the urge to chill for a while.

I wear gloves when trapping and have had no adverse effects regards having a smoke or not to be honest.

I can see the reason in some folks belief but for me it don't matter a toss regards catch rates.

regards Bryn.

[bryn27 89]

Typical day for me is identify the land I'm going to trap, Print off all my maps and boundary lines then get to setting the next day once I've rung the landowner regards what he's doing stock movement wise over the next 2-3 days and where and what could end up in the setting fields.

Good to go the following morning and start setting, plot the runs and decide where I'm going to place. Always set my traps before locating and opening up a run to keep disturbance and disruption to a minimum. Mark it on my map and also place a ground mark spray dot 2 meters to the North of the trap.flag markers no good on these sheep fields they simply eat them. Make your mound twice the size of a normal mound then kick over all the others. Lovely feeling as you approach your setting point and no more hills have been produced over the previous 48 hrs.

works for me but will not be everyone's approach.

Edited November 5, 2015 by bryn27

[bryn27 89]

landowner loves it when you give them copies of your maps and where you were catching, also after a few months you don't half see a picture develop regards sweet spots and just random feeding runs.

Lets see what tomorrows 48 hr soak brings.

Edited November 5, 2015 by bryn27