Hello all has anyone used the Chinese A24 on the market. Was going to give it a go as they are a fraction of the price.
I’d buy New Zealand myself. Support local employment. Keep money onshore. That sort of thing.
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Nice comment from j40 but, to be honest I’ve found the A24 a bit useless. What’s particularly frustrating with the chirp version that I have (three) is the remotely stored data can’t be deleted when you for choose to relocate a trap.
No knowledge of the Chinese knock off sorry.
Brilliant I’ve got 40 to buy can you send me the $4000 short fall if I buy in NZ.
Hi. I hear you. It’s expensive.
I personally have had good experiences with the GN A24. We have about 80 in our own project and help others with more. They are generally very reliable and robust. Without reference to their efficacy, as mechanical devices they’re sound. We haven’t had to replace any yet.
On the other hand, i only have secondhand knowledge of the Chinese copy. From people who have purchased and used them, words like ‘unreliable’ and ‘crap’ have been used to describe them.
GN designed the trap in NZ and the traps are built here. If you have questions or problems you can get on the phone and speak to a person in Wellington. They have an animal behavioralist on staff as well as a PhD chemist doing research on lures which they make themselves.
The copy is a copy with no intellectual investment or costs.
I do have experience with the imported copies of the DOC200s. I find that their construction tolerances are much wider than the real ones and more of them need adjustment or modifications straight out of the box. They do not have the same longevity as the real. If that’s a guide to go by, it’s an additional argument for actual GN vs. a copy.
I realize each trap is expensive to purchase. But the operating costs over several years need to be considered. As well as future investment via R&D.
My advice (which, let’s face it, may be worth what you’re paying for it) is to go with fewer of the quality product for the best current and future results.
I don’t and have never worked for or received any funding from Goodnature. Just another trapper trying to achieve the best outcomes for NZ biodiversity.
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I concur with @j40gryphon re supporting local produced where you can get good back up support.
The group I am working with bought 20 copy DOC200’s (imported) and they go off at 200+ grams so we miss a lot of smaller critters. Plus we have 30 A24’s - but we don’t know what / if they are killing anything as it may be 3-4 weeks before we get back around the trap lines - and any catches have gone - note these are 8 years old and don’t have the chirp or the counters.
We have now gone down the track of purchasing 100 BT’s and CMI Spring traps - and will repurpose the imported ones to catch Erinaceidae (hogs) around a swamp area.
Looking forward to a mustelid version of the AT220 - resetting with minimal fuss.
Thanks for the feed back on A24’s
You can alter the weight to set off the DoC 200 there’s a You Tube on it.
Try putting a different bail inside the cover of your AT220 works great for stoats and feral cats.
Well that was a well worded reply but I dug my answer out, thank you and happy trapping.
That would be cool, any more info you can share?
Did you know you can adjust trigger weights of the DOC200 (search ‘Doc200 skillable’)
I understand this is a long term project with the AT220’s & stoats.
There are also some other interesting stoat control agents coming out in the near future - like the mustelid “spitfire” - https://www.envicotech.co.nz/spitfire-devices
Re the trigger weight adjusting for the DoC200’s
- yes we are aware that you can change these - but the “Copy 200’s” we have have been reviewed by several groups of people who have all said they can’t be adjusted - welded nib on treddle plate.
Just pulled another stoat out of a regular DoC200 trap today - this one had been there for 4 weeks since last visit. A good reminder to be out more often to check and clear traps over this spring period.
Happy hunting
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Looks great I’d buy them tomorrow. I think the next several years are going to be ground breaking.