I’m currently building 6x boxes for double DOC200s as per the standard plan. Our block is private & literally miles from any houses, we don’t let any small kids run wild up there, so I was wondering about having a catch on the trap lid rather than a screw, has anybody done something like this & what did you use?
Various friends & family use the block so I’d like to make it really easy for anybody to re-set a trap if they are passing & see one has been sprung.
Cheers
Clint
You could pre-drill a hole thru lid and into box. Then slip a nail in to secure. Tie a bit of flagging tape around the nail so you can find it on the ground. Good unless you have pigs or stock that can interfere.
Make sure that friends and family use gloves if they check the traps, in order to prevent them from getting sick and/or leaving human scents on the traps.
I’m the only one that touches my traps, but I still screw down the lids, because I’m worried that non-target animals might interfere with them - mainly possums and cats. I’ve modified a few of my traps so that the lid opens with door hinges. It’s great for double sets, because that swinging lid can be a bastard of a thing. For a double-set, a latch at each end should do the trick, I reckon.
Good luck with your trapping.
Also be wary of kea and weka. Kea have had great fun finding their way into out traps in Golden Bay which did not have screws. We have had to replace with more robust boxes and grills.
I put a slot in the lid instead of a hole and used a wing headed bolt, that goes into a threaded insert. I’ve also used a small catch from Mitre 10 that works pretty well so far.
Thanks guys, great info. Went to get some hinges & catches, but $$$ & they didn’t have enough in stainless anyway, so I made some bodgy wing screws.
First couple of traps going out today.Cheers
Clint
Hi, A screw makes it safer and less prone to stealing the mechanism.
I use removable lids with nails only for Victor traps (see photo below).
3 notches cut in the lid, 2 nails to hold it in place and a third twisted 90 degrees to close it.
A bent nail can be turned many times without it coming out.
You also don’t lose it in the grass or forest-debris if it stays attached,
You can use the same principle for a standard DOC 200 box as shown in the other photo.
Hi Clint.
I’m in the Waikato and I set DOC200s on my property year-round. No dogs, kids, weka or kea about at my place, so I can be pretty lax.
What I do is to remove one screw altogether, and just keep the nail on the other side, so the trap lid can be freely pivoted sideways at any time. This makes it easy to reset the trap as no screwdriver required - just swing sideways and do it.
After a while, when the pivot nail head wears away at the lid so the pivot action becomes loose, I replace it with a screw and washer to keep the action straight, without vertical wobble.
I’ve caught all kinds of pests in DoC’s set like this, including ferrets, a middling-sized possum, multitudes of hegehogs and a few feral cats and have never had any animal manage to open the trap lid. Maybe a sideways pushing action on the lid just isn’t something they try.
Needless to say, I wouldn’t recommend this set-up unless you’re very confident that no-one but you and people you trust to be sensible can access the traps, but it does make things very easy.
Hi Clint. Our project uses Tech screws, you use them to fix roofing iron to timber etc. They have an 8mm hex head. which prevents people without an 8mm wrench from opening them. Us trap servicers have an 8mm rachet wrench.
A 15cm length of bike tyre “tube” + 2 X 30+ mm screws.1 screw through the tube and into the lid at the opposite end to the pivot nail or screw.1 screw say 60 mm down the side of the box .Small hole in tube to squeeze over screw head with tube under tension . Leave about 10 mm of screw protruding .No tools required and a good recycle of a " dead " tube. GMTrapper
