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Gopher Hawk mole trap w pics

Started by Okanagan, June 13, 2020, 12:18:38 PM

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Okanagan

A mole moved in yesterday and he was in the trap this morning.




When the trap is set with the spring compressed, narrow and thin spring steel bands extend from the end of the tube and bow out in kind of an onion shape.  A trigger hangs down in the center of the bowed out steel bands. 





With a tool I forgot to photograph, you probe around a fresh dirt pile till you feel an underground mole tunnel.  Then use a pointed tool the same diameter as the trap tube to poke a hole from surface to mole tunnel.  Insert the trap, pull up on the spring to set it and the steel bands bow out around the sides of the tunnel.  When mister mole goes through the steel bands he brushes the trigger and gets jerked up against the end of the tube.

Below is a trap set with a stabilizer I add sometimes rather than pile dirt around the trap to keep it steady and vertical.



When the trap fires and jerks the steel snare up, a yellow painted section of the tube shows, so you can see at a glance whether something has set off the trap or not.  Once in awhile a mole pushes dirt into the trap and sets it off without catching him but a yellow band showing usually means a mole is dead in the trap.





nastygunz

 That would make a good fish trap 🐟🐟

pitw

Never seed nothing like that before.  Must be the Cadillac.  Thanks Oke. :biggrin:
I say what I think not think what I say.

Hawks Feather

Nice catch. Now all you need are a few hundred more and you will be able to make yourself a scarf for winter. 

FinsnFur

Thats genius!

Jerry a scarf [emoji23][emoji1787]

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KySongDog

#5
I've got a mole problem and need one of those traps.  I've been using the Victor trap with limited success.   Where to you buy those traps?

edit: I checked Amazon, Lowes and Ace Hardware. All out with no idea when they'll get more.   


Okanagan

Quote from: KySongDog on June 14, 2020, 08:22:51 AM
I've got a mole problem and need one of those traps.  I've been using the Victor trap with limited success.   Where to you buy those traps?

edit: I checked Amazon, Lowes and Ace Hardware. All out with no idea when they'll get more.

I got one from a cousin, used, and she ordered another through our local Ace Hardware. First she tried to order one from an online source.  They cancelled her order and told her they didn't know when they would get any more.  She ordered one at the Ace store, then got a message that they were out, and then they sent her two of them.  She sold me the second one at half price.  You need the right cousin to get one of these traps...  :innocentwhistle:

Around here there are many retired people and apparently a number of them are offering to catch moles for a (high) fee.  This is prime mole season and with folks home due to covid, there has been a run on traps.  My son, who is in the lawn and landscape irrigation business, told me that about once a month he has a customer ask him if he knows anyone who traps moles.  He is urging me to hang out my shingle as a mole getter ridder. :huh: :iroll:


Okanagan

GopherHawk mole trap manual.

IF anyone tries one of these traps,  DO NOT PUSH DOWN when setting the trap.  Pushing down is the most natural feeling way to set it. A slight push down and it bends the thin snare slats. When the trap bottoms out in the hole, set it by pulling up on the barrel of the trap tube and merely hold the top against the upward pressure.

I bent mine badly with a small amount of pressure in the first second that I tried to set it for the first time.   On the top end of the trap it says DO NOT PUSH DOWN.   :doh2: Fortunately it wasn't too hard to get bent back into a shape that catches moles.

Second, try to buy your first trap as a kit.  You can buy the trap alone, but the kit comes with a tool that has a probe and a pointed rocket looking thing that pokes a hole in lawn/dirt exactly the diameter of the trap.  You only need one of the tools no matter how many traps you have and once you see how it is used, could improvise something else but the kit with tool is the easiest way to start.  It runs about $28-32 for the kit, $22-26 for a trap lone.

KySongDog

Thanks for the info.  I checked Rural King. They had one in an open box (no starter kit) so I bought it.  I figured I could make a probe out of pvc or something. Got home with it and found why it was an open box. The trigger didn't work so I'll return it.  For some reason, every store I check says they are discontinuing the item.   So I'm back to fighting the moles with my old Victor traps.  The moles are winning. 


Okanagan

KySongDog, wonder why retailers are not planning to carry them anymore?  Every one of the (few) people I have talked to who have used the Gopher Hawk really likes it.   

Re the link Nasty put up:  Wow!  They are asking some premium prices for that thing, and getting it. $80 and $100 on the places I checked.  I thought it was pricey at $30 for the kit.

I try to note which way the tunnel is running and rotate the three snare fingers so that one of them is not in the middle, partly blocking the tunnel.  Turn or rotate the snare to give as wide an open passage as possible for the mole to go through.  Also, I noticed that the mole will plug any hole open to daylight, by pushing dirt up into it.  So I have been poking three holes in a row in the same tunnel and putting the trap in the center hole.  Which ever way the mole comes from he plugs the first hole, and gets caught in the trap on his way to plug the next one.  I put the holes anywhere from 6 inches to afoot apart, close enough that he can see to the next open hole.  One time that cost me a mole because he was pushing dirt ahead of him that set off the snare.

I keep meaning to check to see if there is a recording of a mole mating call on YouTube.  :laf: It is apparently a high pitched squeal.  Would like to play that by the trap when I set it and whenever I check it.

nastygunz

 I checked the company website and they said they were out of stock too.

KySongDog

Thanks for the help.  Yep, $80 is out of my price range for a mole trap.  :biggrin:   So I'm back to my Victor plunger traps.  They do work but are pretty old and I haven't given them tender loving care over the years.  So I was looking for a better mole trap to replace them.  I returned the gopherhawk and I bought a newer version of the Victor trap and will give it a chance to nail the bastids. 

This is the trap:


Okanagan

Hope you can find a Gopher Hawk.  I never used one of the Victor plunger traps you pictured but my first impression is that it is limited to shallow tunnels.  The Gopher Hawk tube sets on tunnels deep or shallow, and I've caught several in deeper tunnels which apparently are dens.  On shallow tunnels the gopher hawk needs some kind of prop to hold it up.