Thread: No Conibears to be seen?

Yeesh... I didn't think leg snares would be allowed for medium and big game... I've seen animals that got a leg into a snare rather than their head and it's never been pretty... there are noose snares with/without power heads on them here for wolves/coyotes, but those're meant to kill outright, and even then they aren't as quick as would be ideal. Plus they're placed high so it's hard to accidentally get another body part.

Stug's correct in that they make 110, 220 and 330 size traps - the trap pictured above is a 330 and is meant for beavers up to 27-36kg (yep... biggest I've ever dealt with is 31kg). If you've got sneaky beavers you can make a 330 wide or 660 by cutting and welding two traps together. The small conibears would be perfect for possums and ferrets - the fact that they have a wide swing arc is both an advantage and disadvantage. The wide swing requires careful setup - like in box traps or funnels, but with that done, not many animals manage to set them off and get away - it's hard for them to trip the trigger and get out of the jaws in time, and the jaw style means it seldom pushes them away like some traps. If you do catch yourself in them it hurts like a bugger, but won't cause any permanent damage unless you catch a finger. Seems biggest thing about them is they aren't terribly intuitive to use and are a bit intimidating. If you're interested take a look at Marten sets - it seems they could be pretty easily adapted for possums at least - possibly ferrets as well. Bycatch might be an issue with ground based traps, but you can mount a box set vertically close to the ground like the possum sets I've seen, and it funnels their heads into the trap.

Here a lot of animals learn about metal smells and avoid them, but if your animals don't learn well, then you can make multi-traps which are double ended box traps with a conibear in the entrance of each end, and bait in the middle protected by a screen on either side. You insert the bait through a door in the side of the trap. That way the first animal won't clear the way for the second to reach the bait, so the second animal will try what appears to be the second clear path to the bait and get nailed as well. Doesn't work terribly well for smart, territorial, or opportunistic eaters who'll just eat your first animal and leave I don't know if there are non-target species that go into tubes, if so this might not be the best option.

Can you tell I'm a fan of conibears?