We sell all Tomahawk products and use a number of them, including the Bailey Live Beaver Cage Trap

When beaver either get educated by springing a trap that I have set or we inherit one from another trapper, a smart beaver can be maddening to remove.  Once they know they are the target, they are on guard, watching every change, looking for traps and then firing them.

The Bailey Trap is large, but can be camouflaged completely in the right situations, offering a very good shot at taking that last problem beaver.  Its a fine line we walk, trying to catch that hold out beaver without pressuring him to the extent that he leaves the pond.  The goal is to keep him there fighting with you.  You can make multiple "mistakes,"  while the beaver has only to make one.

I have found the Bailey to be a great asset in taking the only beaver in a colony that counts, the last one.  With our Swim Through Comstock Beaver Cage Traps we take most of our beaver, but being visible like conibear traps or snares, smart beaver will often avoid those devices.  Like a foot hold trap, the Bailey can be sunk into the mud, then draped with Lilly pads and pond weeds, rendering it invisible.  Since beaver do not like swimming under or through obstacles once they have been alerted to trapping, the Bailey fits the bill, because the beaver simply swims over the trap in his normal routine. With the small trigger under water, the beaver breasts the mechanism, which fires both jaws that lock securely.

Yesterday I ended a battle with a large male beaver in a remote pond many miles from home that had begun several years earlier, a long story.  The Bailey requires some focus, as attention must be payed to how it is set, but set properly it can solve some aggravating problems with wised up beaver.  Not as experienced with the Bailey, I once did not check the safety catches that were hidden in deep black muck.  Because one safety was not kept clear, when the beaver fired the trap the safety caught the cage wire, my mistake.  Live and learn, I will not repeat that error.  If the jaw retainers are set near the edge and the cables clear, the trap should do the job.

Having seen the other clam shell type live traps, before I had ever seen the Bailey, I thought, "wouldn't it be nice if there was a trap that would lay on the bottom in shallow water with both jaws firing together, coming up to meet in the middle, triggered by a beaver simply swimming over it."  That is the Bailey.  

Best Trap Selection in Wire Trigger Traps and Accessories in our Patented Designs

Having come up through the ranks in Animal Damage Control trapping for beaver, skunks, woodchucks, raccoons, opossum, squirrels etc., we not only produce and sell traps, but actually use them daily in our business.  In looking over what we now make, we would like to point out that there are no less than 80 products to choose from in our panless traps, which include, single door traps with solid backs, single door traps with hinged bait doors, single door traps with release slider doors, double door traps, double door flush mount traps, in a variety of lengths and openings, wire gages and mesh, nothing left out, your choice.

Having led the way in wire trigger traps, we were the first to offer shorter, smaller traps for those who require them, while still providing the larger traps if desired, something for everyone, more options.

We have the best selling most widely used swim through beaver cage trap in the world in the 12x18x39 model and also a 12x12x36.  Better yet, when price shopping, when comparing to other traps of this type, we also the best prices with guaranteed quality, offering wider traps no one else is able to produce.  Additionally, we have even made wider traps yet, 22 and 24 inches wide along with in between sized 15 inch wide traps.

We were first and only trap maker to develop a drop in chimney trap with wire trigger, small, compact, practical.

We now offer tall bobcat traps, custom made in 36 inch lengths, but can be made both shorter and longer to order in 9 to 15 inch widths and 18 to 24 inch heights in a variety of wire mesh, which means the combinations are all but limitless, again much better priced than similar traps.  In short, we have it covered in both wide and tall traps as well as smaller rodent sized traps.

Our unique squirrel traps with the swing panel, along with a number of accessories, rounds out the product line.  Good for squirrels, chipmunks, rats and baby animals of all kinds, along with the 3x5, 5x5 and 6x6 we have larger 6x8, 7x7, 8x10 models.

We are happy to take on special projects as time permits to accommodate needs in odd sized traps too.

 

With New Traps Comes Opportunity for New Sets, The Dam Break Set used with Swim Through Comstock Beaver Cage Traps is one of them.

We have been successfully using the dam break set with the large 12x18x39 Comstock Swim Through Beaver Cage Traps for a couple of years now.   Until the advent of this versatile cage trap, a set like this wasn't even a dream.

Trappers have relied on Conibear type body gripping traps to take beaver for years, but using them in a breached dam usually spelled disaster.  Often the result was a wised up beaver and a sprung trap.  If not sprung, the traps would quite often end up buried in a foot or two of mud, grass, leaves etc., often the only hint of set showing were the tops of the stabilizing stakes.    

The swim through cage trap with powered doors, set upside down and concealed in the dam, in the water on the top side of the dam offers an excellent opportunity to take beaver while using a small leak as the attractant.  We have been promoting this set for some time, but always setting one at a time.  However, with only one channel to set, the other day I decided to place two dam break sets, one on each corner of a narrow 15 foot wide dam.  The result was a double!  Both adults were taken together.

What I did find unusual was the fact the first trap was out of place and under water, something that I had not encountered in the past.  The trap with beaver in it had been moved 3 or 4 feet.  It is difficult to know if the captured beaver had reached out, causing the trap to move of if the other beaver had moved the trap after the first was captured.  Beaver number one was submerged, while the other beaver was alive.  The second trap had moved only slightly.  A trail camera would have solved the mystery.  Bottom line, both sets worked together.      

Pictures of the New, Panless, Powered Door Comstock Live Bobcat /Fox Cage Traps with the Patented Wire Trigger System

These Bobcat cage traps are now being produced in New York to order, custom made to height and width.  Most of the traps we are making are 36 inches in length in both single and double door models.  The traps are generally from 9 to 12 inches wide and from 18 to 24 inches high, but we have also made wider traps.  If a longer trap is required, we can accommodate.  Generally we use 1-1/2 square 12 gage mesh, but also have 1 inch square mesh in both 14 and 12 gage.  We even have 1/2x1 12 and 14 gage mesh that is most often used on smaller traps, lots of options.  The traps pictured are 10.5, 12 and 16.5 wide, while the height varies from 19.5 to 24 high.  The widest trap is 39 inches long.

At the N.Y.S. Trappers Convention we introduced our powered ring door traps and were pleased to see that though there were other live bobcat cage traps available, guillotine door, single door models, trappers often chose our door design, also appreciating the double door option as well as the very light but stable patented wire trigger system.

We believe that a powered ring door system has a number of advantages over a guillotine door trap.  First the g door traps stick way up in the air, are more difficult to conceal and drop straight down, sometimes hitting animals in the back, which can result in backing out.   The sweeping action of the lock ring door trap, with power, will help push an animal forward, like all of our other traps.  G door traps, even those with power assist, do not have continuous power closing them throughout the cycle.  A door can be easily lifted by an escaping animal.  The time tested, reliable, ring door locking element means that there is no return to a dropping door.  It is one way only, down.  Even if the rings drop but an inch or two, the door can not be pushed upward.  The rings have to move very little to keep the door nearly closed, with no return.  Like a constricting snake that closes down on prey as an animal exhales, unlike g door traps that can be pushed upward, the ring door is a one way lock up.   

Anyone interested in ordering should contact us well ahead of time as we make the traps on a small scale in between nuisance wildlife calls for beaver, 'chucks, skunks etc.    

Beaver #600 for us in Comstock Swim Through Double Door Beaver / Otter and Bobcat Traps

I don't often get to set culverts as nice as this one.  This is a 5 footer with about 10 inches of slow moving water in it, with a grate at the other end to keep brush out, but with enough room for a beaver to swim under it.  This was a 2 year old beaver who got the honor of being number 600 caught in our cages in our ADC business.  Randy Volk still is the number one beaver catcher with our cages , for now anyway, having taken more than 600 in just two years, 400 plus the first year and 200 plus the second year.  Beaver #601 was downstream about 30 yards, a yearling

Amazing how well the cage blended into the culvert with only a small amount of brush.  The beaver and cage were all but invisible from the end of the culvert.

Patent Issued on Comstock Cages

We are happy to announce that the long arduous patenting process has finally come to a successful conclusion.  A patent has been issued on our unique power door, wire trigger live cage traps.  It has taken a number of years due to first filing a provisional patent before entering into the patent pending process with customary, yet common rejections requiring many back and forths between Judy and I, attorneys and the patent office.

We have always viewed life as a marathon, rather than a sprint.  Our sights have always been long term, eyes on the finish line, viewing life as a Marathon rather than a sprint.  Being first out of the gate is of little consequence.  Taking our time to get it right by making traps that worked properly from day one, then moving slowing through the patenting process has payed off, the tortoise and the hare.

 As soon as we get caught up on custom orders we will get back to the business of creating new again.  We are hoping to have the chimney trap in production this spring as well as a couple of improvements to other traps.