Gopher Traps

First spring at my new place and it looks like I need to take care of some pocket gophers. Haven’t trapped them since I was a kid so I’m wondering if anyone has any recommendations for gopher traps they like.

I have killed about 12 at my place, I use the traps they sell at Home Depot “Victor trap”that goes in the tunnel and when they hit the trigger 2 spikes come up each side and get them little suckers. My dad used this one he got on Amazon “Gopher hawk”that is a 2” tube style that requires no digging, you poke around to find a tunnel and push the end into the tunnel then a noose opens up, when the critters trip the trap the spring loaded loop pulls up and you got them little suckers. Both work, worms and smoke bombs do not.

I use the metal traps. Once I dig access in the tunnel I cover the opening with cardboard and put a small nail hole in the middle then cover as much cardboard with dirt as I can. I heard from an old timer that small bit of light attracts them to fix it and pulls them into the traps. I havent had to do it for years. No gophers in my neighborhood.

Grab a lawn chair a case of beer and a fishing pole. Tie a slip knot on the end of the line sit back about 50 feet when they stick their stupid little head up to look around set the hook. Dont use ultra light cause if they get back down the hole you wont be able to pull them out.

Thanks guys. Suzuki that’s similar to what I used as a kid, we’d even use dried cow pies to cover the whole. Maybe that’s why my entire life I’ve been more comfortable around animal S*&% than human germs.

suzuki wrote:

I use the metal traps. Once I dig access in the tunnel I cover the opening with cardboard and put a small nail hole in the middle then cover as much cardboard with dirt as I can. I heard from an old timer that small bit of light attracts them to fix it and pulls them into the traps. I havent had to do it for years. No gophers in my neighborhood.

This is what we always did, but never knew about the nail hole in the cardboard deal. We just covered the hole with cardboard after the trap was set. Will have to try the nail hole trick.

I really miss shooting gophers with a .22 We used to go out on country roads and dad would spot them and then I’d get out and walk up on them. It seems like there are almost no gophers now compared to what there used to be. Not uncommon to get 20 shots per mile back in the 1970s.

Grouse

Grouse

Death Clutch I’ve trapped hundreds using this type. Very lethal and easy to use once you get the hang of setting them.

Rattrap, put some feed on it and place it by every hole. No digging.
I just used bird feed.

Always preferred the death clutch style

Death clutch is the way to go. Although so far the gophers have taken a quick 3-0 lead on me this year. Plugged, plugged, and plugged again

Ive got a hose that attaches to exhaust pipe of my four wheeler. Stick the hose in the tunnel and run the wheeler for 5 minutes or so. You don’t get the same satisfaction as pulling a dead gopher up like on a death trap. But it gets every one in the tunnel in one shot.

I think some guys have striped gophers (ground squirrels) mixed up with pocket gophers (who live almost exclusively underground)

Last fall we had the world’s smartest pocket gopher set up shop in the backyard

When I was a kid they were a piece of cake to trap…..this one is something else.

Side tunnels, main tunnels, multiple traps, covered, uncovered, partially covered….. didn’t matter. He’d either plug the hole, plug the trap, or trip the trap without plugging…..couldn’t win

We chased fresh mounds for a couple months to no avail.

I hope frost or old age killed that little SOB lol

The boys really wanted to see him caught (and I grew a personal vendetta against him), but if he comes back this summer I’m firing up a generator or lawn mower and gassing him

suzuki wrote:

I use the metal traps. Once I dig access in the tunnel I cover the opening with cardboard and put a small nail hole in the middle then cover as much cardboard with dirt as I can. I heard from an old timer that small bit of light attracts them to fix it and pulls them into the traps. I havent had to do it for years. No gophers in my neighborhood.

I like the metal pinch traps. I leave the hole wide open because the old timer is right they come into the trap trying to fix it. I used to cover it but forgot the board once and by the time i got back to the hole he was already trapped so since then i just leave it open. The exhaust hose will get em too

Dan wrote:

First spring at my new place and it looks like I need to take care of some pocket gophers. Haven’t trapped them since I was a kid so I’m wondering if anyone has any recommendations for gopher traps they like.

When I was a teenager I would get $0.50 from the farmer and another $0.50 from the county as that what the bounty was. The mounds would raise heck with the sickle hay mowers when they would cut the hay. I got pretty good at it. Today I use and really like Trapline traps found here https://www.traplineproducts.com/onlinestore.html. Find a fresh mound and you can see the outline of where the tunnel goes down on the mound. There are usually 2 or more mounds, they give an indication of the main tunnel underneath and it’s orientation. Take a shovel and dig down where the indentation was on the mound. You might have to go up to a foot deep. Also often the gophers will back fill from the mount to the main tunnel, sometimes forcing you to use a rod to try and find the main tunnel. The tunnel coming from the mound will meet up with the main tunnel which forms a T. I add cables to my traps so the gophers can’t pull it away, then secure them with a stake. The Trapline traps are super easy to set. Use 2 traps per set, one in the tunnel going on way and one in the tunnel opposite. I put the traps all the way into the tunnel. My insurance is a piece of cardboard with some peanut butter laid in the tunnel between the traps. Using a piece of cardboard or an old piece of carpet I cover the hole and check the traps the next day. Just nailed a big fat one 4 days ago but my second set didn’t produce until the 3rd day. Last year I got 2 in the same set, one from one way and one from the opposite, never had that happen before. After the frost goes out the gophers start re-establishing new areas. I used to leave the tunnels open as Mustang states, the gophers will come to cover up the hole and I caught a lot this way. My current method seems more consistent as I seldom if ever get a plugged hole with the trap still set.

Is it standard for people to dig down and lay traps in the main tunnel vs setting them in the small lateral tunnel just dug out from the visible mound above ground? I’d assume people are much more successful digging down and locating/trapping the main tunnel. Had never heard of anyone doing that before, certainly not how I was taught when I was much younger!
I like that peanut butter idea though, I will be giving that one a try the next time out.

One of the best I’ve seen…..

Attachments:

1. 

   Camp-Randall-Endzone-900x675.jpg
   

5 gallon bucket half filled with water and a couple of hand fulls of sunflower seed. Short plank to help them up to the top. Can get 5-16 per day. My one day record is 12 without changing the water.

MNBOWHUNTIN wrote:

One of the best I’ve seen…..

Ha!!!

Art Green wrote:

5 gallon bucket half filled with water and a couple of hand fulls of sunflower seed. Short plank to help them up to the top. Can get 5-16 per day. My one day record is 12 without changing the water.

For these??

Attachments:

1. 

   Screenshot_20200408-0815472.png
   

Art Green wrote:

5 gallon bucket half filled with water and a couple of hand fulls of sunflower seed. Short plank to help them up to the top. Can get 5-16 per day. My one day record is 12 without changing the water.

For pocket gophers? Maybe for chipmunks

Sounds line this thread is a mixture of:

1) pocket gophers (black mounds of dirt and you never see them)

2) 13 lined ground squirrels (striped gophers) that feed above ground….

Totally different critters.

trophy19 wrote:

Sounds line this thread is a mixture of:

1) pocket gophers (black mounds of dirt and you never see them)

2) 13 lined ground squirrels (striped gophers) that feed above ground….

Totally different critters.

Yea. People interchange them all the time. Always been a pet peeve of mine. Like frogs and toads.
I’ve shot plenty of ground squirrels but have never had the privilege of picking off a gopher as he poked his head out to expel dirt.

I use to shoot streaky gophers a lot when I was a kid in pastures. Sit on the 4 wheeler and wait for them to stand up outside the hole with a .22 they can be hard to hit but a lot of fun!

I was wondering if someone could help me with pocket gophers in my garden. The problem is in a garden since the ground is loose my Gopher Hawk will not work, smoke bombs just shut them down for a couple of day…. you know the drill. I want to use the traps but the tunnels are so small that the traps will not fit into the tunnels… any advice?

Richard Adams wrote:

I was wondering if someone could help me with pocket gophers in my garden. The problem is in a garden since the ground is loose my Gopher Hawk will not work, smoke bombs just shut them down for a couple of day…. you know the drill. I want to use the traps but the tunnels are so small that the traps will not fit into the tunnels… any advice?

Are you sure they’re pocket gophers? Never heard of tunnels being too small for a victor/spring trap. Either they’re not gophers or you haven’t found the main tunnel. You can tell if they’re pocket gophers by the mound they leave. Look it up online to see what I mean.

trophy19 wrote:

Sounds line this thread is a mixture of:

1) pocket gophers (black mounds of dirt and you never see them)

2) 13 lined ground squirrels (striped gophers) that feed above ground….

Totally different critters.

We don’t have issues with pocket gophers. They are far more difficult to trap and deal with. My in-laws have them and probably have 4 or 5 “misses” before connecting with a trap.

Ground squirrels are also annoying and we have plenty. They are thankfully much easier to kill. A rat trap with a dab of peanut butter gets a lot of them. If you spook them near a downspout they will almost always run up it and wait. I back the small screw out holding my extension on, stand the downspout on end in the driveway, and ram a 2 x 4 in to finish the deal. I must get a dozen or so per summer this way just by chance walking by.

MNBOWHUNTIN wrote:

One of the best I’ve seen…..

Love it!

suzuki wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>trophy19 wrote:</div>
Sounds line this thread is a mixture of:

1) pocket gophers (black mounds of dirt and you never see them)

2) 13 lined ground squirrels (striped gophers) that feed above ground….

Totally different critters.

Yea. People interchange them all the time. Always been a pet peeve of mine. Like frogs and toads.
I’ve shot plenty of ground squirrels but have never had the privilege of picking off a gopher as he poked his head out to expel dirt.

The only pocket gopher I ever remember above ground was one that decided to show itself while we were working in the garden. Got it with a shovel.

Richard Adams wrote:

I was wondering if someone could help me with pocket gophers in my garden. The problem is in a garden since the ground is loose my Gopher Hawk will not work, smoke bombs just shut them down for a couple of day…. you know the drill. I want to use the traps but the tunnels are so small that the traps will not fit into the tunnels… any advice?

More often than not I have to widen the hole a little. I think what I have are called DK12 or something like that, they’re metal spring traps. When they’re opened and spring-loaded I pretty much always need to widen the hole. Sucks to do that to your lawn but it seems to work. Good luck to you.

I trapped two early this spring and haven’t seen a new hole since, but the farms and other land around me are almost overrun with them so it’ll probably just be a matter of time before more creep my way.

Open up the hole under the mound. Use a death clutch for a straight tunnel thats as long or longer than the trap. Stake with a piece of rebar or steel rod and leave the hole open. If the tunnel is a T/Y upon opening, use a pan trap (foot hold), and cover the hole. I always just used a mat of ditch grass covered with dirt to cover the hole. Stake the chain on the trap so that if the gopher pulls on the trap you can tell from the position of the chain ring moving, that way you don’t have to open up the hole to check the trap.

Scent does matter on your traps.

I’ve trapped thousands of pocket gophers, often making $2500-$5000 between township bounties and farmer bounties.