Remm. This is for you and everyone else that's got problems with pocket gophers. go on internet and look up( Death clutch gopher trap.) a page should pop up with 8 different videos top row second from left. Should say Gopher Death Clutch Set, about the best explanation on how to make set. It comes up as
www.bugspray.comm. Weird name but watch it. Some other pointers. Just got some new ones at fleet farm 5.69 each DK-1 brand name I think. Take traps and like dry snap them a few times takes some of the tension off. The gopher trys to plug the hole that is what sets the trigger off. You want it to go off with a little pressure. If set too light it will snap to soon and gopher gets educated like a coyote missed after coming to call. I also smoke my traps. I put traps on a wire loop, get a fire going and put green grass or leaves too make a thick smoke, alfalfa works the best. Hang traps in smoke until they get a light brown color like sausage. Be carefull not to get traps to hot or they will lose tension. Best time to set traps is 7 to 9 at night or sunup. Pocket gophers are most active at those times. If you come across open mound just slide trap in open hole and stake. If you are where other preadators are stake with electric fence post or 2ft rebar or you could lose everything to a freeloader. To find tunnel look at mound, there will be a spot that looks like an outey belly button. Clean dirt away. There will be a spot with no grass, this is where the gopher came up. A small garden shovel comes in handy now, but first take your stake and poke in the bare spot 4 to 6 in at a little angle until you find tunnel. Funny the last few lines sounds like sex education. Take shovel and make hole too tunnel just big enough for trap when set. use your hand to clean out loose dirt in tunnel that you made. Set trap, stake, come back in morning, bury gopher. It is the breeding season right now so could be more than one gopher in runn, just watch for fresh mounds. The smoke should last about 2 weeks of solid trapping, don't worry about blood on traps and don't wash and oil until your done. Back in the 60s I worked at a lumberyard for 65dollars a week. Trapped gophers for ranchers around Mcleod, Township paid 25 cents and I charged ranchers another 25 cents. I had a trapline of 100 traps. Would average 50 to 60 a night after work and 100 a day on weekends. So I made 250$ a week trapping gophers. How sweet was that. I caught 3 albinos, a few black and some that looked like german shorthairs. Bought my first two. cars with gopher tail money. One was 65 chevelle ss. loved that car. Any one have any more questions PM me, Happy trapping.:;:cheers Ps I damed near broke the township, about 25,000 gophers over 4 years.