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Jeff,

I had much better luck with the little victor pan traps. The reason being is because they are less suspecting of something being wrong in their little underground domain. With a death grip, the tunnel is left open so the little suckers are already coming with a load of dirt to plug that hole tight and it often springs the trap before they can get caught it in it.

Dave pointed out one thing that I forgot to mention. The ring of the mound. The ring is where they last plugged the mound and where the tunnel will start. With pan traps its best to find the tunnel a little ways back so you have a tunnel that runs both ways. If you buy new traps, you will want to boil them to get any scent off from shipping oils etc.

Another tip: When preparing your trap bed, reach your arm down in the tunnels as far as you can and pull out excess dirt so they don't have as much to push on to your pan and spring the trap. This can get intersesting when a salamander or two decides to take up residence down there.



OH...and once you catch one and wack it over the head, don't forget to feel inside the little pockets (hence the name pocket gopher) on its cheeks. It's always fun to see what they have stored in there.