This guy has some interesting videos. Calls his series "Mousetrap Mondays". He's explored and built old designs, tested the new, and is fun to watch.

I like this one: Walk the Plank. I actually ordered one to deal with some squirrels. We'll see how it fares.

That is a very clever trap. I wonder how deep the barrel needs to be so a squirrel can't jump out if you don't put water in it to catch them alive?

Jerry

I have a friend who cobbled together something very similar that he uses to get rid of chipmunks.

What also works is an old coffee/beer can. takes about 5 min to make an about $2....depending on your beer of choice

Good way to make use of that hoppy IPA crap.... I LIKE IT!!

Then, for nuts like me, there's the Jim Corbett ladder-posing-as-a-machan method.

First, you bait the rodent with peanut butter:


Then you quietly climb up the ladder er..Machan and wait in the dark with just enough light.... The rat knows you are there, but eventually temptation sets in and a 9422 with rat shot does the rest..



Oh, and I almost forgot, I didn't have to pay to hunt...

He has some interesting videos on killing rats, like this one,
https://youtu.be/oM09ZgY2qPM
Ronnie

Corbet would approve. So would Patterson. I see the movie now "Mouse in the Darkness". Hmmm, somehow not as scary without lions.

Many moons ago, we were watching TV one night, and my wife screamed "there goes a mouse." One had run behind the TV. I grabbed a BB gun, and when it came out from behind the TV, I shot the little sucker. My wife had a fit, called my stunt dangerous, and said she didn't want to ever see me shoot a gun inside the house. I simply said.....mission accomplished.

Layers of defense.

I use the bucket traps in the garage and under the house.

Feed the feral cats outside fairly regularly.

keep this killer on the inside of the house.

You. sir, are my hero.

If you don't mind my asking, what sort of stopping rifle do you recommend should your quarry be wounded and charge? Do you have guards on the ladder legs to prevent them from crawling up on you in the dark and ambushing you?

Yr obt svt,

Ed

Ed,

I'd hazard a guess and hope he has a solid in the lineup after the rat shot to make sure of penetration on a charge.

Geno

My first ever kill was a mouse that ran behind the TV to hide. Grabbed my trusty suction cup gun, took the cup off the "bullet", and let him have it. Quite the safari for a pre-schooler.....

aalf,

I just love a good huntin' story.

Geno

PS, do they still make those pistols in this litigious society? Orange muzzles so perhaps those are recent?

I had no idea either till a google found them on Amazon, where I snagged the pic.

Lemme know if y'all have a good trapping setup for red squirrels. My last dog would tree them and I would shoot them and that kept their numbers in check, but she's been gone for 2+ years and I'm now overrun with them. Between myself and my son we've killed 14 since Christmas eve. 13 of them from my daughter's bedroom window with a 22LR loaded with Con's (thanks to a very generous campfire member who sent me some a couple years ago), and 1 with a rat trap.

They seem to catch on to traps very quickly. After the first one got caught in a rat trap I had strategically placed near the hole they used to vet into my reloading barn, I haven't been able to catch another. I even bought some 110 sized body-grip traps, but no love. I've had it with the little bastards and have replaced the 22 and the need for precise shots with a 20 gauge and birdshot.

Darn. Free great meat. Better than $170/lb spanish pig.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/01/22/why-eat-squirrel-really.html

My buddy put a 5 gal buck with water out on his place in NM. Had a 2x4 leading up to it. Killed 43 chipmunks in 2 days- they were thirsty buggers.

So, did your backup have two 45s?

Probably his Verny Caron double in .450 NE. Ruark disciple. Use enough gun.

You're welcome

The author of that video, Shawn Woods, [if that is his real name] is the internet's foremost authority on mouse traps and the history of mouse traps.
I suspect when youtube changed their monetization policy, he was forced to get a job or sell mouse traps.

You can watch youtube until you are blue in the face and never find anyone better than Shawn Woods
https://www.youtube.com/user/historichunter/videos

He's having fun...

here's the best way to rid yourself of vermin

I've never understood why anyone would want to release a rat or mouse after they catch them. What's the point in catching them in the first place?

A number of years ago, I was in a Walmart store, in the pet food department. I look down the aisle and see one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen coming towards me. This gal was blonde, extremely pretty, dressed very nicely, and you could tell she was not the average Walmart shopper. She came up to me and said "excuse me, sir, I'm looking for mousetraps, do you know where they are?" Now, I'm starting to imagine all sorts of things......maybe she's liking what she sees, maybe that's her way of breaking the ice, maybe she will want me to come over and show her how to set the trap.....that's just how captivating this gal was. Anyway, I know where the mousetraps are, and I take her there. I pick up one and say "is this what you're wanting?" She takes a step back, and says "oh no, I don't want a trap that's going to kill them, I want a live trap, so I can take them back outside and let them go." But, I tell her "when you do that, they just come back in." She says she doesn't care, that she loves all animals and doesn't believe in killing any of them. I knew right then and there that this gal, no matter how beautiful she was, was not someone that I would ever be on good terms with. So, I wished her good luck with her mouse trapping, and walked away. I will admit though, that every time I'm in a Walmart, and walk past the mousetraps, I still remember her.

True story.

nailed it!

I guess it would have been very un-PC to have told her that in the Middle Ages women in Europe used pussies to catch mice?