Modified Figure 4
Study the pics a little and you will get the leverage idea behind this...the longer that lower horizontal bar is, the thinner and deeper into the trap your trigger stick can be...since its held under compression as soon as anything bumps it, the whole works comes down...My machete is 3' long for reference. I can answer questions on the build, its very fast, stable, and easy to make, of course you add vertical side wood to the structure to form a cave, as well as keeping whatever gets in there sort of corralled when the weight comes down... and you can continue to add more weight to the top, even using several logs instead of one...so you dont need to find a great big heavy log that you can hardly lift, just a good sturdy one and add more weight on top once you got the whole thing assembled....you can build something that through the magic of leverage can hold up well over 1000lbs and catch anything that gets in there...all held up by leverage and a tiny little stick...pretty safe to make this way too, since the main log is something you can handle, once its in place, you dont ever have to dink around with that trigger..
I came up with this in the 70's when I was just a kid, learning how to trap and intrigued with being able to catch things by just using what is on hand...got frustrated with the standard Fig.4 design, which if any of you have ever tried that stupid concoction, you know what I'm saying! ..
Mud
Study the pics a little and you will get the leverage idea behind this...the longer that lower horizontal bar is, the thinner and deeper into the trap your trigger stick can be...since its held under compression as soon as anything bumps it, the whole works comes down...My machete is 3' long for reference. I can answer questions on the build, its very fast, stable, and easy to make, of course you add vertical side wood to the structure to form a cave, as well as keeping whatever gets in there sort of corralled when the weight comes down... and you can continue to add more weight to the top, even using several logs instead of one...so you dont need to find a great big heavy log that you can hardly lift, just a good sturdy one and add more weight on top once you got the whole thing assembled....you can build something that through the magic of leverage can hold up well over 1000lbs and catch anything that gets in there...all held up by leverage and a tiny little stick...pretty safe to make this way too, since the main log is something you can handle, once its in place, you dont ever have to dink around with that trigger..
I came up with this in the 70's when I was just a kid, learning how to trap and intrigued with being able to catch things by just using what is on hand...got frustrated with the standard Fig.4 design, which if any of you have ever tried that stupid concoction, you know what I'm saying! ..
Mud