Now that sounds like a fun hobby!

Hey LT, my mole count is up to 3. I have only 4,997 or so more to go before I am as good as you! And I am not even doing it professionally, yet!

Ha!....well, add another 358 to that,(just from this year alone)... No, really.... there is a guy on here who is a biologist or some type of scientist who buys mole heads... just the heads (and another guy who buys squirrel stomachs, Worm man, I think he's called).

No one ever heard of these guys???

No one knows this guy, I guess...

LT GREY-
I haven't dealt with him, but here are a couple of links.

Flying squirrel/mole skulls

Mole skulls

I don't buy them, but every once in a while when I trap some fresh, I do skin them and use the fur to tie up some amazing dry flies and nymps!

DT!!! He's alive ...he's alive......

Yup. I am alive.

Man, I set up a mole job today in a snow squal. 36 degrees and the ground was nearly covered by the time I got done.....

Got the check though!
Gonna be in the 20's tonight!

I set up last Friday on a friends place. Will see what happens with the frozen ground...

DT, you still mole trapping? I am getting ready to start snaring and trapping coyotes out east, heavy so PM me with your phone # and if I get any mole calls I'll send them your way! With all this rain and 50 degrees temp, it's bound to happen!

I love this thread.

Mole heads for sale. Anyone else selling?

Whos using Talprid? Anyone? PM me if you don't want it public.

A lot of my customers, right up to the point they call me for an effective program.

Meaning you don't think it's effective?.... or the customer put it in the wrong place or placed it wrongly?

LT.... Probably a combination of the two: Poor customer placement (just like when they try trapping) and a somewhat less than advertised effectiveness of the product. Not saying it doesn't have ANY effect, but I know several of my customers were applying it correctly and had no measurable results after 4 to 6 months of use. One guy swears the moles were pushing the "poison worms" back out the top of the runs exactly where he placed them. I couldn't verify that, but this guy is usually not a "story teller" type. As with most chemical programs, it is often impossible to "measure" the success. Trapping, on the other hand, allows the customer to SEE dead moles and notice the damage ceases instantly following the captures. Even if the poison worked..... it is not a "cure-all" method. Neither is trapping, BUT trapping is much more environmentally friendly and no more costly than continuously re-applying chemicals. Just my humble opinion.....

Do you guys have any advice on how to properly set a Victor O.O.S. Mole Trap? I opened up the top of the tunnel, placed the set trap in with the jaws properly spanning the tunnel, then I placed the dirt back over the trap with the top sticking out of the ground.

So far the little bugger has popped up on either side of the trap but has yet to fire it.

Any suggestions?

Livetrap, we set the Out-o-sights by digging out a section of tunnel, then backfilling that section with loose rock free soil, then pressing the set trap down into the soil blockage so that the pan sits on top of the blockage. The mole will push his way through the blockage, firing the trap. Some do set them as you did into an opened up section of tunnel, and then cover with dirt after trap is placed, and that can work too.

Regardless of how you place the trap, one of the biggest factors in using the out-o-sights successfully is to make the triggers more sensitive. As they come from the factory, the trigger aren't sensitive enough, and moles will go right under the triggers without setting off the traps. When you check a setup, check and see if a mole came through your set. If so, the triggers probably aren't sensitive enough.

Before I started making my own traps from scratch, I used to take off the trigger bar and completely re-build the triggering mechanism on the out of sights out of stainless steel. I could make a much more sensitive trigger, and make one that never got out of "tune" due to rust on the contact point between the end of the trip bar and the lip on the pan, as happens constantly with the stock trigger mechanism.

I don't really use out-o-sight that much anymore, but I will still use them in really crumbly loam soil, as in those soil conditions, moles do have some tendency to dig around the inside-the-tunnel traps that I manufacture.

So you want the part of tunnel you dig out to have dirt fall back in, thus blocking the tunnel?

How do you set your tunnel traps Steve?

Yes, dig out a rectangle big enough for the set trap to fit, then filter the soil back into the dug out rectangle, being careful to remove little rocks. Re-fill back to just above the level of the tunnel, and then press the set trap down into the blockage. The pan should rest on the surface of the blockage, and the jaws of the trap should go down to just below where the mole will come through his tunnel.

On my traps, you set them just about the same way you would a gopher trap. open the tunnel, slide the set trap into the tunnel, bed the trap slightly into the soil, and then block off the end of the tunnel where you just slid the trap in.