I never thought about transfers until you brought it up Bob, thanks. I transfer nearly every raccoon that I catch into a 9x9x26 inch Tomahawk. They fit perfectly in every standard size raccoon cage. We have no rear release cages. I haven't lost a raccoon ( or any other animal ) in over a decade. The only exception to the transfer rule is the crazy lactating female. When I have one of those I just switch out the cages.

P.S. If the raccoon is constantly charging the front of the cage, blow in their face. This works really good if you've just eaten something with raw onions.

Paul great minds think alike, that's exactly what I do with my single door Toms. It's a lot easier to carry a tightly packed coon in a 9x9 than have one doing gymnastics in a 3 foot long cage. And despite my low opinion of Toms I probably have a good two dozen in stock, I just use mine for mellow critters.

Coon are absolutely the worst to deal with. Without first suggesting what cages work best, though I do have my own opinion, attacking it from the other end, the pictures above show what can happen with traps that perhaps should be avoided. The "half way out" coon in the top photo was not there in the morning as you might expect. Once the coon ripped the door off the bottom trap, he also was MIA.

Tomahawk Pro model. Tough door as well as new stronger door springs and brass roller. Great pan retention system and strong/well supported trigger rod.






These photos are of a Tomahawk "second" it shows the old pan retention system that I do not like, but that is what made it a second and for a discounted price I still received a rear door powder coated "pro" model so I added it to my order. I am not a fan of rear doors but with Tomahawk they are stout.

"coonwacka, just for you I'm going to give my impressions of the Havahart. We have about 15 of the old style coon-sized Havaharts. Those are the ones that have a mesh door, not a solid one. They still work well after 20 years.

Then they came out with the solid door which the raccoons would grab a hold of and twist and let themselves out. Then they came out with the two door cage that was long enough to catch alligators but didn't spring very well. Then they came out with the "one hand set" cage which was so named because the raccoons could let themselves out with one hand.

We own lots of Havaharts because customers are constantly giving them to us. If I every figure out how to make them work well, we will have a lot more cages for the guys to use, but don't hold your breath."


Thank's Paul!
Why was the solid door put in production then? I'm assuming cost but was it just a marketing ploy, people thinking they must be stronger?
LOL I was wondering why mine are getting harder to set the trigger. Door twisted!!!

Holt that's not the "pro" model I received, I think I was a victim of bait and switch or a warehouse worker with his mind elsewhere. if Tomahawk wants to send me a ''real" PRO model I'll retract all my statements and eat crow.

That certainly explains a lot Salys. While I have never had a raccoon escape from any Tomahawk that wasn't my fault ( If you're not smart enough to watch for overhanging branches, your name must be Paul ) The pro series has worked out really well for us. And Dave, the 9x9x26 pro series is so strong, our southern branch uses them on Tasmanian Devils!

(1) crow, dressed
(1) onion, sliced
(20) gloves of garlic
(20) hot peppers
COOK-COOK-COOK
wash down with multiple JIM BEAMS

I got a solid door Tom, bought it from previous employer (who got out of wildlife control) and have used it lots with good success. (That having been said, since then I've paid better attention to Wink's advice.) I think the coon grabs the sides of the door - cuz that's the only place he can grab it - and finds that it gives a little. He doesn't know that the torque he can exert is highest at opposite ends of an object (but he learns that pretty soon), and ...well, you know the rest!..

I like solid doors for skunk work, gives me more blind sides to work. HINT-HINT-HINT- SLAP UPSIDE THE FACE TO TRAP mfgs.

I like my Comstocks.

Pound for pound armadillos are stronger and harder on cages. Where coons have the dexterity to grab and bend things or unlock locks dillers brute force there way out. Slanting lock bar doors are especially vunerable if the top of the cage can bow. They get down low on the door and push until the top flex enough to allow the lock bar catch to rise enough to let the lock bar fall forward. The other vulnerabilities are cages without internal frames. I once had a safeguard with a bottom rear corner pulled into the cage about three inches almost as if the diller was turning it inside out like a sock.

Now that said coons are worse on wire triggered traps as the trigger wire almost becomes a sacrificial part for catching coons. Dillers pay the trigger no mind.

I have used Williams traps for about 20 years and am very happy with them.

About 15 years ago I had an AR vandal go through a job site and literally smash nine of them, which is very difficult as I can use them for a short step ladder. They looked like a "V". I was able to pry them apart a bit with a 2x4, put a floor jack inside, and pry them back into some semblance of shape. All but two were returned to a functional state. The "fixed" traps went out on high risk sites and I only have two left, the rest have been pilfered.

We really put these traps through the mill and had to replace the wire on some of them. In fact, I was so pleased with the traps we redid I had my guys do almost every trap we had, adding 1/2 X 1 on the lower 6 inches (we were really slow this winter). This should reduce the amount of debris in the traps speeding up resets and cleaning traps, thus reducing labor costs over the life of the trap.

Yeh, them Williams' are tough - and sublimely simple, too. Sorry you had to have that happen, Dirk; what's the rest of the vandalism story?

Fully satisfied with the Pro Series by Tomahawk. I'm 240 and accidentally stepped on one the other day and no damage.

In comparing traps, ring door traps to a solid lock up angled door traps, the consideration primarily resides in roll overs. If a ring door trap can be staked, wired or pined between structure it is a fine trap, but it does take a bit more time and consideration in setting with worry if the trap does not remain upright. The door on the ring door locks up well, but if it rolls over, the animal is gone, while the solid lock up on the angled door traps with lock bars is all but escape proof, no extra work or worries in setting either. A story was told of a sow that rolled a piglet down the road in a solid locking trap, 50 yards, without damage to trap or piglet.

For those who like the versatility of a double door trap to work in any position or in positive sets, double door traps are not readily available and have not been promoted in ring door traps.

Agreed, armadillos and coon are without a doubt the worst on a trap, one pushing the other grabbing, in the "heavy duty class" of animals. Though rabbits, skunks, opossums and others fall into "light duty" animals, coon, armadillos and woodchucks can be really rough on the equipment. When we first set heavy framed traps for armadillos we crossed our fingers, but 17 armadillos later without issue or trap damage, we were confident we were on the right track. Coon reached through 1x1 on doors at times and pulled lock bars back until a trapper said he used 1/2 x 1 wire, which was a simple quick fix making this configuration essentially escape proof for light and heavy duty animals.

The mark of a good trap is not only trap that catches, but holds and also holds up to whatever the animal dishes out without suffering damage.

I tried selling ring locking doored traps with a wire trigger several years ago. Only made and sold about 60. They were cheap to make and sold them that way. Made a double door and a single door. The final proto types were very good ,but there were so many folks that had no idea how the wire trigger worked, they were not profitable to carry at the time. Just didn,t sell well. Mine were 18" tall and 12" wide. Part of the problem with a tall unpowered door was the door itself. Just too slow especially for a double door. I could have put springs on the doors but other designs have worked much better, when it comes to speed of the door closing.

Even made a double catch with ring locking doors. The prototype is at my house. Even made a proto type that had springs that slid down the rail instead of rings. Just wasn,t as practical as what is available now.

The reason they are liked so well has been price. Williams has had the price low and made a very good trap of that design. The difference as Jim alluded to is the versatility of other designs.

Okay, stop me if I'm wrong, but did I just read that Kirk and Jim just agreed on one small thing?

Okay Jim, your turn, say something that Kirk said that you can agree with. ( Small steps )

I noticed that right off Paul but didn't want to jinx the outcome. What's next WCT and NWCOA talking? Wait that already happened. Oh the possibilities!

No stirring the pot Paul.:)