Trap Making  Step by Step

A classic ‘Swing in & Lock’ door made by Holdaway

A traditional home made rabbit cage trap.

These are frequently made with a simple ‘Swing Out’ door and no locking mechanism. On this one a Larsen Spring has been added to the door using cable ties - rather basic but does improve the security of the door.

A more sophisticated commercially made rabbit cage trap. This model is a folding one which has a ‘Swing Out’ door and locking flap.

This is an early cage I made as a bit of an experiment.  The mesh wasn’t strong enough to form a cage in it’s own right so I created a frame using roof lath and steel rod.   You can clearly see the treadle in this picture and just make out where the door is held in the set position by a pin through a screw eye & cage top.

This is s good example of a ‘rod and treadle’ type trigger.  The end of the rod is clearly visible here passing through the door and trap roof to pin the door open.

Awaiting Picture

This is another commercially made trap - a double-entry Havahart trap.    It is an excellent example of a wire drop bar lock on a ‘swing in' door.

Mesh traps come in many shapes and sizes and designed to catch all sorts of quarry.   Almost any design in this book could be made completely from mesh with a little thought an the right tools.

 

This chapter of the book does not give specific plans to follow but instead concentrates on explaining how these sort of traps are made.  This includes general sizes, mesh bending techniques and the different sorts of triggers and doors which you can use.

 

Here are some example mesh traps that use the same principles as described in the book.