Okay, Try This One...

[ozarkmountainman]

Anyone wanna weigh-in on the needs/necessity/value/whattheheckisit? of this pic?



Dale

[ozarkmountainman]

[ozarkmountainman]

Anyone?

Dale

[Lucky&Bugs]

okay really can't tell from the picture Dale looks like the pan is set up perfect and the dog is set correctly what did you do different

[ozarkmountainman]

It's my night latch. I'm trying to show just how little contact the dog makes with the pan the way I do it. Just a micro/1000ths of an inch. Click- BOOM!

Dale

[Walleye Joe]

I don't really see a "night latch" as I know it. This is a cropped, rotated picture of your top photo.

Is your night latch so small we can't see it in the picture? The bottom picture here is what I know as a night latch.

Attachments:

[ozarkmountainman]

That's EXACTLY what it is, Joe. Like the trigger on a good (great) rifle. When the pan moves, it fires. You cannot feel the pan drop, not one bit. Most folks can't stand it (ask Jeff Claiborne). It's what works for me tho', and it's so easy to do once you get the hang of it.

Dale

[krank]

Big mistake I made in the past was to renotch too much. It only takes a little scratching with a little file.

[ozarkmountainman]

A really good file helps.

I have latches that I built in 2002 that, when cleaned up, still go "click". Okay, a few go "snick". It's when they just go "thump", or fall right through the latch, that you have to touch 'em up.

Dale

[trkyslyr]

I like the nail biter dalelatch

[jiml]

With that small of a night latch are you even using pan covers & doesn't it make you nervous packing dirt inside the jaws!

[ozarkmountainman]

Haven't used pan covers in years, except sometimes for fox.

You've gotta understand- I use 2-4 pounds of pan tension. I can do whatever I want when packing a trap in. It will not fire unless i get stupid.

Dale

[jiml]

Last week I had several traps dug up around the pan with the pan cover pulled off. One trap was out of the bed and flipped upside down but not set off. Had one set approached from the back and dug out the bait. Working on lessening the pan travel on all my traps now. I've already got good pan tension but with my pan covers sometimes the trap goes off while trying to pack dirt in the jaws. I tried using a trappers cap but too much dirt still got under the pan. Waxed dirt is tough to impossible to pack.

[krank]

You got the curse......Theres a lot of theories about how they know.
Trap rocking in the bed is one theory. Scent is another theory.
Think if you mess with a set too much then you are messing up.
I keep my lures completely away from everything (traps,anchors, tools) I will make a few sets and then go back and add lure and bait. Too easy to get gusto on you and then have to handle the next set.

[jiml]

Thanks Krank now I'm freaking out. I gotta reboil all my traps and everything. I try and keep everything separated, I even carry my bait and lure in a separate bag. Always carry traps to the set from the truck by the anchor end so my hands aren't on the trap the whole time. My traps were all bedded solid with no wobble, I wasn't packing the dirt inside the jaws though, because every time I'd try and push down the trap was snapping because of the pan cover I guess. It was almost frustrating and then when you find a trap out of the bed you ask yourself, Well how many days has that been laying like that? Don't get me wrong, I check my traps everyday, but I do it from a distance that sometimes you can't see the trap but you can see there's nothing in it, I'm trying to keep that extra scent away from the set once it's made.

[krank]

Welcome to the club......two years ago, I had to reboil everything just to get my sanity back. That was the first week of the season after 3 dig ups.
No rocking on the trap bedding either. I just sift dirt over the set. The pan only moves a hair to trip.
I am waiting for the peat moss crew to jump in (greek to me)

[trapperw3]

I had 3 traps dug up I was not sure what happen but it happen after I added calcium chloride i'm going to try something i'm going to bed one with the CC and one with wax paper and see what happen

[jiml]

I tried calcium chloride a few years back and had trouble with deer.

[bverboy]

Cc hasnt gave me trouble. Salt and barn dirt was a nightmare for me. Pete at the the bottom of trap bed. Then layered dirt and cc for rainy freezing weather and im fighting it now..

[tjm]

When I first learned of Night Latching it was an article in a magazine, probably FFG; concept was promoted by the author as a means of knowing when the pan was set level, iirc, when setting traps at night. Have the pan pointing up in the air and gently move it down til it clicks, audible confirmation that your trap is set.
Great for kids that can still hear such things and especially for trappers that have no lantern or cap light. Not at all necessary or in my case even desirable. Gimmickry. It works but it can not get the critter to step on the pan and if the critter steps on the pan it won't make a great deal of difference.

I believe that it is time spent fooling with the pan position at the set that might be better spent blowing my nose or spitting. Not to mention that I have always had light when setting traps or that having the pan level when pushed up hard against the dog is so much easier, especially in the dark with no light.
If I want to piddle with my traps I can Miles trigger them, but short notches work mighty fine for me.

Dale that's a neat little demo, nice workmanship, but I got to ask; how do you keep your traps looking so sparkly clean?