Cage material question

[jlahoe]

Is there any use in traps for 2"×4" welded wire?  Building my dog an area to run and im gonna have some left over.  Figured if I can use it for trapping I will, if not I can use it in my garden.

[Humptulips]

IMO not much. Early on I made a few cat cages with it and I did catch a few cats but the stuff is pretty poor. An animal can easily get their mouth over a wire and broken welds result. Lot of labor to make a cage. Might as well make one that lasts a while. 

[jlahoe]

Thanks Bruce.  I didnt think much could be done with it but I figured I would ask. 

[paultanninen]

we use 2 inch by 4 inch hog fencing to make beaver and otter traps. they are easy to make. i have a design that i am interested in trying. it is a colony beaver and otter trap made out of this stuff, it is 1 foot tall by 1 foot wide by 4 feet long. Is this a good idea. The hog fencing holds the fur

[flyfishWA]

we use 2 inch by 4 inch hog fencing to make beaver and otter traps. they are easy to make. i have a design that i am interested in trying. it is a colony beaver and otter trap made out of this stuff, it is 1 foot tall by 1 foot wide by 4 feet long. Is this a good idea. The hog fencing holds the fur

the same fencing probably wouldn't work so good on an animal that wasn't under the water.

[Humptulips]

we use 2 inch by 4 inch hog fencing to make beaver and otter traps. they are easy to make. i have a design that i am interested in trying. it is a colony beaver and otter trap made out of this stuff, it is 1 foot tall by 1 foot wide by 4 feet long. Is this a good idea. The hog fencing holds the fur

So are you talking about the hog panels? Would you know what gauge it is? I've seen some posts where guys made traps like you describe. Apparently guys catch beaver in them. Not so sure about otter. If they could break the welds on the wire and open it up to 4x4 an otter would get out. Plus you'll lose every rat and mink goes in it.
I'm cheap as can be. I tried using left over junk I had with the first cages I built. I have decided my time is valuable enough to use it working on good material. Nothing wrong with experimenting but you can do a lot of work and not end up with much in the end.

[paultanninen]

never had an otter escape, we have yet to catch a bobcat in one, though. we did catch a mink in one but that one was under the door, pinched

[Jonathan_S]

I'd never go smaller than 1"x2".  First because I appreciate the structural benefit of it,  second because I don't want the traps to break down, and third because I don't want to lose rats and mink.  Had a huge colony trap that I built of 2"x2" and had a good number of rats get stuck at the hips.  Tough to extract!

Beavers have enough time to really put the hurt on a trap smaller than 18" square when underwater. 

I made a few cat traps out of 2"x4" but it was the galvanized sheep fence made of like 3/16" steel.

[paultanninen]

if you're after skrats and mink, then by all means use the 1" by 2" stuff, that is what we used until we discovered the true joys of using hog panels.

[Jonathan_S]

we use 2 inch by 4 inch hog fencing to make beaver and otter traps. they are easy to make. i have a design that i am interested in trying. it is a colony beaver and otter trap made out of this stuff, it is 1 foot tall by 1 foot wide by 4 feet long. Is this a good idea. The hog fencing holds the fur

A swimthrough?  Pretty proven design.    I personally prefer 14x14 but I think that's only because I trap with them in deeper spots.

Probably could go down to 10x10 as long as blocking and dive sticks were well done.  I've got one 18x18 that I have a hard time keeping beaver out of  but when in shallow water, a trench must be dug

[paultanninen]

well, 10" by 10" is the size of a 330 conibear, those hold beaver, so the 12" by 12" is a good idea?

[Humptulips]

10x10s seem to work fine. It just depends what the depth of your water is on average. I found it to be a lot of trouble to dig out channels to the deeper depth needed if you have a lot of shallow runs. Seems to me different areas have different average water depths in channels so I can see a lot of variation of opinion as to the proper size trap depending on where you are.
I have often set my 11x17s tall way up as swimthroughs on deep channels. I've also stacked them but I believe two side by side to be better if that is want it takes to fill a large ditch.
Another thing I noticed on the east side some places the blocking sticks are hard to come by. The odd scraps of wire left over from building traps can be pretty handy to funnel stuff into your trap, especially so used on top of your trap. Good dive sticks are very important over the top but if you don't have them a couple small sticks with a scrap of cage wire over the top will keep stuff from climbing over your traps.

[Jonathan_S]

If one was determined to use 2x4 fencing (not panels) I imagine the heavier gauge (I think it was 11 or 12) that was wrapped at the joints not welded, would serve for a longer time period.

All this has me excited for winter

[paultanninen]

i'm bored and wanna go trapping now

[Norman89]

To the hog panel colony trap idea it has been done. Works well Clint Locklear of predator control group and wolfernation has a YouTube video where he caught a beaver and otter with it. But his trap was 6 feet long super heavy and combersome to pack. He also built another one with clear doors and caught otter with it. I also remember someone on trapperman using hog panels and triggered non spring assisted doors as beaver traps and he swore by them