Making sure there is no wobble in the rock when the front is lifted to working height. Trim or shim if necessary.
Reposition or reshape top end of the lever for more solid meshing/ contact between it and the rock.
Use a post with a forked or broader base instead of a dowel-shaped cylindrical base.
If the cordage and trigger pin want to slide up the post:
Lightly rough up the post surface. A naturally weathered surface will grip the cord better than smooth bark or a cleanly peeled stick.
Flatten the area of post and/or trigger pin where the two contact each other.
Alter the angle that the lever and cord pull on the post by slanting the post more (moving its base slightly further from rock), or try positioning the post more vertically and lowering the cord end of the lever.
Ascertain if you possibly need a shorter or longer working length of either cordage or lever.
If the free end of the trigger pin (where it abuts the end of the bait stick) wants to swing downward toward the ground, try:
Flattening portions of the post and trigger pin to create more surface of contact between the two.
Shortening the trigger pin.
Abutting the end of the bait stick against the trigger pin closer to the post.
Note: These three most common problems are often interrelated; frequently one simple adjustment can eliminate all of them.
Don’t forget where you set your traps! With only a handful, this is little problem, but with a line of more than a dozen or so it’s easy to do. Figure out a system to mark or remember each and every set. Check traps at least once a day; twice is better, although the most appropriate times can vary according to the particular quarry’s habits.
In hot weather, especially, you’ll want to collect your catches as soon as possible before bloating occurs, yellow jackets have carved away half your meal, or you suddenly notice myriad vultures circling overhead! At the same time, you don’t want to check in the midst of the quarry’s highest activity period or so frequently that you alter their behavior patterns.
I normally make an early morning and a mid-to-late-afternoon round, and vary that if circumstances warrant. One deadfall may catch a nocturnal woodrat overnight and, when reset early in the morning, catch a diurnal squirrel later that same day. If nothing happens at some traps over two whole days and nights they’re probably not in lucrative spots and should be moved. Always take down all traps before leaving an area; it is irresponsible and unethical to leave baited deadfalls set if you’ll not be there to make use of the catch.
Knowing where to set traps and what kinds are most appropriate for any particular critter or habitat grows with experience. You have to begin somewhere. It’s advantageous to read up on the animals and their habits pertinent to any wild area you frequent. With that information as a base, your best trapping successes will come from directly observing live animals going about their repetitive daily patterns. Note their species, numbers, sizes, times of activity, routes taken, habitual runways, foods eaten, locations of burrows, nests or forms, interactions with each other, ad infinitum. When animals remain unseen, investigate likely habitats for tracks, scat, food storage spots—any signs revealing their activities. The scope of this chapter can only minimally introduce some ways and means for learning animal habits, but an old adage sums up the goal worth striving towards: “The fundamental principle of successful trapping is to determine what the animal you wish to trap is going to do, and then catch him doing it!”
While a sprung and empty deadfall does not supply you with any meat, it can potentially supply you with some extremely useful information if you can learn to read what actually happened, then make necessary adjustments to the set. (If the ground surface around or near the deadfall is accommodating, I like to deliberately smooth over a patch of dirt just so I can see what tracks may appear.)
When you approach a downed deadfall but see no obvious catch, pause a moment, study the scenario and snap a mental photo. Note the position of the rock, other visible components, and any obvious tracks or signs. Then carefully lift the rock—often you will have been successful. A pancaked deermouse or chipmunk is not much, but it’s food. Congratulations!
If nothing is there, your personal interpretive phase begins. Note the position and condition of the bait stick—does bait remain or is it gone? Any signs of hair, blood or a struggling animal? Did the rock fall in line or is it askew? The latter might indicate the quarry was bigger than the rock could handle. Any cattle tracks around? Any fencing material under the rock? Just a few “baited questions” here to get the aboriginal Sherlock Holmes in you activated!
In twenty years of teaching this trap to hundreds of people in field conditions, I’ve noted that beginner deadfalls found sprung but quarry-less the first few times have most commonly self-destructed due to inadequate strength, stability or positioning of components or they were set so tenuously the slightest breeze or raindrop could trip them. I close with a personal “what happened here?” vignette entitled:
A Packrat Tale
During the final living-with-the-land week in one of my Aboriginal Life Skills courses in Oregon’s Wallowa Mountains, I had set a Paiute deadfall one afternoon along the sheltered base of a rimrock where woodrat tracks and scat were obvious in the dry dust—a sure catch I thought. It was baited with a fresh biscuitroot (Lomatium sp.) and the cordage portion of the trigger apparatus was two-ply dogbane (Apocynum cannabium) string. Upon checking it the next morning the deadfall was found to be sprung but empty, bait and bait stick still under the rock.
Strangely, the dogbane cord had been nibbled and frayed almost through in two places. It was a good set—I didn’t understand how the critter was escaping. Not yet having really discerned the nature of the failure, I reset it with a new length of cord and same bait. The second morning the deadfall was again sprung, empty, bait stick under the rock as before, but the entire lever-cordage-trigger pin apparatus was completely gone.
After a couple of minutes of incomprehension, the cartoon light bulb (aboriginal hand drill burst into flame) brightened my mind. I had twice missed the rat because it was never under the deadfall rock when tripped, and the rat was not at all interested in the biscuitroot bait—it wanted the dogbane cordage! OK. This time I made a new lever and pin and substituted a thin buckskin thong for the cordage piece. I removed the biscuitroot from the bait stick and in its place tightly wrapped a generous length of dogbane cord.
Finally, by the third morning I had solidly caught that fat packrat! We feasted on three rats that day, as another participant’s deadfall was successful and I had caught a second rat in a pole snare actually set for a chickaree (red squirrel). End of tale.
While my information is definitely not exhaustive, for some this may be more than you ever cared to read about the Paiute deadfall! Hopefully for others it will stimulate field application or even research into the physics of weight distribution throughout the trigger components. Except where otherwise credited, this article is presented as my own opinion, assessment and experience. To each his own. Me? Really, I’m glad I know how to catch a critter when I need one!
Paiute Deadfall Troubleshooting Comparisons
Low Rock Angle + Quick falling time when tripped. Rock-to-quarry contact almost immediate, with minimal reactionary escape time. + Quarry must be mostly under rock to reach bait, especially with adequate fencing. + Potentially broad and stable contact area between lever and rock. + Shorter fencing materials adequate. - Bait stick normally must be longer, thus strong spine more critical, though I’ve not found this to be a problem. - Friction contact between bait stick and rock can be more difficult to achieve. Post positioned in front of rock + Rock cannot abort its fall by landing on top of upright post. + Rock nearly always flips lever and post beyond path of its fall. Near-horizontal lever position (Some variation up or down is OK) + Specifically shaped coupling between top of post and underside of lever can be advantageous, but not imperative. + More solid, increases surface contact between top end of lever and rock. - Cord may want to slide up post (Normally correctable by roughening post surface or slightly adjusting angles between lever, cord, and post.