GopherHawk® Trapping Set, Includes Wedge and Probe Tool

First, let me say I am a bit like Bill Murray in Caddyshack; I'm obsessed!. I have said "I hate moles" thousands of times over the last several years as I constantly battle the litttle buggers. I live in the country on 1.5 acres with a very well kept lawn. For years my yard has suffered from moles. I’ve tried all sorts of spring loaded “jaw” traps, tunnel traps, arsenic bombs, carbon monoxide fitting on my car tailpipe, mole repellent lawn spray, moth balls (they just push them back up and out of the holes), poison pellets and electronic sonic pest deterrents. Literally hundreds of dollars in failed products. Nothing worked to get rid of moles on my property. Not once had I ever been able to catch a mole with spring loaded traps. Previous to finding this product my most effective method was digging them up with a large shovel (nick named "Whac-a-mole") when I saw the ground moving or pumping three rounds of 12 gauge shotgun shells into the ground when I saw the ground moving (I live in the country and my neighbors do the same thing). I saw this listing on Amazon and watched the “how to” video and I had an “ah-ha!” moment. No digging up my nice lawn to set a trap in the tunnel! I just had to push a pointed tool into the ground that created a small round hole to insert the spring loaded pole, set the trap and wait. Using the probing tool was really cool because when you do find the tunnel you can just feel the difference in how the probe slides into the dirt. First try, I set the trap and nothing happened for two days. This morning, the spring loaded rod showed yellow on the shaft. I have been disappointed by so many kinds of devices in the past that I was ready to think that this too was a failed product. To my amazement, when I pulled up on the rod, out came the nasty little mole! It worked like a charm!For those of you who worry about the little buggers suffering…….well, I tried setting the trap in the house and used a plastic straw to trip the trigger…..BAM! It was frightening! There is a LOT of force that slams these little guys when it goes off. I can guarantee you that they don’t even know what hit them and that they are dead instantly! I cannot comment yet on durability. Drawbacks: The punch tool for creating the hole in the ground is very sturdy PVC and I think it will hold up for most applications, I can see it breaking for users with extremely hard soil. The punch tool is very hard to push into the ground and did take all my strength to get it in past all of the lawn roots. I can say that it is nice to set this and walk away, knowing it is a bit like fishing. Just be patient. I was so impressed, I bought two more stand alone traps today (I don't need to pay extra for the set that comes with the probing and punch tools). I'm going to offer all of my old garbage mole traps on Craigslist for free now since those other products don't seem to work for me.

I wish I could rate this trap with more than just five stars. With other traps I've tried to use for years, I was not a fan of (1) having to bury the traps, (2) having to unbury them to check if they had been sprung yet, and (3) the high frequency that rodent trip the trap while they bull-doze dirt along the path as they dig out their tunnel system. I found that all three of those complaints of mine were bypassed with the Gopher Hawk trap, which I've since bought ten of after my first trap was successful in just 45 minutes after it was placed!The best feature is that its trigger sensor is located up above where the rodent will be pushing its dirt, which means it won't generally be sprung by dirt, but by the rodent itself. Sure, there are still false springs, but they account for less than 25% of the times my traps are triggered, versus more than 75% of the time with other traps. What sold me on buying this trap in the first place were the numerous YouTube videos which people have posted that clearly show how easy -- yet effective -- this trap truly is. There are even videos of kids setting the traps!One tip: The hot summer months makes my dry clay soil very difficult to access my gopher and mole tunnel systems with the "probe tool" that comes with the trap. I purchased a 1.2” x 24” auger drill bit on Amazon, which is designed to be used for planting. This bit was a game changer! I found the probe tool was only effective in digging through softer, moist dirt of early spring. As the weather heated up this summer, though, digging to plant my Gopher Hawks was simply impossible with the probe tool -- especially deeper tunnels, which required even more digging.

EDIT… the company did reach out to me and offered a refund if I send the stuff back at my expense , I don’t really know much about shipping things back like that but I imagine it costs a lot so it was good of them to offer to do that but I probably won’t send it back cause by the time I send it back and pay for that and time and effort it’s not worth it but at least they did offerI have a terrible mole problem in my yard so I bought this and an extra trap after reading the reviews here and watching YouTube , I know this gets pretty good reviews but they do not work for me. I bought these in January 25 and couldn’t use them until the last couple of weeks which is now June of 25 , I started seeing activity again so I followed the instructions and videos I’ve seen and I found the tunnel and made sure it was an active tunnel and set both of the traps out, let say this these are very hard to set , I will admit that I have small hands for a guy but I have plenty of strength but I had to rest my chest on the top of the trap and pull the black part to Set the traps with both hands , but I finally got them set and waited a couple days and nothing if anything they just laughed at these things it’s like wherever they are set they will dig up to it and go back the way they came or go around them , I pulled them back out of the ground to find one trap was bent where it catches the mole they are flimsy pieces of metal and it was all bent up , I’m not sure why but if they won’t hold up better than that I don’t need them , the other one was in good shape so I set it again where the activity was and as you can see in the pictures they are going right up to the trap but then going away from it , I wrote the company to try and see if I could get a refund or something even though it’s outside the return window , but I’ve heard nothing from them as of yet so I assume there will be no resolution and I’m out a ton of money on junk in my opinion . I know folks do have luck with them but not me , BUYER BEWARE !!!!!!