Pertinent considerations in selecting and setting any particular trap include:

What animals are available and, of these, which seem most lucrative to try for?

Does some sort of trap seem the best means for success, say in contrast to direct hunting?

What tools and/or raw materials are necessary and available?

What projected energy and time are required to construct and set any trap?

What seems to be the most efficient investment for the best return?

The more elaborate or complicated—the more parts and materials requiring collecting and modifying—the more time you’ll spend on any one set for one animal. If you’re seeking larger game, especially with a group of people working collectively while “living out” for an extended period, this might be time well spent. But for smaller critters—some birds, occasional lagomorphs and especially rodents such as mice, chipmunks, woodrats, marmots and multifarious squirrels—I’ve concluded the simpler a proven-effective trap is, the better.

While I’ve experimented with dozens of primitive-style traps over the past twenty-five years, the two I emphasize most in teaching, and actually use most frequently to regularly put animal protein into my stomach, are (1) the simple snare (many variations and sets) and (2) the Paiute deadfall. This chapter will be limited to the construction and use of the latter.

The Paiute Deadfall

Several older archaeological and ethnographic reports concerning Great Basin cultures briefly mention, describe and/or illustrate (often incompletely and inaccurately) a variety of deadfalls involving a main rock and one or more sticks, pebbles, lengths of cordage, etc., that could be inclusively labeled “Paiute deadfalls.” For contemporary descriptions and illustrations of some of these variations, see writings by Olsen. While I believe these to be viable and advantageous to learn and practice as part of one’s “deadfall repertory,” I personally have found them less effective.

For simplicity’s sake, I choose to label the specific trigger components described and illustrated in this article as The Paiute deadfall, state of the aboriginal art, if you will! Although a bit more complex than the simpler “two-stick” deadfalls and occasionally trickier to set, the bottom line is—it works.

Although it was born in the Great Basin, the Paiute deadfall has successfully served me in a wide variety of habitats in the American West. I’d consider it viable in any region that harbors small-to-medium sized, mostly ground-dwelling rodents or other creatures susceptible to a baited trap.

I don’t pretend to wholly understand the physics involved, but I believe the deadfall’s effectiveness is attributable to two main factors:

Primarily, the weight of the rock is efficiently and successively diffused and/or distributed via eight or more contact points amongst the stick and cord components. In setting, when the bait stick is lastly positioned, baited end in friction contact with the underside of the rock and butt end against the trigger pin, only minimal pressure from the initial weight of the rock remains to hold it in place. This in effect creates a hair trigger (with luck, a hare trigger!) in that the tip of the bait stick contacting the rock surface which is the most easily dislodgeable (weakest) part of the whole apparatus.

Secondarily, when the bait stick is tripped, the falling rock neatly flips the lever assembly and post out of its path, leaving only the thinner, unobstructive bait stick under the rock with the quarry.

The subtleties of the perfect Paiute deadfall are many, but only a few basics are truly critical to a potentially successful set. Once you’ve practiced enough to understand how the components must work together, you’ll be surprised how quickly and sloppily (visually, at least) you can make and set a line of deadfalls—they don’t have to look pretty, they just have to work! Many times I’ve set lucrative deadfalls employing no tools (steel or stone) and no pre-made or specifically modified parts other than simply breaking dry sticks to appropriate lengths, quickly twisting an adequate length of cordage from even marginally strong or long plant fibers (sagebrush bark, moistened dry grass, etc.) and baiting with a fortuitously found rose hip, wild onion or grasshopper. In some situations or environments I suppose unavailable natural fibers for cordage could seem a problem; remember, you are almost always wearing something that already is, or could be twisted into, an 8- to 10-inch length of string.

Anatomy of the Paiute Deadfall.

I suggest studying the accompanying illustrations to familiarize yourself with the anatomy, relative proportions, positionings, and possible variations of the deadfall components. The configuration and angles of lever and post to each other and to the rock that I have come to prefer are closest to those illustrated in Wheat (1967), and differ considerably from Olsen. Among the criteria for my preferences here are overall deadfall stability and ease of setting, lower angle of rock to the ground, and increased likelihood the rock will flip lever and post out of the way when it falls. The terminology I use here for deadfall components has been adapted from a handout from the School of Urban and Wilderness Survival (SUWS), Hagerman, Idaho. The following descriptions of deadfall components should become increasingly meaningful as you gain some hands-on experience with the deadfall and subsequently discover and incorporate whatever best suits your needs and options in any specific situation.

Deadfall Components

The Rock—Fortuitously, many of the best places to set deadfalls—rimrock outcroppings, bouldered hillsides, bases of talus slides, along streams—also harbor adequate deadfall rocks. I suggest gearing the size of the rock you select to the size of the largest potentially catchable quarry you believe to live in that habitat. If mice or chipmunks are the only critters you assess to be in your trapping area, smaller, flat rocks will suffice, but ideally a rock size large enough to kill a cottontail or marmot, set with a trigger mechanism delicate enough to be tripped by a mouse, will provide you with the most meat. Wily woodrats, for example, seem to delight in gleefully running through lightweight deadfalls!

The configuration of my ideal, generic, deadfall rock for up to cottontail size would be rectangular in shape, roughly 15 inches long, 3 to 5 inches thick with a flat bottom, gritty surface texture and weigh 30-plus pounds. The back end should be squarish so that when the front is lifted there is no wobble, rocking, or sliding, as if it were hinged to the ground. Any side-to side instability can make setting trigger components extremely frustrating.

Often you can square-up irregular spots by percussing them off with another rock used as a hammerstone. If reshaping isn’t feasible, you can sometimes shim the back to stability with smaller rocks. If the deadfall rock wants to slide backwards, slightly gouge the back end into the ground or butt it against another rock. I cannot emphasize enough taking a few minutes to carefully select or modify the most appropriate rock available.

The underside of the deadfall rock should be as regularly flat as possible to mesh closely with the ground surface to insure a quick, clean kill. This is most important toward the back where the bait is and the animal’s head should be. An extremely irregular or deeply concave rock surface may only maim the quarry or temporarily confine it until it digs its way out, unscathed. Toward the rear area of the underside of the rock, where the tip of the bait stick must hold itself in place by friction contact, a grittiness or some other flaw or irregularity of rock surface is necessary. If that surface is too smooth to grip the bait stick, peck it with a hammerstone to roughen it or even create a small concavity.