I have always set traps and had good success but with rare failures as well. I have never worried about it. I had assumed that the escaping gopher had just been obliviously creating more tunnel and pushing dirt out of the way into the trap.

I assume that normally a gopher runs into the trap because it is exploreing why its tunnel has been disturbed or exposed. Therefore, I usually made a slight effort not to cover my set traps completely to entice a gopher to do some exploreation.

I've been having problems caused by ground-hogs, in my old garage out back. They dug a tunnel along side the inner wall of the garage (wood frame on concrete blocks). So, i fixed that. I stuffed an eight foot 2x4 into the tunnel, and then covered the opening with a lot of dirt. Danged critter ain't dug that way any more!
I set a trap for it, but he ignores it. What to do? I sent all of my guns to my son. Except for a 12 ga. shotgun. Guess I'll have to set down by the garage and wait!

It looks like I will just have to give up on this one. Thanks

I live in a small town and groundhogs are every where. Most have their dens under out buildings and are hard to get to. Some people have had to put up electric fences low to the ground around their gardens. They can destroy a garden over night. The smart ones just dig under the fence after they have been zapped once. Last year and this year i have eliminated around 45 groundhogs and raccoons. Haven't made a dent in the population of either.