what are they

Advantage: It pretty much does away with pan creep.

advantages-less pan has to travel to fire for mink,muksrat,weasel and other small critters

Disadvantages-if a yote,bobcat or fox was to trip it it could end up with a toe catch and pull out

i caught a fox today with a #1 1/2 coil on nite latch and was a very good catch and hold...sometimes ya get lucky

o ya...another disadvantage...sometimes ull get ur finger caught

Advantages:
Can set the trap at night.
Easier control of pan travel. You have more room for error than filing the entire dog dawn.

Disadvantage:
Wears the dogs quicker.
Have to retouch the nightlatch due to wear.

Redneck...you wont have that problem if you set some pan tension.

http://www.trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/444798#Post444798
Try this link. RD

[quote=redneck_cowboy]advantages-less pan has to travel to fire for mink,muksrat,weasel and other small critters

Disadvantages-if a yote,bobcat or fox was to trip it it could end up with a toe catch and pull out

I completely disagree.. I use night latched traps for all my fox, coyote, and cat traps. They work very well and when coupled with the proper pan tension can virtually eliminate toe catches. The reason being that an animal has his weight on the pan when it goes off and you get a very sudden, short, quick release with no pan travel. This eliminates problems with animals pulling back because they felt the pan move so they no longer have there weight forward on the pan (especially soft stepping cats). I cant think of any disadvantages that would keep you from doing it unless it is time or effort.

No disadvantages...only advantages. Definately will NOT cause toe catches!! That is a pan tension issue...not a nitelatch issue.

I have had all of my traps night latched since I first started trapping. Did not know much about pan tension the first couple of seasons and I did have some to catches. Since learning about pan tension I have not had one toe catch since. I do not catch a whole lot because of time and number of traps I run.

AD: many. everytime I set I know its the same way

DIS: When you get some new traps and you for get to night latch them and forget to check them prior to season. then you set it expecting to hear a click but you hear a wack and you know the rest.

Just curious as to how much pan tension you guys prefer when you have the possibility at cats, coyote, and fox all in the same area.

Haus has named the biggest advantage I see. I did not night latch my traps because I figured just filing it short was fine. I now see the advantage of dropping the pan to the latch point. It removes the slop in the pan.

my smitty built vics are all night latched.
i likes mine nightlatched.

takes my human error out of the equation.

I dont use any tention on my traps

Barredrock, I hope you don't believe that..... Nightlatching is used to take away PAN CREEP. When the trap fires, it fires NOW.

I bought some traps that were nightlatched and I wish I wouldnt have the guy I bought them from didnt tell they were and I cant set them as they are over done and I aint catching a finger. I know the first thing somebody is gonna say is "he did it wrong" and yer right the guy did it wrong but none the less I have to buy new pans for these traps. I have never nightlatched any traps and done ok in my years, granted I dont trap to the extent some of you do but in my opinion it is not needed (and this is only my opinion so no backtalk). I file the bottom side of the trigger though so it does fire clean but thats it.

No backtalk...just advice. You shouldn't have to buy new pans if you don't like the nightlatched ones. Just get a 1/16th inch flat file and file the notch in the pan so it is a bit deeper, allowing the dog to seat further in the notch. You may have to bend the trap frame at the dog attachment to get the pan to sit level again.
I love the nightlatch idea as is allows me to bed the trap solid and pack the ouside of the jaws before the pan is lowered and set. Set around 3 pounds of pan tension and listen for that "click". Purrrfect.

#17 that were the he didnt know what he was doing came in I did try what yer saying but he did to after he filed to much off, he bent the frame in way to much and now they are almost touching the jaw so I need to put new pans on so I can use them. I dont think I need to replace the triggers but the pans definatly. I'm not saying nightlatching is a bad thing if done correctly but for the scale I'm on I dont see were it helps any, I have always had good solid catches so I just kinda stick with what works I guess.

I'm pretty sure the reason I nitelatch is because the guy that taught me how to trap was a nitelatcher. But, I do like it.