Lately I have seen a couple Newhouse bear traps with variations in the chain-- such as the swivel located at varying lengths away from the base. All of mine have the swivel next to the link that is attached to the base. Are the chains with the swivel further down the chain original from the factory? I didn't see any obvious welds.

On your earlier Slickpans the chain set ups had the swivel in the middle of the chain, three links down, the swivel, then three links to the ring. As time progressed from one model to the next, especially on the slick pan #5s going from the riveted tooth jaws to the cast tooth jaws, you may see the earlier chain set up on the early Cast tooth jawed slick pans, where as the later models #5 cast tooth slickpans will have the swivel coming off the base link. The old timers were very frugile and used everything. When they went to a different model, they used up what was left of the old first. This is very prevalent in your #4 & 1/2 OC Wolf trap when they went from the Kenwood model to the OC model as there were many chain set ups using up the earlier parts first. Now Newhouse was recognized also for adhering to requests from customers, so in the later years on special orders, Especially on Govt. Trap, you may find extended chains with varies swivel positions.

Good info as always,,,thanks Bruce,,,

wish I had the time. I could sit and talk to Bruce for hours and hours. thanks for all the help you give everyone Bruce.

Thanks Bruce! Awesome answer.

RIGHT ON! Especially about the 4 1/2 chains. My wife picked this drag up at the local flea market. Must have been after the OC 4 1/2s with the Kenwood drag but before the S link connector. I always figured collecting the complete variations of the 4 1/2 would be doable with only 4 pan styles. Now I'm considering going for the different chain & drag set-ups too. Gonna need way more wall space and a fatter wallet.