Not running anyone off. Open your mind and think.

The bottom line is that we have the best trap choices in history. Downright state of the art. All have different preference and situations. The choice in the end is yours and yours alone. In my situation trapping around subdivisions I choose MB550,450. Do I feel handycapped, Nope. I alter my sets, and trap placement were they want to step. Adapt, I'm done

x2 like to hear the answer

If like to hear where all the secret urine collection facilities are.

Asking how many coyotes one catches doesn't mean anything.

Has any one run day after day with with any trapper who posts on here? How do we know how many the so called experts catch In a season and who really cares.
It's all about what you catch not some one else.

Teaching?? I hear a lot of Ideas and opinions stated by 100s of trappers on here. It's up to you to sift through these ideas and opinions and come up with a system that works for you.

Certain traps or some system may work for Mark June but totally fail for someone else.

Gees Louise you come off as a complete phallus.

The best coyote men I've known were very set in their ways when it came to traps and many other things.Their go to traps were #3 and 3N Victors mainly and they couldn't stand the thoughts of using a coil spring.And they made those old long springs work-no mods,nothing.It's what they were used to and they were efficient with them because of that.

A person could learn a ton from those guys but there choice in traps is just that,their choice.Use what suits your way of doing things and don't try to emulate anyone.These guys didn't.

well said Taxi.

I will say this, the two top coyote guys I have talked to in Southern Indiana use/used 1 3/4 traps. Not sure how they would feel about the 550s.

One is Jerry Joe Barnett, whom last I checked used stock Sleepy Creek 1 3/4s. And an old retired coyote trapper Adrian Stafford. He used northwoods 1 3/4s. I bought about 3-4 dozen of his traps when he retired just because they had seen so many coyotes.

Don

FOXCATCHER,

What! Top Wolfers using 1.75's!! That's blasphemy to a few on this thread!!! Wolfers MUST use heavy gear and sleep under the stars to qualify as legit. Others are not worthy of the mantle. You list a man that is one of two individuals who got me to consider the newer (at the time) coil spring traps for my coyote trap line; Jerry Joe Barnett. He is a very special man with very special talent who is a treasure to trappers and trapping. The other man is Pete Askins who also is a treasure to all of us trappers. The early 1980's, when I was a FTA college had those 2 gents really putting the bug in all of our ears that smaller could get the job done if you fenced the set correctly and paid attention to detail. Those two men know their stuff, period. Based on my respect for Jerry Joe and Pete (and others) I personally went about revising my gear from double staked, shock springs, long chain traps to smaller traps with cable stakes and no shock springs. Much less equipment and very good results, just as they suggested! Go figure.

Coon Grease, I think you'd have a tough time understanding how some individuals run and gun and get the job done. Ask anyone who knows me or has been in the shop or on my line with me and they will tell you we get MANY things done where others would be wondering how to do it all. I don't do much ADC in the summertime, don't want to anymore. Been there, done that and most damage isn't done to stock in the summer sir. Not much at all. Nickle dime in the summer sir. Springtime is when most predation occurs and all heck breaks loose and I'm hand over fist busy then.

FYI, this year I'll start week after next in AL for a coyote research project (we worked it last year also) and state hop from there until the calving/exotic/meat goat/high fence predation and paying jobs settles down. Oh, and all that work will have 550's in the ground or cam locks on snares or .223 and a predator call. Pete and Jerry Joe would concur.

C'mon boys I just popped the popcorn.
Keep er goin.

Hey Boco can you Canuks even use foot holds on dry land any more?

Nothing stopping anyone if they are dumb enough to put up with that aggravation,lol.I learned they were no good here years ago,they kept getting froze down,snowed under,or when you caught something it was alive,You had to check them too often or the animal would escape,or die a slow death,and wreck itself struggling for days,and you had to waste time killing it ,then try to remake a set,in frozen ground covered in (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) and (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman),Covered in pitch,mud and blood from shooting,etc causing way more work in the fur shed,Heavy to haul around etc.
No good for nothing here.Way better to hang snares or set rotating jaw traps in this country then just go around and pick up the fur.
I realise you guys are stuck with them cause of your restrictive regs on snaring and bodygrips.
I guess they work good where there is no winter.

Here's the deal on the MB550...

Everyone can argue the catch efficiency, holding power, paw damage theories till they are blue in the face.

Here is a fact - the MB550 is extremely hard to repair for trapper working farm country where truck and machinery drive overs are common. This is coming from a guy who has repaired in the range of 200 bent up traps that have been driven over.

This is all due to the use of total cast jaw.

I often thought to myself that a trap with a standard base and standard steel jaws with bolt on cast "jaw faces" would make for a superior design. Similar to how rubber jawed traps are constructed.

So this design would have bolts running through the jaws?

Yeah...like a rubber jaw.

Who knows if it would even work, but it is something to think about.

That concept is very interesting sir.

Duke , maybe a old fashion jaw post like newhouse would be in order?
Change out and go.

Sigh....... still waiting.

You sound like the kind of person I want to meet, you keep pushing the subject when it's almost dead.