I purchased four of these so I would have an quicker/easier time blocking off wide runs and there's a lot good to be said about them. Sturdy construction, thick bars, good lockup with no gaps, and good safeties. More importantly to my specific purposes, due to how wide they stand when set, they stay solidly upright with no supports needed in still water and are very easy to support in moving water. All I need to do is set them to the outer notch on the dog, and drop them in which has been very helpful under the ice when I did not want to find, cut, and place support sticks to blind set runs.

I did have a few issues though. I had read about them being slow to fire, and out of the box, mine definitely were. One of them I could set off, stand back and wait 30 seconds before it eventually closed. The issue lies in the tightness of the bolts on the joints, which are very solidly constructed, but were too tight on 2/4 of the traps I ordered. I ended up loosening all of them, melting a little clean paraffin into the joint, then tightening them partway back up and now they fire at the speed I expected. As a side note, the springs are strong, but not nearly as strong as those on my Belisles. Several of them had pretty significant gaps in the eyes of the spring, which allows the trigger to slide into the eye, and potentially off of the trap and also makes setting them with a thinner rope more difficult. Secondly, due to the width of the kill bars, you cannot remove the safeties while the trigger is set in the outer notch of the dog. Instead, you have to remove the safeties, then set the trap, which is obviously a safety issue. I would redesign these with a longer safety or narrower kill bar and I may end up adding some longer safeties myself. Lastly, the two-part triggers are finicky and i found them to be either too tight, or liable to fall off the trap. I lost one trigger through the ice after the first catch and ended up replacing them all with Belisle 4-way triggers with the notch filed down a little to fit the deeper notches on the dog. I also would have preferred slightly longer trigger wires, but that's a matter of preference in how you set them up.



Pictured is the setup after I got done fiddling.

After using some of the RBG traps I'm regretting not going with the RBG 1022 as I prefer their springs and triggers.

Insightful review. I've heard similar things about these. If I ever decide to buy more big body-gripping traps, I'll certainly keep this in mind. I appreciate you putting it together.

Good review. Thanks.

I have just purchased one and feel the trigger is a little soft, very flexible. Did you see where that might be a problem?

I can’t speak for the MB1216, but Belisle trigger wires are light in my opinion and maybe it’d be similar to what you’re experiencing. Belisle wires bend easily. I twist them together then make a T. The T wires break one at a time after enough use. I use their factory triggers until they break. Once they’ve broken, I replace the trigger wires with 11 gauge tension wire. I’ve been doing this for 4 or 5 years, and I still haven’t had a tension wire trigger break, and these traps see constant use. I might as well swap the wires on new traps and be done with it.

I keep a dozen or so extra triggers in my truck and shop. Drill out the rivets or take the bolts out and replace on the spot.

@Backroadsarcher I replaced the stock trigger wire with the "bullseye" circle trigger wire that's much stiffer. Mostly for the extra length but also for the increased stiffness. In still water I like to run a light trigger with a big opening and a piece of stiff fluorocarbon line across the middle that's invisible underwater.

I would agree that the stock trigger wire is soft. Here's my best guesses on trigger wires used on my traps

Minnesota Brand: hot-rolled low carbon 0.105" wire, probably a 300 series steel but hard to tell

Belisle: cold-rolled .0.0915" 302 stainless spring steel

Bullseye: cold-rolled 0.105" steel wire with a coating of some sort. Can't tell the composition due to coating

Duke: cold-rolled .100" low carbon steel wire. This is a weird diameter. I'm assuming due to production in Korea.

RBG 440: cold-rolled 0.0980" (2.5mm) 304 stainless spring steel
RBG 280: cold-rolled 0.0915 302 or 304 stainless spring steel

All educated guesses besides the measured diameters mind you but so far, the Belisle/RBG triggers are stiffest, followed by the Duke/Bullseyes and finally the MB triggers.