That is one of the reasons I dislike the MB750. You can't reach under the jaws to set making it a trap I don't like to set because of that. I spend a lot of time checking and setting traps in the dark, and I do not like not being able to reach under the jaws to set the MB's

You can go under the jaw of an MB750 to pull the pan down into position. I do it all the time. Just hold it by the center link and put your finger up under the jaw. You can put your finger up under the jaw to push the pan up as well. I know I set the things several hundred times a season. I know you have to push the dog lever down with your thumb kinda inside the jaws but if you push the pan up theres no way it can go off. Several hundred times a season for quit a few years and Ive never had one go off.

I almost had one get me this weekend, i was resetting at a lynx cubby and it wouldn't bed firm, so I pushed down on it rather hard, and wham.... I pushed down on the levers to hard and the pan fell down. I kind of had to take a moment there.

Let me finish this...."I kind of had to take a moment there and clean my shorts out"

I know it's not the same, but I had a 120 go off while I was setting it.....thank God the safeties where still on!

I know. I had a CDR go off in my hands a while back. I just about left a yellow slick in the water,LOL

I just have a [I'madork] of a time with the clean gloves on, etc. setting the MB's as safely as other traps. They are my last wolf trap I set. I set all my #9's, 114's, 4 1/2's, 14's, 48's before the MB's. I am going to bring some out with me this weekend and set. I don't think I have given them enough of a try to see how they work. I never liked how much tension the pan has on them either. JMO. I guess when something doesn't work as well for me as other things, I tend to push it to the side.

Northway, are you saying that the MB750 has too much pan tension for your liking? Do you use pan tension on 9's or leave them free? I agree on the difficulty in setting the MS750's with gloves on. I own 1 MB750, which I got just to see what it was like, and haven't bought any more. Maybe I didn't give it enough practice, but they just scare me.

I can see how getting your finger under the pan could be an aggrevation with the gloves you guys up there have to wear. The one trap that bothers me setting with my hands is the #14 jump. Its kinda hard to hold on to and the teeth can hurt, bad. I love to use them though. Heck of a beaver trap. I wish I had enough #14 and #48 DLS's to use(You cant afford to buy the dang things anymore). I wouldent even bother with the MB750's and CDR's then.

bearbait,

Yeah, I don't like how much tension it has on the pan. I don't set my tension to "fine" on my wolf traps, but I do want them fairly light. I guess I just don't like messing with those MB's because of the difficulty to set, etc.

KYBOY,

I have a few of those 14 jumps and a few 48's. Good traps. I use the jumps for wolverine, but the 48's for wolves and wolverines.

Mike

I traded all my MBs to white17 same reasons as you guys. My hands are small and no matter what the wolf trap I almost always have to put my digets at risk just getting the jaws open and then setting the pan in place the MBs where worse then anything I have ever worked with I have gone to the CDR unless I am setting a place I know drifts in bad then the few #9s I own come out. All in all with my wide open tundra and wolves that walk where wever they want most the time my best bet is finding a kill and using snares or setting up a big bait pile with them

Well guys, I might be committing heresey here, but I leave the "loose" jaw up on the 750's when I set them so only one jaw is pinned down by the levers. Makes it so it doesn't set quite as flat as it would with both jaws retained, but my fingers are a heck of a lot safer. I don't use the wolf model, just the beaver ones; but they are plenty big enough to make me think twice about me lovely phalanges. As KYBOY says, you can reach up through the bottom to twiddle the pan, but it's tough to do with gloves on.

My 2 cents if it's worth that. I've retired all my 114's and 4 1/2, 48 newhouses for collecting. Man, those 114's are deadly. These traps were given to me by some old timers years ago and they were old then. I couldn't even guess to how many toes those traps squeezed. Since then I've gone to #6 and #7 Livestock Protection traps (they've since come out with an 8 that looks pretty impressive.) Alaska #9s, Bridger #5's, Sleepy Creek 4 1/2 and 5. Trapping around salt water we like to favor the long springs. The coils seem to take a pretty good beating. But for dry sets they are hard to beat for ease of concealment. I know a lot of guys frown on this, but I've seen probably 25 wolves caught in the #5 Bridger. For some reason I couldn't remember this at the beginning of the season.In fact I posted a question on the other forum. My old trapping partner had to set me straight at the cost of a good ribbing. Anyway, holding strength is more than adequate, downside is they probably won't hold up to some serious chewing and I lose dogs and pans sometimes on a catch. I also anchor the chain to the trap frame and get rid of the stock long spring connection. I've had good luck with these traps in my particular application. 5 in Bridgers so far this year. Under different conditions I understand why guys don't like them. Compared to a Sleepy Creek,Livestock,Alaska, or Newhouse they are the lowest quality.
This is my first year with the Sleepy Creeks and have only caught one in a 4 1/2. Nice high catch. These look like a very well built trap. Others have had reservations about their jaw rivet durability so they have drilled these out and installed bolts. They look fine to me but only time will tell. I also wish they had teeth. The 5 came with teeth and is one bad looking hombre. It is a big trap. Downside is it is farely expensive compared to a 4 1/2 and I have reservations about the inline spring. I like the SC pan/dog set up. I love it for setting. I'm setting the traps under six inches of murky water alot and with the Sleepy Creeks I can just push the pan up as far as it will go (they will not go off) and then I lift the trap out of the water and adjust the pan to where I want. They are fast and there is alot less danger to the old fingys. They are also very stout. I haven't spent a lot of time playing around with tension adjustment on the SC though.
Livestock Protection Company are a nice trap. Besides some other local trappers I haven't heard many people talk about them. They have a web page and they are expensive. They also come out of Texas so shipping is a killer. I don't really care for the stock pan/dog set up. These are a snap happy trap if you don't make some modifications. Years ago I had just finished meticulously making a dry set and I was standing there admiring my handiwork when I noticed one blade of grass on my covering I didn't like(yeah I'm a stickler). Instead of doing the smart thing and getting a small stick to flick this grass off with being the genius I am I went in with a gloved hand. Next thing I knew I had this sucker hanging off my middle finger on my middle knuckle. Cracked my finger and swelled up to the size of a german sausage. New shorts please. And I DEFINITELY remember what make of trap that was.
For the money I would go with the SC 4 1/2. If you want the best and got the bucks-Alaska #9,SC 5,Livestock 8s. Just my observations. Always like hearing others opinions and observations.

Here is my opinion...... I bet that hurt!

Pete

just in case anyone is interested here is th LPC website.
http://livestockprotection.net/
Im going to buy a couple for my collection soon. I would love to have a load of #8's for my beaver line..

Pete-Yes it hurt. Not as bad as you would think. It didn't really kick in until I got home. It must have been the 2 gallons of adrenaline squirted directly into my heart the second I heard the snap. Believe it or not my very first thought was "oh @#% this thing is wired to a HEAVY drag". I guess I didn't think it was coming off. Then I was just thankful it didn't grab my whole hand. Cabelas Glove ad SHOULD read-"water-proof, warm, and for those of you that are going to stick your hand in a wolf trap, they will greatly increase your chance of keeping all your fingers" To this day my heartrate goes up everytime I set a trap no matter what the size. I guess you could say that was one of my life altering experiences. LOL

Glad it wasn't worse, waterboy. Did that trap have teeth? The #7's we used in Wyoming did, but we rounded them off so they were more like studs.

Getting nailed that way can make you have some serious thoughts, all right. I got my hand caught in a piece of farm machinery many years ago. I was on the back side of a hill in a field over a mile from the house and nobody was going to come looking for me for at least another 12 hours. I was lucky in that I had a crescent wrench within reach and was able to dismantle things and get myself out in about 20 minutes or so. Smashed three of my fingers totally flat. Dang! but that did smart! Almost gave up trapping right there.....but not quite.

Rick- You got me going now. Yeah, the 7s have teeth and they are sharp! The sleepy creek #5 has teeth that you can practical sew with. I haven't ground them down yet. Here's another new edition from my personal archives of DS attacks. Earlier this year I was swapping out some #9s I had in some tide pool sets so I could re-dip them. Well I walked up to the set and stepped on the #9 and was going to gently back my foot off until the trap gently closed. Done it a thousand times as I'm sure all of you have. Things were going just fine but I had these stupid hip boots on with a big rubber ridge. The trap slowly closed all right. Right onto this ridge and my little toe! I was able to squeeze my toe out but I was STUCK. I tried getting my hand on one side and my free boot on the other but I was bound in there at a weird angle. Lucky my wifes little brother was with me or I would have had to pop the boot and free it in socks. This was in about a foot of water. I was supposed to be showing my brother in law the tricks of the trade. I'm sure I impressed him with my trapline prowess.

Yeah, I'll bet he was impressed :). Isn't it funny how every time you do something really smart nobody is looking, but whenever you try to puff your chest a little things go to crap?

I knew an old-time government trapper who was setting a 4 1/2 Newhouse for a lion and somehow got both hands in it. He was a small man and said he wasn't heavy enough to depress the springs to release himself. Luckily he could move the drag. He made it to a clump of aspen and got between two trees. He put the trap against one tree and braced his back against another one while pushing the springs down with his feet. The extra leverage enabled him to get out of the trap. Makes me sore just thinking about it!

Since you are talking about wolves, here is one that was robbing our marten line. We set out several #4's and picked up 2 wolves and 5 wolverine in them. They were short chained to trees and held by two staples. I think they are a little small, but hey, if they work, dont knock it.

The other two wolves we caught were in snares.

Nice pics. That second wolf is gorgeous. Where bouts you at? I'm going to guess at the north end of the "handle".
When I started out I set some #4 longsprings and #4 jumps with double twist link chain despite warnings. I caught two wolves. Then I had three traps in a set literally crushed to bits (no wolf) and I had another wolf break that twist link chain like it was nothing. Caught him fifty yards away in a snare though, trap and all.And these were on drags. You may want to consider up grading a bit. I definitely don't want to sound like some know-it-all (I'm far from it), but since you seem to have a pretty good knack for getting those things to step in a trap I thought I would mention what happened to me.
Congratulations on the nice animals and keep up the good work.