pan tension for red fox

what do most people set their pan tension for red fox and also coyotes ??

Here we go can't wait to follow this one. I'm pretty new but I set pan tension pretty light on dedicated fox sets. I set tension about 4 pounds on dedicated coyote sets. Don't know if it really matters that much or either we have heavy possums.

Pan tension helps. You want an animal to be putting its weight on the foot when the trap pops. Takes the animal a split second to shift its weight to pull that foot back. That split second means a higher catch on the foot. I just use my thumb. Most of mine are about a pound or two. I believe its much more important to have a trap with good fast springs. That pan tension wont stay set. After a catch or three it loosens back up and instead of fooling with it I keep trapping. I make sure all my traps are popping good before season opener. Set and fire all of them Do a little tweaking, adjusting, replace tags or swivels or springs or chains or delegate one to the parts pile. When I'm trapping I don't want to mess with that stuff. Pan tension is a good thing but fast springs are a necessity.

2 lbs.

No idea, whatever the stock pan tension is on my 2 coiled mb 550s is after I wax them seems to work well for both coyotes and red fox.

As Bob said. Pit pans don't lose pan tension.
I like 4 pounds on fox and yote traps.

Fox...2#

Fox and Coyote...2 to 3#.

Its not critical at all. So long as you don't have so much the trap wont pop or so little you cant put dirt on it. If your in between those two things your golden. Assuming you have good fast springs. If you don't pan tension wont help much anyway. Remember we are talking about a split second to shift weight with 4 legged animals that have reflexes faster than ours.

FAST SPRINGS are what you want

Thousands of fox were caught in the last century with floppy pan traps , by trappers who never heard of pan tension. That being said anything around 2 lbs +/- will work fine on a multispecies line.

Before coyotes 1# now with both 2.5#. X2 on the strong fast springs. Weigh your fox for 1 year and average it out, divide by 4 to get your true average weight per paw. Also greys are notoriously light steppers. Reds can be too. My 450s are set at 1.5. 550s at 2.5. I still get good solid pad catches with the 450s on yotes.

Just set them by feel. A little drag in the pan and good to go. Get rid of side by side slop if it's bad. It ain't rocket science. I can't imagine having four pounds for fox, some only weigh about 7 lbs, how they gonna set off the trap?

Agreed.

I have never measured pan tension on a trap. For land trapping canines and coon I typically set the pan where it no longer free-falls and needs a bit of pressure to press it down. I can tell by feel where I want it. Nothing scientific and I don't spend a great deal of time worrying about it.

One of the big issues I have with MB550s and the Duke 550s is the pan tension. I personally wish you could adjust the pan tension with a bolt. I am not a fan of bending dogs to try and tweak the tension. Stock they seem fine for coyotes and cats, but IMO have too much tension for fox.

I run mine 3.5 to 4 lbs I do miss some fox,with the prices now i'm fine with that.Running that much pan tension I catch very few skunks 2 to 4 most years.Mainly running #3 Bridger dogless,MJ 600's with underalls to get more pan tension and some MB 550's 2 coil and some 4 coils.I think for 80% red fox trapping 2.5 lbs would be good for greys,coyotes but you will catch more skunks and possum if you have them,were lucky here no possum this far north YET....We are 65 to 70% coyote.

I think 4 pounds is alittle much. I just set mine by feel in the start of the season than by december there is hardly pan tention i dont really fool with em. Heck some would prob fire off in a sparrow would step on em but never notced much difference in catch/miss ratio.

I like them floppy with no side to side slop.

I think there are other way more important issues than pan tension.

No side to side play as mentioned. As for the pan ,just enough Tension that the pan doesn’t fall of its own weight.

yote,fox #2

Same here