Well, I have read and given a lot of thought about this issue. I have personal experience on this, plenty.lol. I've heard about opposition to off set traps due to toe catches and twist outs, but let's get to the root of the problem. Occasionally, there is nothing to be done to prevent a toe catch. So I'll kick it off and ask you all's opinion on what do you think causes a toe catch? I'll chime in later and give my 2 cents worth. Don

IMHO...........Not enough pan tension. A committed foot with the animals weight on it gets caught above the pad. I don't feel that 3/16th offsets have anything to do with a toe catch.

While increased pan tension will reduce toe catches, I believe that when the animal has its foot in a position where some of it is on the edge of the pan and some on the jaw at the same time, a toe catch can result. When the trap fires, the jaw will push the foot upward to where a pad catch can't be had.

I've seen this with beaver catches. Usually when I catch a beaver by the hind foot by one or two toes, and they are not the center toes, this is what I assume caused it.

paul, i've had toe catches at the edge of a foothold that made me think the animal was at the edge of the pan when it fired, but i always thought that if the foot was centered and it was a toe catch it was caused by pan tension.

I agree with Paul. I feel toe catches come from where the animal stepped.

like paul said foot position has alot to do with it pan tension or not,ive caught 3 bobcats in the last two seasons in no.2 bridgers by both back feet, it filled the trap jaws with feet lol, easy to see a toecatch on that one, often times we envision the animals approach, but he may approach a much different way, another is muddy trap bed and muddy paws, coyote feet with the pads packed with mud can be hard to get a grip on, coons often work the set upside down so to speak and end up with a big backfoot crosswise of the trap and it fires like paul said and his foot get flipped out or mostof the way out.

Clarification: my comments were strictly limited to exposed trap bobcat sets. So that eliminates the mudd issue for me. BTW,, what's a beaver These sets usually target the foot right to the trap pan,, bullseye! For the most part that eliminates having part of the foot on the trap jaw. Not always, (snow happens) but most of the time. A few cats are still caught with both feet in the trap. Not many but a few. Since it is impossible for a bobcat to put one foot down inside the jaws but off the pan on my traps, the cat would to have put both feet on the shingle pan at the same time. Cats so agile, they must pivet off the back feet and hop more than we realize. In my case, pan tension is the bad boy. I do a lot of walking on rocks in the country I trap in. Even in my uncoordinated, tired, stumbling old age, I can react to a rock I step on, if it starts to move before I put all my weight on it. But, if that rock stays put until I put all my weight on it,, I'm going down

There are a lot of variables that affect a toe/solid pad catch. Pan tension, is always a possibility, but some people don't use much if any. The animals foot not stepping exactly on target is another like paul pointed out, and also poor trap placement, ie trapper error. Using a trap with too small of a jaw spread for the target animal. Covering is too deep/type of covering. There are a lot more, keep em coming guys, this could help all of us. I think there are a lot of opinions and different takes on this subject. No one has all the answers, but maybe we can get a lot of answers and some good discussion on the matter.

How about with the step down set? can you get a toecatch there? That to me would seem to eliminate that problem.....jk

I make a lot of the step down type sets. I really like them for yotes, but what if the person is using a borderline jaw spread or covering too deep? These aren't loaded questions here I promise. There is just a lot that most people don't consider about the toe catch and why it happens, truth be told, sometimes it just does, but there is still a lot to consider.

I can only say this.lots of pan tension, 33 cats this year, zero toe catches. I'm not changing anything.

This is my first year using footholds. I have been using Bridger #3 and #2's stock 2 coil's with factory offset jaws. The last 6 #3 traps I bought were used without any pan tension. I can safely say that oddly enough as it may seem the only toe catches i had were in 2 of my #2's that had 3-4lb. of pan tension. While the #3's with no pan tension made perfect full pad catches,so far. This is not to say that i am advocating 0 pan tension but it gives you something to think about. At first the size of the offset gap made me fear that it would not hold a toe caught cat now after catching a 29lb. and a 26lb. tom one by two toes the other was caught by 3 toes and had dislocated the bones in the foot so that all that was holding the cat was the hide on the toes. these were some of the larger cats that I have caught so far,heres the irony. Both cats were caught the same day and so far have been my only toe catches, weird huh?

I have to agree with paul. I have good high catches using 0 pan tension and I have had toe catches with 0 pan tension. I have had good high catches using 1 1/2lbs. pan tension and I have had toe catches using 1 1/2lbs. pan tension. I guess it depends on if they actually commit the foot down on the pan or if he steps partially on the jaw hitting the pan at the same time .that makes sense I never really thought of it that way.

i agree on the placement of the paw onto the pan as paul mentioned .... i also believe with hard fighting animals like yotes (when using smaller traps ... 1.75 OS in particular and longer chains even worsen the deal) arent toe catches to begin with when first caught ... but due to slippage (look after the catches) .... add to that multiple things ... if the animal worked the set and is partially on the levers, partially on the dog, etc, etc ...could go on and on bout it .... lol

Pan tension, placement of trap in set, bedding, where the set is made, what type of animal, type of set up on the trap, would all be part of a toe catch.

Seems the leading problem for me was learning how to have the proper working tension on the trap first, then placing the trap in a solid bed, followed by direct guiding to the pan.

Still you have quick feet, cats are notorius for having the ability to not commit if they feel a creep of some thing give under the paw, it cause them to instantly pull away, you may end up with a toe catch this way. Having a tall trap would make your toe catch's more noticable, due to the extra height for the cat to get away from.

Still others may be a good catch but the animal may work the trap a bit or jump the trap to cause a toe catch, the paw slips for one reason or another down to the toe. You had a decent catch to begin with but the paw slides down, you think it a toe catch.

When having a heavy pan tension, solid bedding for no movement, and the proper guiding for the pan, I believe your toe catchs will drop drastically. The cat will commit to a full paw set down and thier weight will commit them to the trap.

I'm with the boss on this one as well. Pan tension and ware the animal puts its foot are the to main causes of to catches IMO.

Great post GritGuy, all true. At the end of the day, nothing is set in concrete, we trappers have to remain flexible and learn every season, because we can never know it all. Different pan tensions, bedding materials, solid bedding. Mostly the ability to diagnose our line and learn from experience and educated animals. I consider myself a constant student of the great outdoors, and I want to learn all that I can before my time is past.

any pics of a toe catch