Well J, if the trap is "center swiveled" there will be no slippage because there will be a direct pull from the point of swivel to the point of catch. If the point of swivel is off center there will be a slippage of the foot to meet the center of pull, which is straight from any angle from a center pull.

I suppose if he hooked into something solid. I'm not in drag country. I suppose lot's of you guys pre hook the drags in rocky terrain?

Not to get away from the subject but I am going to bottom swivelling and three swivels in the chains on my coon traps because of the bunches of grass, etc that our water caught coons pile up at the set location. I converted a few last year and really like the way they treat the coons when they bunch up piles of water grass.

If swilved on the side and yote steps on the same?

Think we're talking two different things here:

1. Which cause's less foot damage? Centered of course.

2. Which will hold a 1 in a 100 toe caught's that would other wise escape? Side mounted but on bottom of trap.

I also feel a trap slides a certain amount even on centered traps until it gets it's final 'lock' on the foot, why most times if the animal is going to escape it's done in that first big lunge it makes after the trap first fires.

To me center is the best choice the trap is rounded and has its high spots which were the foot will end. Question is and Im thinking now , look at where the critter is caught.

J, look at the radius from center as opposed to the radius from a corner. No comparison.

It all depends on the critter.

Slim call's this discussion a can of worms and i now see why, lol.

This is a great thread, ADC, and a good discussion! We need slim to show up and help Jackie and I out, here...

It all depends on the critter, where he feels his foot feels the best.

good grief. you people think too much.

It would be nice if he'd reply. There are others out there who could add to this discussion as well. I wish I had a few thousand coyotes to my credit so I could give prefference based on that, but instead I just tried to get a good discussion going so I can learn from it as well. If I'd said I like my traps all center swiveled, not sure we'd of been almost to page three already.

Can you imagine a critter looking down at the trap and looking to find out out where the swivel is lololol?

I run alot of traps on the JC Conner style baseplate with the end hook-up D-ring. Works well for me.The yotes foot pull toward the lever where the tension is the tightest..

Thank you Bill Frank!

I wish all the big beaver traps had those kind of baseplates..Setting those big traps over your thigh with the d-ring digging in gets aggrevating..

I don't trap strictly coyotes. I do have some MB650s and they are center swiveled but we ain't got alot of rocks here. I think I have one trap that isn't center swiveled. I do alot of drowning sets and makes sense to center.

Ultimately, why do I have all mine centered. Because somebody went on and on about how centered is the only way to trap!

One other thing. I do have a bunch of 750s. I think I would rather have the fingers in them at the edges rather than the center. Believe me I've had em in there in any form or fashion you can come up with. I can usually get my knife or a pair of pliers in between the jaws at the center and pry open to get out when caught on the edges.

Is the real reason for the D-ringed baseplate frame strength OR center swiveling....or do you just basically get both for the same price(or close)?
Are Bridger traps stout enough framewise to just run a rivet thru the frame in the center, or would they bow? I have no experience with Bridgers, but know Vics will bow done this way.

Coop
Bridgers cant be to much different that J hook does open yer traps going Bye bye its for both coop

. Iam waiting on His SLIMNESS to post here he explained his style offset swiveling to me but I'd rather have him explain it.Most of my traps are set up center swiveled other than a doz or so Monty #2 RJ;s and so far that Lil bit a slip has just made the trap get a better hold or has with these there round rod lamanated. come on skinny where ya at??

Paul, I may be out of line here but...I think a few things need to be considered here...the quality of traps OVERALL have changed for the better since Charlie Dobbins wrote the Trap Mod book. Yes there were some excellently made traps when he wrote the book (Sterling MJ600, Newhouse, ie) but I think what he wrote was for the majority of trappers who were using plain old stock traps. Most of these older stock traps had alot of design flaws...weaker springs, weaker base and frames, thin jaws, cheap chain and very few swivels. Charlie's trap mod.s helped trappers hold most of the animals by using simple physics.
I may be wrong here but on most newer traps with good springs and well design spec.s the foot doesn't move much when compared to the traps of old.
My take.