Clint, Sorry for your loss your in our thoughts here

Thoughts and prayers Caribou.

Woke up to 27 degrees yesterday, with snow on the mountains. Shouldn't be long now.

Yeah yeah AV it was a bit nipply on the boat in Auke bay last night, had to get up twice to turn the stove up lol

Snow today. About time.

Well, I decided last week to make some double-jaw traps for wolverines this winter,... hoping to keep their mouths out of places it doesn't belong,... these are #4 Herters. If they work as planned, there will a bunch more either later on, or by next year at the latest.

whats the jaw spread on those traps? do you feel the two coil and the twistlink chain is strong enough to hold a wolverine? I've been upgrading to the MB650's and MB750's this year and although I haven't used them yet they are one heck of a stout trap..........

Hmm my guess is chain and two more coils are coming? Dang that is a cool up grade. What does it do to a trap jaw when welding it like that? I take it the jaws are not tempered? Or they would loose strength from the welding. Great idea. The added jaw would seem to lessen the area for foot placement. If they step on the newly added steel would it not have more of a tendency to throw their foot out? I can see an advantage once they were in it. But wonder about any neg repercussions regarding the added jaw in terms of it lifting their foot up when it closes. Great experiment. Keep us posted.

The jaw spread on these is about 6¾", but they are so strong that I can barely set one by hand,... and getting a wolverine out when the trap is covered in ice, etc, plus having a frozen paw stuck to the jaws can make it a tough ordeal to remove. Putting 4 coils on this trap would self-destroy it,... not only would it be impossible to set by hand, but even as it is, the dogs get bent up from the tension of the jaw under it when set. I have a few that have broken the jaws from dry-firing when snapped at a set from unknown reasons, but I don't remember anything ever escaping from broken jaws. I have no idea how many wolverines I've caught in my life, but I can't remember ever having a wolverine break good 2/0 tenso chain either,... I think if it would happen even rarely, I wouldn't be using it,... but maybe in deep snow country, wolverines don't hammer on chains like they might on firm hard ground,... mine just seem to dig & dig non-stop. Now after running these quiet 4-strokes, I have come up on wolverines more than once in sets, that have been sleeping,... something I had never seen before,.. and didn't think they ever did once caught.

FT, I don't think that an inner jaw is going to throw a foot out of a trap more than the outer jaw does on it's own. It seems to me that as the jaw is coming up, that the outer jaw is what will be riding up on the foot, and once the jaws are half-closed, that the foot wouldn't be touching the inner jaw anymore, but I could be wrong. The thing I was worried about, is if the foot is stepping on the outer/inner jaws now, and he won't fire the trap, whereas if the inner jaw wasn't there, the foot would be on the outer jaw and the pan. I made the inner jaws out of broken jaws from old broken traps. I think I just have to be sure that the trap fires when the pan is still slightly above the inner jaws. That's why I only made a half-dozen of these to try first,.. usually if something can go wrong, it will. The welding did nothing to destroy any temper,.. these jaws have no temper in them,... if anything they are stronger now, as no wolverine or wolf can bend these and pull them out of the base. But, like most things in life,.. things are not always like they seem at first,... so I will keep updates on how this seems to work.

They don't make them like they used to. ;0) Amazing they are that strong. Good luck on your experiment.

WB

As I read about your prototype and thought about it wouldn't the inner (welded) piece close 2x as fast than the outer jaw?

Great idea. The only problem I see I didn't think of it------!

Do you have snow?

Larry

They close at the same time. Wouldn't the outer Jaw. Which has to travel further have to be traveling faster?

Correct. But due to the angle of the closing radius the inside jaw will contact any object inside the jaws first.

I may be wrong, but I think you'll end up with a lot of just toe catches with that set up. If part of the foot is on an inside jaw it will either come up with the jaw or the trap will flip sideways as it closes, and catch at an angle across part of the foot. So I guess I'd have some reservations about doing that. But thats just my take on it. Maybe it will work better than what I think it will.

so spek,
perhaps the solution isnt in the new inner jaw being flush with the regular jaw.... rather if the purpose is to minimize the chewing, then the new lamination could be on the outside of the trap.

Perhaps that may eliminate some of your concerns and mitigate the chewing as intended.

Years ago I had a dozen #4 Herters. I did catch a couple of wolves in them after some modifications. The jaws were easily pulled out so a spot of weld on the outer hinge tips kept them in place. Also I swiveled them under the center of the trap. They do have a good sized jaw spread.

Your extra jaw may hold the jaws in place better.

I've got a few Herters like these and love them! They are a very strong trap!

I've been looking for some springs and levers to revive some #4 Herters I have that were used as otter traps when I lived in SE, but am having a hard time finding a match. The salt really did a number on them, as well as the pans but the jaws and bases are still good.

Checking back we are overdue for The Almighty Alaskan Thread #7. Mr. White17 ????

Is #6 toast already?
As for the extra jaw inhibiting the wolverine's habit of chewing, I wonder if just a smaller trap, with equal strength, might be fine?
I am by no means an expert on gulo, but it seems that others MUCH more experienced at catching them than I have done quite well with less iron.

Wolverinebait, It seems to me and maybe I am missing something that by adding the inner bars you would pinch the foot in between the inner most jaws keeping the outer set of jaws farther apart allowing the foot to be yanked outward and ending up with toes between the outer jaws or pulled completely out as there is not much area other than where you have left clearance for the dog for a foot to come to rest below the outer jaws.