I’m law bound to use rubber jaws on land here and during the cold months the mb550s and the Vic 3s seem to work just fine for me as well.
As far as the bridger 1.65 rubber jawed traps, I agree the pan is small and flimsy. A quick cure that worked for the cats I caught in those traps, was using a #2 bridger pan on them. I since switched most of them to the sterling pans on the 1.65s and both work very well. Those traps (1.65s) I run those all 4 coiled. The others, MB’s, Vic’s, so on, 80+% are 2 coiled with plenty holding power.

Side note, I find the mb springs are superior

Howre you prepping the rubber jaw traps? Do you boil and wax with the pads on just like regular traps?

Yessir.

When using the rubber jaws, there are 2 main factors that increase damage.

Colder and older.

The colder it is and the older the rubber is, the harder the rubber will be.

I prefer the JC Conner pads and that is what is on the 550. It's a much stiffer and tougher rubber than on the Vic's. The issue I had with the Vic rubber was they were so soft that they would wrap around cutting off blood quicker.

I use j c Conner pads on my #3 Victors

Do they fit right on or do you have to do any trimming?

^^^

Trim

Thank you all for the replies!

Rubber jaw are great if temp stays above 30 degrees if it falls below your done. Best all around trap is a regular jaw450

One of the best , if not the best live market trapper ... used #3 Victor soft jaw trap..nuff said for me !!!

Would you tell me which #3 victor, the sight offset? Two or four coil.

Not slight offset I think..not sure . 4 coiled with 1 1/2 ..4 coil springs.

I have not seen any difference using either regular soft jaws or slight offset..I have both.

Thanks for your help. Do you take the springs off and replace them with the springs from a 1 1/2 trap?

PM sent

And he also checked traps 2 or 3 times a day if it was going to get cold...

He still used the #3 Victor soft jaws for a reason. Wonder why ? He could’ve used other traps there are reasons he didn’t.

I'm not disagreeing with you on that. Couple reasons...

Cheap, easy to tune or repair, larger jaw spread, good quality rubber. Want me to call and ask him when he gets back from his trip?

If you want too...I probably know the reason.

I bought one victor 3 4 coil with the slight off set and caught on in it yesterday. It was female and was fighting hard and did not hardly have a mark on the foot. I had been reading this so I took a picture of the feet. It might be good trap to try if you are into live market. I am sure some one on here has been using them and has more info than one catch but I was pretty impressed. They also make a 2 coil in the slight offset.