Another thing about the jaw faces, think about how many people promote wide smooth jaw faces with not sharp edges on laminated traps for k9 & cat traps....

Mine were offsets with lams, still lost coyotes. I ground all the 1.5s that weren't offsets to flatten the jaws surface.

I've had many dry land coons pull out of the 1.5's when they were newer. Never figured out how. Very strong trap. I added swivels to the chains. Maybe the jaws were to blame.

Hmmm,I can't say I remember having issues with holding the critters,what I DO remember are structural issues,like the time I was dyeing and waxing
after I bought them and after adjusting one dry fired it and a jaw tip flew off.Or adjusting the dog and saw a crease at the bottom of dog post.
The dog was sloppy and as I tightened it up the whole post snapped off in my vice grips.I don't remember all after 30 + yrs,I remember doing a lot of cussing over them.







































































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It was the rounded jaw surface, I lost 35 coon one season before I ground mine. After I ground them lost very few in the 1.5s.

For what this is worth here is my story. I lived south of Brainard MN from '81 to 84' and trapped from Ft.Ripley to Long Lake to Pierz. It was mixed fox and coyote country then. I filed the jaw surface flat on my 1.5 RJ Monty's and in one year had 7 fox leave their leg and shoulder blade (scapular) in that trap with the rest of their body anywhere from 10' to 20 yds. away. Dogs or coyotes found the fox, killed it and tugged and tugged until that shoulder/leg separated from the body. Once free from the trap the fox was not much of a toy for them and they left or I caught them in the second set. I was convinced of the Monty's RJ 1.5's holding power with the flat jaw surface after that year. Its a poor coon trap for me either way. The #2 is the same story --- more surface area = more contact friction. If physics doesn't work in the real world, why are dragster and Daytona tires so wide? -- the mike

That's why the 450os, 550 os holds so well also.. My coon loss rate went fro 50 percent to 20 after I flattened my 1.5 Monties. Then I added more chain and swivels and gained another 10... That's for dry coon.

You boys sure about that rounded jaw theory?I'm not being a smart a$$ asking a serious question.That same rounded jaw face was used on their square jaw models and those traps caught a mountain of fur,by a lot of guys.At one time it was O'Gormans predator trap,he changed over to a different brand only when Montgomery went out of business.I used the 2,3 and 4's for predators and didn't have a problem,no 4 coiling either just stock 2 coils.

This is what I was alluding to. I'm sure the filing of the jaws flat aids in holding raccoons, but for K9's and cat's the smooth rounded jaws are not an issue due to the difference in the shape of the critters foot and the difference in chewing that coons do.

Good post...I liked the Montys in the late 80s into 90s....great springs decent swivels and good chain on the 3s and 4s. I too lost fur out the #2 RJs but still like that trap. Wet conditions really created issue for that trap if you didn't 4 coil.

The #2 monty rj was the deciding factor in me switching to longsprings for coyotes.

I noticed that too MChewk, mine were 4 coiled and it helped.
The rounded jaw was more of a coon issue.