I own an assortment of trap brands, Duke, MB, Northwood, No B.S., Montgomery, victor, But over 50% of my coyote traps are standard duke #2's with OS jaw. I have caught many coyote and cat in them never with a bad catch or a loss. I always inspect all my traps thouroughly before they go in the ground and on all the dukes I will admit I have changed the pan tension screws. But for 9$ a piece I'll keep changing screws. I see nothing wrong with them. I do understand they aren't american made, which is unfourtunate. But if i can buy 2 or 3 of them for the price of one 550 or 650, that makes plenty of sense to me long as they arent losing me animals. Don't get me wrong, the MB traps and simillar American made brands are definatley sturdier and a better made trap. But if you can't afford spending 20+$ on a single trap they are a great value. Where I trap I have to set some areas where there is a possibility of theivery, and losing 9$ is a loss I can afford. I do love my 650's and especially my no B.S traps for their ability to come out of frozen ground and the strong lock up, but like I said out of many animals, and some very big and aggressive male coyotes and tom bobcats,I have never lost an animal or even had a bad catch in a duke trap. As for this new model, if they are still half the price of a 550 then that sounds like a great deal, however if they are the same price, I will stick with MB's simply for the fact they are U.S. made. As for all of you that hate duke traps, I would be curious to know if you have actually lost animals because of them or specifically what is wrong with them other than just disliking them for the sake of disliking them. Also, I really only speak for the coyote size coilspring traps as I havent used any others besides #1 coils for marten which work great for me.
My experience was with the #2 square jaw. I bought them to run strictly for cats because they were cheep and if stolen I wasn't out much. I caught 33 cats last season in 3 weeks 7 of those cats didn't make to to my house because they simlpy powered out of the trap after getting leverage. These traps we're closed jawed traps not offset. The way I make a cat set there is only one spot he can step and that is directly on the pan. I had awesome weather so there was no freezing of my dirt to slow it down. This dirt was also fine bone dry dirt from under a bridge. They simply sucked it up. I also used them a little trapping coyotes I caught just over 70 coyotes last season. The four traps I caught coyotes in went from a closed jaw trap to a offset trap because the coyotes bent the jaws. I even had one we're the trap had stared to come apart. When I run a trap line for cats that involves 200 miles a day I can afford to possibly have a few stolen no bs then loose several hundred dollars worth of fur. Any trap made in China imo does not belong on a predator long line unless you are ok with loss then by all means throw your money in the toilet.
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