I bought a bunch of Marty Smith’s steel screen pan covers and trimmed them to fit my Montana #3. Now I’m trying to find a steel screen that might be functional right out of the box to fit the MB550 (without a lot of trimming). Does anyone know who makes a steel screen pan cover that I won’t have to do major surgery on?

I made a screen cover punch template like RPMartin suggested and it still takes a fair amount of cutting to give me the kind of fit I think I should have for the Pipe Dream set. Any help would be appreciated.

Not sure what you are trimming off, the corners or more? I never really thought the corners needed to be trimmed. I do bend the corners upward after placing on trap, figuring this helps lock it in place. Pics would help if possible. Starting out with the right sized screen helps, I use a screen cutting template to get them all the right size.

Can you give us some pics of how you are doing that? Do you place the screen under the jaws?

Click on the link in the thread on pan covers. I just brought it to the top.

Marty Smith’s screens are 6 by 6. A Montana #3 is a bit bigger. In the end, I trimmed off about 3/4 inch on the side, cut a notch for the dogless pan, tried to follow the loose jaw contour and bent the loose jaw end of the screen to tightly fit against the inside of the loose jaw. The screen is also flat against the pan this way and I may not have to use a rubber band. It helps a lot that the pan sits low to begin with. The RP template wasn’t needed for this one.

The MB550 is another story. The pan sits higher above the frame. Using Marty’s wider screen is a waste of material. At almost $1 apiece I don’t want to ruin more than I have to, to get a good fit.

Using RP’s template, I’m getting a raised pan cover where I have to trim out the levers using the wider screen. Someone suggested I look at John Graham’s website. I did and he has two different screen sizes. One for his #3 and one probably for his round jaw #2. I’ll order a couple dozen of both to see what works out best.

most popular tratp out there. it should have a screen made just for it. HINT HINT HINT

I get my screen from Marty by the roll and cut it myself. I run No BS Jrs and 550s - both take a 5x5 screen. I clip a notch for the dog on my 550 screens, but can still use them on the Jrs if I need to with zero problems.

Do like I do and use permanent ones.

Im with Anthony T I cut my own but no BS Lures has them precut 5x5 if you don't want to cut them yourself from a roll. I either notch them or punch a hole where the dog goes to the pan and the dog holds the screen in place after its set on the 550s.

When I spoke with Marty’s wife a couple weeks ago, all they had were the precut screens. Marty was waiting on his order for screens and his wife says when they get low on something, she removes it from the online catalog until they get restocked.

I’ll take a look at Kendall’s screen stock. And John Graham’s. I’ve done business with John. He’s been a good source for me in the past

We Do sell 2 sizes of screen

One is 5 1/4" by 6 1/2 inches long
I made them to fit the #3 Montana perfectly. They have to be that long to fit under the free jaw. Anything shorter wouldn't always work, as we tried that years ago, and settled on the longer screen.

We started making the smaller, 4 3/4' by 6" screen due to the huge demand for one that size. It will fit a variety of smaller and medium sized traps. I personally the #3 dog-less almost exclusively ( the last year 100% I guess) so haven't been using any screens on smaller traps like some people like to.

How close is the #3 screen cover in comparison to the #3 dogless Bridgers? Will they work on a #3 dogless Bridger? Is a better question