Often the topic comes up on whether or not body grip traps are weakened if left set in the off season. Running 100 or more 330 traps of all brands, I often left some set when I put them away. Sometimes it was because I thought I’d set them that week or the next, other times I just didn’t want to fire them for whatever reason. I just now unpacked 4 dozen that I left set and have been that way for 4 years.

They are just as strong as the ones that were not set. I’ll admit that I’ve stated in the past that I didn’t feel they were affected over a season but after 4 years I cringed when I found them. I’m a believer now.

I still can’t get it through my head that a spring set for four years wouldn’t be weakened.

John it's the same for me,,, I figured if they set it would weaken springs but either I'm older and weaker which I am,,, or they still in good shape. Had one set under a old scrape lumber pile for a long time a 220 it was rusty but still went off just fine.

One thing to be said about bg traps. They don't have alot of moving parts. So weakening the springs would take alot.

Half of mine are setting there with compressed springs all the time. The weakest ones I have are the old square jawed ones from along time ago.

In many types of springs they only need to be "relaxed" periodically, and then only to reload them again. This is true in gun magazines and many of the those that are compressed when loaded.

I suspect it to not be as true with the type of spring that is stretched when set. Think your screen door spring.

Only time you weaken your springs is when you compress them. Leaving them set does not affect them or weaken them. This came from a person that builds springs and I tend to believe him.

He said think of it as a pen. Press the spring and let a writing pen stay out for 5 years and the spring( in proper conditions) will be just as strong when you try it again in 5 years. Use that pen everyday and compress the spring 5 times a day that spring will be worn out long before the 5 year mark.

Every one you compress a spring it weakens it very little but in time you will notice it. Or a better example is your leaf springs on a truck. Drive highway all your life and your springs will last a long time. Take your truck through a bunch of rough trapping ground for a few years and your leaf springs start to get weaker with all the compression.

John, I can't remember if Mr. Pete Askins was still at the Trapper's college when you attended, but he was a strong advocate that they lost no strength from keeping them compressed for ease of storage and transport. This from the man who spent his career making and testing traps.

Your vehicle has weight on it at all times. The thing that weakens trap springs is, rust, too much heat and collective years of use! They will not last for ever, but they are designed to do a job, and worrying about it just consumes effort on my part! JMO.

Repeated compression and relaxing is what kills springs, like saskbone's ballpoint pen, or bending a wire many times to "break" it; cumulative stress.

It's a matter of simple physics, a compressed spring will weaken faster than the same spring not compressed. Nothing you say will change that. I'm sure all of you can agree that the keeping the springs compressed will not strengthen them. So, relax them when not in use. As Mr. Wood shows in his youtube clip, if you ever get ahold of some traps with compressed springs and some with the springs not compressed that have been that way for a decade or so you will easily see that compressing springs weakens them. If you are a typical flash in the pan and only use the traps for a year or three it might not matter. But, if you are still using traps you bought in the 1960's it does matter.

TJM is correct-there is no difference in having springs partially compressed or fully compressed-they do not weaken.Removing them from the trap completely to fully relax them would not do a thing.It is the repeated act of compressing the springs that weakens them.That and loss of metal thru rust.Or high heat.(like a fire).
And that is right from Guy Desrosiers who makes the LDL trap.
When Guy manufactures his traps he boxes them with the springs compressed.Some would sit for a couple seasons I would assume before selling and the LDL has one of the strongest springs out of the box of any trap.And I have several dozen magnums in my arsenal from back in the late 90's that still have springs as strong as the new ones.

Just for folks new to the game or youngsters, the traps shown are not original body grips.
This is nit picky I will admit, but the original did not have the hump in the corners of the jaws.

Well In my opinion they store a lot better when they are compressed.
Pull both compressed springs up to the top jaws then make one wrap around them with my cable then wrap the rest of my cable around the trap body. Stored and ready to go for the next trapping season.
The only time I ever noticed any loss of spring strength Is when I left them compressed when I had the powder coated. And It wasn't enough to make them any less lethal.

Boco, Guy don't know what he don't know. I work with many many ($100 US) springs and they lose strength by storing compressed. Here is a novel idea for you spring experts. Type your question into GOOGLE and in about 0.5 seconds you will have 3,000,000 hits that will tell you that keeping a spring compressed will cause it to lose strength. I didn't read all 3,000,000 hits but everyone I read said YES. Of course if my buddy said it doesn't cause lose of strength I'm sure he is correct and the rest of the world is wrong. BTW, if you were using $100 springs you would soon learn to store them not compressed. Springs in question are Perazzi hammer springs.

x2 on what ed said heat and rust are spring steels death

Springs on traps are still compressed even when not set,so unless you remove the springs from the traps each season you are storing them in a compressed state.
And Yes Guy does know about traps and springs.
Its you that don't know what you don't know.

I cannot wait for the few magnum springs which somehow got into my arsenal of 330s to "weaken from being compressed all the time". I cuss every time I end up having to get a beaver out of one, even with nice setters. They are 15 years old and as strong as ever. Maybe I'll leave them out in the yard all year and let rust work them into usable condition. My regular strength 330s give dirt naps to beavers just fine.

Well, Jwood said it for sure. That was pretty unscientific but I like that guy. Lol.

About 10 years ago jwood was my competition in my area, a good guy but i caught more marten when he left

JWood & I trap he same general area. Next time I see him maybe we'll do a spring test. Nope forget it, I already know that keeping a spring compressed weakens it. A few years ago I came across some old square jaw victor 330's that had been stored with the springs compressed. I don't know how long they were compressed but the previous owner has been dead for more than 20 years. Guess what those traps had very weak springs not from use but from been stored compressed for a loooooong time. Of course this does not apply to Canadian made springs. They actually get stronger in storage. I have some Sauvageau - 2001-5F and they almost cut weasels in two. I hope they stop getting stronger as I need setters to set them. They will creep up on you if you are not careful. One last comment: The phenomenon that weakens compressed springs is creep, in which a metal held at a constant strain will gradually relax and so reduce the stress. This will reduce the stored strain energy. It has nothing to do with fatigue, which is the result of repeated cyclic loading, and it has nothing to do with the homogeneity of the stress field. Creep deformation does not occur suddenly upon the application of stress. Instead, strain accumulates as a result of long-term stress. Therefore, creep is a "time-dependent" deformation. It works on the principle of Hooke's law (stress is directly proportional to strain). For you Canadians that means that the more you keep a spring compressed the more it weakens.