Northway, are you saying that the MB750 has too much pan tension for your liking? Do you use pan tension on 9's or leave them free? I agree on the difficulty in setting the MS750's with gloves on. I own 1 MB750, which I got just to see what it was like, and haven't bought any more. Maybe I didn't give it enough practice, but they just scare me.

I can see how getting your finger under the pan could be an aggrevation with the gloves you guys up there have to wear. The one trap that bothers me setting with my hands is the #14 jump. Its kinda hard to hold on to and the teeth can hurt, bad. I love to use them though. Heck of a beaver trap. I wish I had enough #14 and #48 DLS's to use(You cant afford to buy the dang things anymore). I wouldent even bother with the MB750's and CDR's then.

bearbait,

Yeah, I don't like how much tension it has on the pan. I don't set my tension to "fine" on my wolf traps, but I do want them fairly light. I guess I just don't like messing with those MB's because of the difficulty to set, etc.

KYBOY,

I have a few of those 14 jumps and a few 48's. Good traps. I use the jumps for wolverine, but the 48's for wolves and wolverines.

Mike

I traded all my MBs to white17 same reasons as you guys. My hands are small and no matter what the wolf trap I almost always have to put my digets at risk just getting the jaws open and then setting the pan in place the MBs where worse then anything I have ever worked with I have gone to the CDR unless I am setting a place I know drifts in bad then the few #9s I own come out. All in all with my wide open tundra and wolves that walk where wever they want most the time my best bet is finding a kill and using snares or setting up a big bait pile with them

My 2 cents if it's worth that. I've retired all my 114's and 4 1/2, 48 newhouses for collecting. Man, those 114's are deadly. These traps were given to me by some old timers years ago and they were old then. I couldn't even guess to how many toes those traps squeezed. Since then I've gone to #6 and #7 Livestock Protection traps (they've since come out with an 8 that looks pretty impressive.) Alaska #9s, Bridger #5's, Sleepy Creek 4 1/2 and 5. Trapping around salt water we like to favor the long springs. The coils seem to take a pretty good beating. But for dry sets they are hard to beat for ease of concealment. I know a lot of guys frown on this, but I've seen probably 25 wolves caught in the #5 Bridger. For some reason I couldn't remember this at the beginning of the season.In fact I posted a question on the other forum. My old trapping partner had to set me straight at the cost of a good ribbing. Anyway, holding strength is more than adequate, downside is they probably won't hold up to some serious chewing and I lose dogs and pans sometimes on a catch. I also anchor the chain to the trap frame and get rid of the stock long spring connection. I've had good luck with these traps in my particular application. 5 in Bridgers so far this year. Under different conditions I understand why guys don't like them. Compared to a Sleepy Creek,Livestock,Alaska, or Newhouse they are the lowest quality.
This is my first year with the Sleepy Creeks and have only caught one in a 4 1/2. Nice high catch. These look like a very well built trap. Others have had reservations about their jaw rivet durability so they have drilled these out and installed bolts. They look fine to me but only time will tell. I also wish they had teeth. The 5 came with teeth and is one bad looking hombre. It is a big trap. Downside is it is farely expensive compared to a 4 1/2 and I have reservations about the inline spring. I like the SC pan/dog set up. I love it for setting. I'm setting the traps under six inches of murky water alot and with the Sleepy Creeks I can just push the pan up as far as it will go (they will not go off) and then I lift the trap out of the water and adjust the pan to where I want. They are fast and there is alot less danger to the old fingys. They are also very stout. I haven't spent a lot of time playing around with tension adjustment on the SC though.
Livestock Protection Company are a nice trap. Besides some other local trappers I haven't heard many people talk about them. They have a web page and they are expensive. They also come out of Texas so shipping is a killer. I don't really care for the stock pan/dog set up. These are a snap happy trap if you don't make some modifications. Years ago I had just finished meticulously making a dry set and I was standing there admiring my handiwork when I noticed one blade of grass on my covering I didn't like(yeah I'm a stickler). Instead of doing the smart thing and getting a small stick to flick this grass off with being the genius I am I went in with a gloved hand. Next thing I knew I had this sucker hanging off my middle finger on my middle knuckle. Cracked my finger and swelled up to the size of a german sausage. New shorts please. And I DEFINITELY remember what make of trap that was.
For the money I would go with the SC 4 1/2. If you want the best and got the bucks-Alaska #9,SC 5,Livestock 8s. Just my observations. Always like hearing others opinions and observations.

Here is my opinion...... I bet that hurt!

Pete

just in case anyone is interested here is th LPC website.
http://livestockprotection.net/
Im going to buy a couple for my collection soon. I would love to have a load of #8's for my beaver line..

Pete-Yes it hurt. Not as bad as you would think. It didn't really kick in until I got home. It must have been the 2 gallons of adrenaline squirted directly into my heart the second I heard the snap. Believe it or not my very first thought was "oh @#% this thing is wired to a HEAVY drag". I guess I didn't think it was coming off. Then I was just thankful it didn't grab my whole hand. Cabelas Glove ad SHOULD read-"water-proof, warm, and for those of you that are going to stick your hand in a wolf trap, they will greatly increase your chance of keeping all your fingers" To this day my heartrate goes up everytime I set a trap no matter what the size. I guess you could say that was one of my life altering experiences. LOL

Rick- You got me going now. Yeah, the 7s have teeth and they are sharp! The sleepy creek #5 has teeth that you can practical sew with. I haven't ground them down yet. Here's another new edition from my personal archives of DS attacks. Earlier this year I was swapping out some #9s I had in some tide pool sets so I could re-dip them. Well I walked up to the set and stepped on the #9 and was going to gently back my foot off until the trap gently closed. Done it a thousand times as I'm sure all of you have. Things were going just fine but I had these stupid hip boots on with a big rubber ridge. The trap slowly closed all right. Right onto this ridge and my little toe! I was able to squeeze my toe out but I was STUCK. I tried getting my hand on one side and my free boot on the other but I was bound in there at a weird angle. Lucky my wifes little brother was with me or I would have had to pop the boot and free it in socks. This was in about a foot of water. I was supposed to be showing my brother in law the tricks of the trade. I'm sure I impressed him with my trapline prowess.

Since you are talking about wolves, here is one that was robbing our marten line. We set out several #4's and picked up 2 wolves and 5 wolverine in them. They were short chained to trees and held by two staples. I think they are a little small, but hey, if they work, dont knock it.

The other two wolves we caught were in snares.

Nice pics. That second wolf is gorgeous. Where bouts you at? I'm going to guess at the north end of the "handle".
When I started out I set some #4 longsprings and #4 jumps with double twist link chain despite warnings. I caught two wolves. Then I had three traps in a set literally crushed to bits (no wolf) and I had another wolf break that twist link chain like it was nothing. Caught him fifty yards away in a snare though, trap and all.And these were on drags. You may want to consider up grading a bit. I definitely don't want to sound like some know-it-all (I'm far from it), but since you seem to have a pretty good knack for getting those things to step in a trap I thought I would mention what happened to me.
Congratulations on the nice animals and keep up the good work.

ok wolf guys I had a bummer today I have a set two traps one in a trail one at the scent post about 40 feet apart. after waiting all season the wolves came through and I missed them. I have never been able to see previous catches approaches as they came befor the snow and got caught, However this time was different all 6 wolves approched the set some went on the trap side of the little spruce trees some went on the other side. trap side wolf stepped on the jaws and didnt scratch or nothing another went down the trail and stepped on the jaws of the trail set so two complete misses man I was bummed Dumb me never checked the trap placement closely after the last snow. What has me scratching my head is why the wolf on the other side of the tree peed and scratched the area up this is three lone spruce trees on a bluff above a creek the surrounding area is wide open tundra. IS it just the alpha and thats the side he chose did they smell something ? I dont think so cause they hit the jaws and never broke stride just kept walking. In the past I orrignally found the set while moose hunting and set the trap on the side with the wolf crap on it. Should I set a trap on the opoosite side of the trees? and leave the others in place that would put 4-6 traps in a 60 foot area what you all think? Dang wolves anyway

Wish I had the answer to that one...and many others of my own. They will make you pull hair out I swear. A couple days ago I had seven sets to check. Nothing doing in the first three. Had time to kill waiting for the tide to access the others so I figured I would sit and howl and drink coffee. I thought at the very least I could keep the old vocal cords in shape, but maybe something would answer and I could go in on them, or better yet something would pop out. Anyway, it had been snowing hard, for a few hours, about six inches had built up below the tide line, but it stopped and suddenly became crystal clear with a nice blue sky. I thought "man, these are great conditions to see something." This lasted about a half hour and began snowing pie plates again. I was wet and cold and though I'm usually patient while calling I decided I would try and make it to the next set. I jumped in the skiff and slowly putted my way across the bay. It was only about 400 yards,but visibilty was maybe fifty. I hit the beach by the set and started walking to the timber. I cut a smokin fresh set of tracks in the mud heading to the set. Then they cut through the snow and they were in the intertidal snow, but there was a small skim on top of those. It really didn't register with me that those tracks were less than a half hour old. I saw that they were snowed in and my thinking was well I either got him or he's long gone. The tracks headed straight down the beach and past my set anyway. I went up and checked it out and then made a large swath in the timber to see if a wolvy was in the area. Big drainage and nice creek, had potential. Didn't see anything. So I start walking back to the skiff and I figure I'll go check out the tracks one more time since it's the only thing of interest I'd seen all day. I took one turn and caught something out of the corner of my eye. At first I thought it was an otter playing around at the water line. Then a monsterous wolf busted out of a snow bank headed full tilt away from me. The movement I'd seen was him busting through some ice and piling into a snow bank in his haist to vacate. Gun in the skiff. I knew he was long gone, but I went up to check out the story. Plain as day in the snow, like reading a book, he was coming to see what my howlin was about, hit the beach and started cruising towards my set, he passes my set about the same time it starts snowing hard and I jump in the skiff. At this point he was up wind. I hit the beach and walk into my set and do my search for wolverine sign about the same time he gets downwind and smells my set. He turns around and starts coming in. He's sixty yards away when I stumble out with my head to the ground looking for his tracks! He had probably a good thirty seconds of free escape time before I caught that movement. As I was running to the skiff in a vain attempt to get my gun I howled over my shoulder. It was a pathetic sound, but he did stop for a second and looked back. If I had packed my rifle with me I would have had a nice 150-200 yard shot. Heck I was even standing next to a huge rock/perfect rest if I wanted it. Bummed me out. Timing is everything.
I was on a little dry spell there-frustrations abounding-and now all of a sudden I'm kind of on fire(for me anyway) Picked up my sixth in the last eight days today. But still had two more passes, this time it was obviously my fault. I didn't pay attention to the creek level falling off with all this cold and snow and half my #9 was sticking out for all the world to see. Heck you guys probably saw it from where you are. Man, that drives me crazy. I've waited three weeks for this pack to come through and I let this happen. And on another pee set, the big snow fall just pushed em right off the trap, just like always happens around here. Snow, rain, freeze, rain, snow, freeze, freeze, freeze, rain, rain, snow, sun, rain, rain, freeze, snow. You get the idea. I feel your pain brotha.

how long of a chain does anybody run off their wolf traps, #9's and mb750's??? I was thinking of 10 feet per trap? to much? would 5 feet work?
oh, and there will be a drag on there also.

I think the 9s come with 10'. Are you going to use steel grapples or logs?

I use 10 feet of chain and steel grappling hooks. The area I trap is fairly brushy. You wouldn't want to set these on a river.

I use about ten feet as well. I started going a little bit longer on my newer setups due to the fact that making water sets like I do sometimes the water won't be deep enough close to the set to cover my drag if I'm using a boom chain and that little bit may get me there. Of course this doesn't matter if I'm using a large rock. The chains are way faster and more handy but some sets call for the rock. Not sure what length would be considered too short, but ten feet seems to come up quite often when using a drag.

From Wayne Hall

Woklf pee-post set. Charred post for the attractor/post. This set was just re-made when I took the photo because I have to remove the #9 when I go by so I don't catch a dog. The trail is my DOG trail. Substitute a moose or caribou femur or a shed antler for the post and it becomes a combo wolf/wolverine set..which is what I do use most of time.


Wolf snare in trail

Posted by Takotna
I packed a burnt log about 2ft long to an open area and just tossed it a few feet from the trail to see what would happen, a couple trips later a couple wolves followed the trail and one male peed on it so set a trap in the footsteps and had one a few weeks later. Think I'll try that again. You don't want none of the charcoal dust over the traps or they may be showning when the sun comes out.

Speaking of the burnt logs, does anyone make their own to use on the line? What kind of wood? How burnt is it? How thick is it? Was thinking of making some for next season, just to try out and see. Do they work on Coyotes and Fox too?

-TJ