I got a couple of those as a Christmas gift and don't know what to do with them. I was wondering if they could hold Muskrat? Maybe mink? I think the jaw spread is 3 and a half. I got all my 1s and 1.5s out and only have these left.

Used 0 LS for rats for several years when I was a kid. Held them just fine but don't have the reach or weight of a 1 or 1 1/2 so there is the possibility of missing a few.

tie an eight ounce lead bank sinker to them and they will drown a rat just fine

https://www.jannsnetcraft.com/bank-sinker-molds/025724011033.aspx

Ok. I think I got dinners like that in tackle box anyway. Thanks guys

A staple of some pocket gopher trappers.

I used them when I started trapping rats back in the 70's. I wired a 5" segment of 1/2" galvanized pipe to the chain near the trap. Took the rats to the bottom quickly although today I exclusively use 1 1/2 CS and 1 1/2 longsprings for muskrat/mink foothold traps. Good luck on your lines this year and into the future!

Chris

One thing's for certain, they won't catch anything if you don't go set them. I caught a lot of muskrats in them as a kid. If you want them to be good enough for even coons buy and add a second spring to them. Maybe not the best coon trap but it'll hold anything it gets a hold on.

I've caught mink, muskrat, and marten in them. Don't recall any pullouts. I say go for it and set them out.

My 0 long springs are Victor.

I use them in my weasel boxes, they work real well

I prefer them for marten trapping

Mine are duke. Seems every store that sells traps only offers dukes. Got them as gift.

I find that the Duke 0's require some finessing to get them to work. Many time they won't snap shut after you drop the pan. I tried a number of things but found the easiest thing to do is to bend the base plate by simply rapping the trap across the corner of my work bench.

The first step in adjusting any trap is to pinch the loop in the eye of the dog. You want the dog to only move up and down. No back and forth. Trap not firing is because the dog moves forward as the pan goes down most of the time.

before


after


once the dog moves properly i file the notch down. this is before



after



I do that on every trap with a dog. you will have no more problem of the pan dropping all the way down without the trap firing. Dont forget to bend the dogs post the a little so that when you set the trap the pan is level with the jaws.

Thanks Danny but I find that with the Duke #0's the dog disengages and the jaws still remain open. Only seems to do this with the #0's.

Seen that with one of mine my duke 0 as well.

what does the spring catch on? the frame?

Ya I've got same issue with o e of my 0 dukes. It looks like the frame to me.

I'm thinking a real fine jewelers file to round off the edges on the spring eye and the corner of the trap base it goes over when set. Round off the edge of the trap jaws the spring eye rides up also. Your going to round off the jaw face anyway so they won't cut feet . I can not conceive of anything else that would allow the trap to not fire if you close that dog eye, file down the pan notch, and adjust the pan to level when set by bending the post a tad.

Danny, I tried most of what you suggested when I first got my Dukes with mixed result. I figured between the sharp edges and weaker springs that the trap would need to be deburred and tuned. After all of that it was better but not fixed completely. Eventually I figured out that by bending the center of the base upwards it'll change the angle of the tabs enough to fix the problem. After that I figured out I could just wack the base against a hard object and then the trap would work great w/o all the extra work. But with that said, doing the extra work may save you some headaches in the future.