I was going to order some more mb 550s but I bought little over a dz bridger #2 dogless offset 4 coil modified off a guy on here. That is my favorite trap now.

Bridger not American made.

I'm all for supporting american made. . . but I've driven Toyotas since before they were made in america. If I like something better I'm not going to buy an inferior (In my opinion, it is often subjective) product, just because it is american made. I might even pay a little more for an american made product if I like the company than an identical foreign made one. But bottom line is I'm going to buy the product that works best for me.

Personally I've never used a bridger #2 so I don't know how I would like them, but if that's what bobcat trapper likes, that's what he should get. Not something inferior simply because it is american made.

P.S. Bridger may not be american made, but they are owned by the same company who makes MB traps, and I believe are modified here in the US.

No! Say it ain't so.

LMBO

Based on my experience, and from what I've seen from others, the Dukes are not AS GOOD as the MBs. That is to be expected, and to me there's no point in trying to argue otherwise. They are built to a price point. Having said that, just because they're not AS GOOD doesn't mean they are not GOOD ENOUGH. My opinion is that for the average trapper the Dukes will work just fine, after all, they are BETTER than the average #1.75 size trap on the market. For many it will come down to affordability. The Duke clearly seems to have the advantage here, with purchase price that is.
For me, affordability played out a bit different though. For a fair comparison, I bought a brand new dozen of each brand. The MBs were super consistent out of the box, and I only added a mid chain swivel, no other tweaking was NECESSARY. The Dukes needed a bit more work to get them ON PAR with the MBs. Besides adding the mid chain swivel, I changed out all the j hooks and they needed some adjustment to get them to set nice and flat with the same pan tension across the board. Notice that I said ON PAR. Would these have worked out of the box? Certainly. Would they have performed as well as the MBs out of the box? Maybe, but unlikely.
Where I ran into the biggest drawback however is when I actually started catching coyotes in them. The main problem was the levers, and I came to expect bent levers on the Dukes after a catch. The MBs had Zero issues, with more catches being made in them vs Duke. So for me personally, it turns out the MBs were more affordable because there was much less downtime.

To all the people who haven't had any such issues with them, good for you, but I would like to know how many catches were actually made.

All in all, they each hold their place and I think if the lever issues are fixed on the Dukes I would try some more.

Rob Caven brought me a dozen mb 550’s to kodiak one winter 6 years ago. Lord only knows how many land otter and fox those traps have held up against gettin beat up in the rock piles over the years. Not to mention the salt hasn’t ruined them like most. They are tough, and still going strong.

Like some others on here I have been trapping for a long time.

When i first saw an MB550 it seemed too good to be true! I bought some and tinkered with them. Then started using them and found them to be as perfect as anything could or needed to be for me in my land trapping and some water trapping.

I have always lived in the USA and believe in supporting our economy because (I am generalizing here) both directly and indirectly we all pay each other. Plus the quality is usually superlative.

By comparison, When I first saw the Duke 550 I could not believe that they had the audacity to make a direct copy. I did not say an exact copy. It angered me because I know that they can usually easily get away with this. Next, it made me feel really bad for the Cavens and everyone at Minnesota Trapline Supply. I am not speaking for them, but that trap in production very likely bothers them a great deal.

The Cavens and everyone at MTS have been really good to me. I appreciate those folks for what they have accomplished and what they do. I expect that much time, effort, and expense went into designing the 550 and its siblings. Well, hold your head high folks because as a matter of principle and support, I would not use the Duke copycat traps if they were free.

Hopefully someday there will be an international legal mechanism to right the wrongs by Chinese and others who simply reverse engineer American products, produce a cheap copy, and sell it in America directly competing against the original product.

In case my answer is not clear - no I would not use the Duke 550.

I have some 550’s and 650’s . Have dealt with MTP for 20 plus years and couldn’t agree more with Wiily Firewood statement.

I am with you guys as well.

Since there aren't any Trap patents then there Is no harm no foul. It's called doing business. In my opinion the MB traps look a lot like the Sterling traps. And no one Is making a big fuss over that.

The MB650's are not direct copies of the Sterling and it is pointed out,time and again by Sterling owners that the trigger system is not the same.

It was my first year trapping last year. I used mb550s (cast offsets) for my coyote sets and they worked flawlessly. I looked at the Dukes at the convention and definitely like the price point. I will buy from Minnesota Trapline because they are local and customer service rocks

Beav - yes there are patents on various traps. Yes there is harm and foul. And no, it is not just doing business. I have never met in person the Cavens or anyone who works at MTS. But I find it very easy to see the problem and I find it even easier to have the integrity to speak out in support of these American people.

And by the way, there are other methods to protect a design. Valuable designs are highly protected by a very powerful system. For example, Ford Motor Company has protected the size, shape, proportions, and font used to spell out “Super Duty”. There has been litigation in Federal court over this. Guess who won? How about the curve and likeness of a Volkswagon Bug? Yes, highly protected. There are protections for trade marks, service marks, and even copyrights that can be used to protect elements of an entire object. Final example - create and advertise with a business logo that contains a stylized 4 pane window and see how far that goes. Intellectual property is included in the design of physical products.

I really don't see a problem with it. Most of us that fix things ourselves like vehicles, furnaces,washers, dryers, exc. Don't use OEM parts because we can get a much cheaper alternative. This is no different. Are the dukes just as good as the originals probably not but for many the price difference is worth it. The dukes are what 25% cheaper than the mbs , I have seen the duke 550s and there's no way that it is only 75% the quality of a mb . Maybe 5 or 10% less of a trap but that's it which would make the dukes,for most the better deal.

No body usually cares where their after market coil packs come from only that they are half the price as factory ones.

I think the biggest issue with the duke 550s that people have is that they know and have had good experiences with Rob and his family/employees and it feels personal and that's ok good people tend to stick up for friends and family .

Like I stated earlier I don't see an issue with this but if Rob or his family/employees do especially if Rob thought him and Bill were friends, have a problem with it totally understandable. I personally have never met either of them.

I do believe if Bill would have come out with his version of the 650 first before his 550 this wouldn't have been as big of an issue also could have chose a different name, been wanting a bigger version of the 550 for years. Just my 2 cents to each their own, good luck.

Was the sterling trap the first to come out with wire levers? Were they the first to come out with the lock down system for both jaws?
Who came out with the first cast jaws?

As we can see everything has been copied from day one.

Many are missing the point entirely.Rob Caven did all the research and development for the production of the MB 550 and it was considerable ,several design changes,several jaw style changes as well as different models.You are talking a tremendous outlay of resources for a small company to developer a trap that many have called the most popular trap of it's type,right now.

That is all it took.Duke had to get a slice of that with out all the expense of research and developement.Just hand it over to the Chinese to do what they have done since WWII-copy without remorse.This type of piracy stifles creative inventers and entrepenuers and discourages them from wanting to take on big projects that can be a boon to us all.

Nailed it Taxi, thanks There is a lot more to designing a trap than most of you think. After the protos are done then the proof testing. It takes a lot of catches to do that. The cost of protos is staggering, then the tooling and dies etc. etc.. It doesn't happen overnight, if you want a solid well designed product. All pawholds function the same, but some are designed better than most. Thanks to Rob The MB 550 is one..

The paws I trip type pans have been around for ever same with cast jaws. And 4 coiled traps have been around forever. Lots of trappers have added a rod to the dog to keep It from being bent.
The frame the jaws the levers have been around before most of us were born. I don't see where a ton of research had to be done.

How long has the mb 550 been on the market?