I picked up some traps from a auction, Sleepy Creek #3 CS, and some Northwood #3 CS. I know nothing about the Northwood traps. I think they were made in the 80s, similar to a Bridger, but thats all i can find. Lend me your brains on this, give me the good, bad, and ugly...

Northwoods are good traps. solid built. Bridgers and Wolf Creeks are built on the same or similar design. Little pan work and they should be solid like any dog on trap from the time frame. I grew up on Northwoods and still love them. Solid built as long as the springs are still good. All of the Northwoods i have still have solid springs.

Thanks, I picked up 14 for roughly 10$ a trap so if they connect with a couple yotes they will pay for themselves fairly quickly.

I have a couple dozen Northwoods. They were the precursor to the Bridger line, at least in design and shape. However, the Bridgers are much sturdier and have some design changes that make them a better trap. Still, they can be made usable traps with some modifications. Here are a couple issues with the Northwoods:

1. The levers are junk. Too thin. They will contort and deform on you. You have to crank the outside edge so the loose jaw will lie down, and that will work for the first couple coyotes and then they will bend back.
2. The jaws are killers. Way too much of a cutting edge. You're either going to need to file and smooth them down, or laminate them.
3. Attachment point is wrong. They have that goofy rivet going through the frame on one end, which makes the animal's foot tend to slide down the jaws to the corner. Base plate them and put a D ring in the center where it belongs. That will also firm up that base on them.
4. The dogs are junk as well. Wayyyyyyyyy too thing. Coyotes love to chew on them. When I laminated and four coiled mine, I would bend the dog just trying to get it set.

On the good side, they have good springs. Mine were from the 80's and still have good tension on the springs.

I like the Northwoods traps also. I have used the #1 - #3 coils most of my trapping life and still own most of them. Went to them back in the 80's when I was looking for a well built trap and that's what they are. They were more reasonable than the other brands back then and I felt they were a better trap.

I planned on putting base plates with D rings on and lams. I will see what shape there actually in tomorrow, then decide how much im going to put in them to make them worthwhile. Is there replacement levers that will fit them?

I have some Northwoods from #1 to # 1 3/4 coils I got them in the 80's I started off with 9 doz and now from the years of lost and stolen traps I have 6 doz left about. The 1 3/4 coils have a D ring on them in the center of the trap and a shock spring , It all came from the factory like that the ones I got when I was station in the navy in Norfolk, VA I was buy them at a sporting good store I was buying my worms from for fishing. The 1 1/2 coils with the square jaws on them . it is best to put chew guards on them because of the coon like the 1 3/4 .

You might be able to use Bridger levers but I haven't tinkered with them yet. I use them for high risk situations where theft is possible. If one gets stolen, I don't feel quite so bad . . . except that I've put a ton of work into mine to get them where I'm satisfied with them. Its a labor of love I guess. Not trying to bad mouth them or say they aren't a good trap . . . they just need some TLC to make them bullet proof.

Here is kind of a before and after photo of mine. The top photo is of the traps as they were given to me by a very good friend. And I mean given . . . he actually paid the freight to send them to me. The bottom is a sample of the final product . . . other than I think I noticed there was a bit of a gap in one of the lams so I went back and re-did that one side.



And then I decided to do the Canadian Modified version to see if I like that. Still kind of rough here but I wanted to see how it looked.

Good job installing those Canadian jaws Tracy...don’t see the extended arms on that spring pin for 4 coiling...must have installed some stronger music wire springs. I will say those double lam.ed jaws are great for reducing visible paw damage.

Ya, you need 4 springs for balance and busting up through tough/frozen soils. That picture was before I put the new pin, new main springs, and the new helper springs on. Why fight all that stuff when you're trying to get the lams in place, etc? If you look at the painted one, it has the new pin and extra springs.

Why di they call it Canadian jaw? Is double slams required in Canada?

It has to do with aihts (agreement on international humane trapping standards) I want to say that that the jaws make it acceptable to them. All this is just what I think I'm not sure and someone much smarter than me can answer just trying to help scratch the itch and give an answer

Got them picked up yesterday, there are 12 Northwood, one #4 dogless montgomery that’s pretty cool and one SC dogless. By looking at the dogs and chain ends i would guess these have never connected with any coons or coyotes. There are two things im not a fan of right off the bat, chain attachment point on the Northwoods and small pan size as compared to jaw spread. One of the Northwoods has a larger pan than the rest of them. Overall they are in great shape though and with few mods will be incorporated into the line this fall. I will get pics sometime soon here.

First two pics are Montgomery trap and trigger.

Third pic is Northwood pan size comparison.

Bonus MB 650 that was included in the pile.

You did well Braskayoter.
I've got a few northwoods in coils and longs..they work well for me. Picking up a bridger ways reminds me of northwoods.
Jim

I grew up using northwood traps. I would take my fur to the dealer and traded for traps. I used 1.5 rd and sq jaws. I caught many coons and cats in them. Only bobcat trap I had at the time. I put #2 springs on 1.5 traps. I picked up some #2 and 3 offset jaws traps. I put 4 coil kits on them. I couldn't get a few of there jaws set level. So i left them 2 coil..

I have a couple dozen rd jaw Northwoods 1.5 coils. I wish I had more of them. Strong, heavy and when set are very flat setting. I like them on my rat line on houses and feed beds where they can reach water easily.

Bryce

Those square jaw monty dogless are nice traps too. I used to run a lot of Montgomery #2 dogless for coyotes and really liked them. I don't think I have any left though, amazing how they disappear or fall victim to tractor implements and other issues around this end of the state. The Northwoods were nice traps, as noted very similar to bridgers today.
The Northwoods in my opinion at the time were a far cry better than the victor coils were at that time. I had way less maintenance on my Northwoods traps than I did with the vic pro models.
anyway, have fun with those and nice find. I'm probably cheesy about it but I love catching coyotes today in good old stock traps. the new models are certainly great, a lot more engineering and tweaking obviously, but something about the good old stock traps (monty, Northwoods, etc.) that keeps it fun for me.
I just got some real nice vic #3 longs in this week that I can't wait to use next season. these were the good model vics (stout springs, thicker jaws and bases). Not all vic #3 longs were alike, some years the springs were not great and bases were thinner. these ones I got in look like they were hardly used at all and have very stout springs. perfect for me.
Jim

Just a heads up,those unlammed,MB650's are hard on feet.They were offered for people who wanted to do their own lams etc.I got in a pinch once and set some and the result wasn't good.After that,I replaced the jaws with cast ones.If you can laminate that one,inside or out,it would be a good thing.I like them a lot.

Spot on bud, I would suggest both Inside lams and outside for a full 9/16th jaw surface. I actually like the IL/OL better than cast. Real easy on paws, even racoon.