just blowing some steam and doing some thinking. that could be dangerous. I have been using various modified traps the last few years for live market coyotes. everyone has a different opinion on live market traps. what it comes down to is that there is no ''perfect'' live market trap. that got me to thinking of the different traps that I use and I keep coming back to the mb550. for me the 550 with the cast jaws will work but I was getting toooooo much damage to the foot that only showed up 3 or more days after it was put in the holding pen. foot looked like it had a burn mark on the foot. not all but to many for my liking. bought some modified sleepy creek traps and have been very pleased. still get a few cuts here and there but very minimal. back to the 550s. I changed the jaws out to rubber jaws and now I like them even more but the pads just get torn up to much on the coon catches. really wish someone could make a replacement jaw for the 550s that was as wide a jaw face as the cast jaws but made out of metal that can be welded on. I mean if someone could make a jaw that is wide and smooth and not porous like cast I do believe they could sell a bunch of them. ok that's enough of my thinking for tonight

I believe the jaws on the 550s are cast steel, therefore they can be welded on.

Have you looked at the Circle C LM trap?

or ground smooth

sniper I have never heard of them. who makes them?

I love the 550. All I use for live market.

I never live marketed coyotes but cant help but think you could hold them for a few weeks. Collect pee. Sell it. make some money off them till they get sold. Feed might be a problem. keep an eye out for a cheap horse, talk to a deer processer about kidneys hearts and livers. Its a problem that could be solved.

Tom Beaudette
http://www.highcountrycontrol.com/coyote-cuff-traps

Weiks Welding and Fur Shed Fabrication on facebook is rednecktrapper on here, I believe. A few weeks ago he posted a pic on facebook of some trap jaws that he had modified. Offset, with a very large, smooth jaw face. Sounds like something that might work for a live market trap.

feed is not a problem for them when in the holding pen. they get what ever I skin out that day. coon grey fox bobcat

The old Monty 1.5 round jaws were equipped with rounded edges. Made specially that way.

Also the springs were strong enough to hold the catch.

Does anyone know if Tom sells just the circle c jaws like Joe Chestnut used to do? They fit a #3 Victor coil spring

Larry, Sterling Fur Co. back years ago sold a dbls #3 or #4 with Toms #33 jaws in it. I’d contact both Tom and Sterling

Wrote this up last night but it got deleted by my tablet for some reason....grrr
Back in the early 2000s Ryan Ruhl from Illinois was modifying traps. I had him laminate a pile of mb650s.
Ryan asked if he could try something and after laminating the outside jaw he sanded/buffed the jaw face smooth. It was so well done that you could not discern the lamination strip. It resembled a cast jaw face.
These traps performed every well in the field as I had little to no paw issues. BUT, it seemed some coyotes
still beat themselves up even with these jaws. I asked around to some veteran trappers sand got the same response..no matter what we trapper do to improve our traps/equipment individual animals will still damage themselves. Some simple fight incessantly...never stop while others just lay down and wait.
Hope this helps....

Thanks Mike,
I agree with your findings on the wide jaw face. I have a couple pairs of the circle c jaws I had squirreled away in a drawer and bought a couple #3 Dukes yesterday at Big R. Last night I found they fit those traps just fine but the metal on the cross is soft and they need a base plate to handle the regular springs and Taos springs. I got these jaws from Joe Chestnut when he owned them. I have contacted Tom on his web sight a few times about selling some jaws. I have gotten no response so I figured he might only want to sell the whole traps? I like his traps - I just had some parts and was playing around with some old traps. What better way to spend a little free time in the off season!

I never could get 100% perfect feet after 30 years of trying different traps and mods. About 10% to 15% are just hard fighters.

What I did learn was 1) use strong springs...should make you grunt-a-little when setting a 1.5 to 2 sized trap....holds trap right where it closes on foot. 2) laminate inside or out and laminate with round rod....no cutting edges. 3)don't use offset jawed traps...too much foot sliding. 4) keep chains short...but anchor solid. 5) thoroughly massage foot immediately after taking trap off....speeds up circulation. 6) give em a shot of dexamethasone before putting into holding cage....reduces swelling.

On nights when temps get into low 20s or lower there is not much you can do. Foot may look OK but if its frozen it will not improve...will look worse in 48 hours...will swell and jaw contact area on top of foot will become unacceptable to buyer.

Thanks Swamp wolf great response from a guy that has been there done that.
Larry I agree...Coyote Cuff traps made some great jaws. Tom is good people.
Swamp or any one else...have you checked out the new live market jaws/ trap he has advertised?

I havent seen Tom's LM trap.

I stopped live marketing about 5 years ago. Finally had enough of all that it involved....it had took the fun out of trapping for me long enough. I made $$, and that money kept me trapping but that is for the younger guys now.

I predator trap for a few large landowners now on a pay basis and with the lethal removal and being paid to do it has put the fun back into for me. I only trap during Ga's fur season so I harvest all I catch....even though nearly all these ratty coyotes are discarded. I sold all of my live-market modifed traps back then and replaced them with Bridger 2 dogless....no mods....no worries.

Ryan still does trap modification. I had him do some #3 Northwoods DLS for me last year. Nice work.

Well out of curiosity, since I had my stuff out and was welding another project, I tacked up some 1/8 Lam's on some old MB 450 jaws. I tried several settings for wire speed and it didn't seem to matter. By my eye, it took the welds just fine and the jaws seem totally fine.