Recently picked up some Sleepy Creek 1.5 CS, with double jaws. They came with a screw installed under the pan, that is apparently what they describe as a down pan stop. As near as I can tell, SC installed these at the factory. And here is why.......

http://www.scmtraps.com/tips.html



Try as I might, I am unable to adjust the dog to where pan is level just before trap fires. As it arrived new, pan hits this screw and stops before trap fires. From level position, distance from tip of pan to top of screw is amount of travel before trap fires. When it stops, it's hanging by a thread on the very edge.

This is the only trap I've seen setup this way. Trying to decide if this screw is something I want to keep or take it off and chuck it?

You can run a file or Dremel tool on top of the pan stop to allow the trap to fire

Just remove It

Say on that link that it is to stop "toe chewing"

I admit I am fairly new to trapping but all the critters I ever saw skinned out to sell the feet were left on the carcass

I say take it off

Can u shorten the dog so it fires a little bit sooner

thats what i done with my few Sleepy Creeks that i have

Could shorten the dog......or file down the stop pan screw to shorten it to give pan a bit more travel room. But overall, BMP or not, looks to me like a solution in desperate search of a problem.....but thought I'd ask. Guys on here would know if anybody does.

They make it sound kinda sweet......but I suspect anything tuned that fine would last about 1 catch before all bets were off. I'm thinking chuck it.

It can be a problem on non drowning sets with chewing. Again, simply shortening the bolt or adjusting the pan so it fires before it reaches level are easy and acceptable solutions. Level pan isn't a requirement for water trapping and there are some benefits to having a slightly raised pan.

Can the nut be loosened and bolt threaded down a bit. Seems like they would build some adjustment in that stop

If the hole in the base had been tapped and threaded, screw could be backed out to fine tune it, but wasn't.

May take one trap, file down the screw and file a night latch on the dog as SC said to do it and see how it goes. If I don't like that, try another and file the dog down a bit. Neither one of those is going to harm the trap.

Still not sure how the pan stop....beyond double jaws.....is supposed to help with chewing....unless foot is not as deep in trap when it fires.

That is what it does. It prevents the foot from falling to base when the trap fires.

I agree.

Looks like there is enough room to put a nut on the bottom side by the head of the screw and that would lower it the width of the nut, give plenty of room for the pan to fire. Unless you were trying to trap for the live market or taxidermy I wouldn't bother with them though.

Do this to the dog. Closing that loop allows the dog to move up and down but not back and forth. That back and forth movement is why you are having problems.

Adjust the level of the pan by bending the post (the part of the frame the dog is attached to) forward or back. A crescent wrench works real good for that

Do this to the notch with a file so when the pan moves the trap fires

Squeezing the dog would actually exaggerate the OPs problem without cutting the trigger or dog down.

BEND THE DOG POST AWAY FROM THE PAN

( see the first post)

Get rid of the pan stop end of problem. Then do what DC has shown you to level the pan.
I have trapped for 70 some years and sure you get some deep catches so what. And the trap has chew guards so don't sweat It.

Do what Danny shows you.
Leave the screw or take it out, won't matter if the pan notch is short enough.