Got some Bridger 110s and 150s that will not stay latched. I heard on previous thread about a nail trick. Wondering what that was. Or anything will help. I did run a file on them to kindof rough them up a bit. Helped with some of them. Others seems there is alot of slop

The nail trick helps them trip quicker not stay set.
Do a Search for Nail.
The pic is on my laptop not this fone. Won’t be on laptop till this evening possibly.

Did ya tune the dogs as shown in the Basic Sets Forum?

When working on body grip triggers, it helped me to understand what was supposed to be going on. Ideally, dog seats in the trigger clip's notch deep enough to maintain it's grip on the jaws, but the moment the triggers start to rotate, or are rocked side to side, the clip pries the dog up, it looses it's grip and trap fires.

So when I get an iffy trap, starting place for me is to set the trap without the clip. Then you can see what is going on with the dog. If the slot in the dog seats deep (most do) and conforms to the jaws, then there is nothing wrong with the dog.....it is doing it's job. If the slot is so shallow it won't stay set, then the slot has to be filed deeper. I have never found one of those.

So most of the fault seems to be in the clip. One of the best learning experiences I had with that was a Victor 160 that would not stay set. The clips on Victors are unique in that they join at the top. Just pressed on. For that 160, I first squeezed it a bit more.....and trap would not set at all. That told me that by closing the gap, what i had done was to narrow the oval gap inside the clip, and thereby raising the bottom of the notch. To reverse that, I pried clip apart with a screwdriver, gap on top widened and that lowered the bottom of the notch a bit, so dog now could maintain it's grip. Trap stayed set, yet would fire easy.

Traps with clips that drape over the jaws from the top, work a bit different, but idea is the same. If a trap won't stay set, the bottom of the notch has to be lowered to allow dog some meat to hand on to. In this case, flattening the oval shape a bit may lower the notch. Widening the oval raises it. The nail trick also works to increase the radius of the clip....moves the outside edge of the clip away from the center of rotation......basically makes the lever that is the clip a bit longer....to magnify the movement.

Theory on the Duke 110's is the slot on the dog is wider than it should be, so If you set the trap without the clip, there would be a visible gap on the inside of the slot in the dog. Clip is allowed to slide in that gap.....so clip doesn't hit anything when it rotates. The nail creates a bump out to engage the dog and start prying. That was the theory.

I have a Duke 110 in the garage now, no gap in the dog's slot, yet tips of whiskers rotate from front jaw, well past back jaw....nearly 2 inches.....and you can watch the clip pry the dog up the entire time. Visible gap in the dog's slot above the clip, and trap has still not fired. So clip's notch is too deep. Nail trick fixes this.

Thinking about this, another thing the nail trick may do is to alter the shape of the oval.....going from too flat to more of a fatter oval, and thereby raising the bottom of the notch in the clip. Top is always fixed, but a fat oval will raise the notch, a skinny oval will lower it.

The difference between a trap that won't stay set and one that is sloppy and won't fire, is not much. Would probably take digital calipers to measure it.

Having done design work most of my working life makes me wonder why these problems still exist. Even a person using any CAD software should be able to layout the 3 parts in question, trigger, dog, wire diameter of the jaw and easily identify and correct the problem. The wire size would stay the same. Therefore the notch width in the dog and the trigger notch shape and depth need to be considered. The overly wide dog notch can simply be corrected whether the notches are stamped or machined so that the dog fits the wire size with a little room to spare. Duke isn't the only offender.
The triggers are the big problem. Some have a tapered notch, why? the dog width is constant, not tapered. All triggers appear to be stamped and then bent into position. You also don't want a sloppy fit of the trigger to the wire diameter. They simply need to move forward or back, and have a LITTLE side to side movement to make a 4 way if that's what's desired. Once those problems are corrected the stamping tooling needs to be modified ONCE to get things working much better.
I've wrestled with the same issues being discussed like everyone else, irritates the heck out of me.

I believe you are right. Duke is not the only offender. I know alot regarding stampings. Was my forte in a past life. And the notch is what appears to be the problem here. Some are so bad that it won't even stay set with the safety on! It literally just walks right off! I always spoke very high of Bridger. And will continue to buy there other products. But they really need to correct this.

It seems to me. Imo. To be the notch. I have some that refuse the first notch. However. Will take the second. Which is ok for me. But than others wouldn't even allow either. I know nothing as far as 'budget traps' (duke, bridger) are ever ready out of the box. And again that is fine. Savings past along to consumer. But whoever is doing there notch stampings needs to reviewed.

Seems to me the 4 way trigger is made possible by having an oval shape in the clip. When an animal pushes the trigger wires to the side, the clip rocks to one side and levers the dog up. Without the oval clip can't rock or rise. Have some old Victor 110's, no oval.....not a 4 way trigger.

So V notch means as soon as clip rocks, dog is pried up. With a wide notch, if dog is set close to side animal is pushing from, that side moves very little in relation to opposite side of the notch. So will be slow to fire. If set away from side animal is pushing from, trap fires quick. V notch means it will fire fast either way.

Other thing I see is wide and narrow dogs. Some as much as half the thickness. A skinny or narrow dog will be more fragile, but will have less meat hanging on to the jaws, and thus less friction to overcome to fire it. Not sure if that is the purpose, but seems to be the end result.

Another big difference in these traps is the diameter of the wire stock used to make the jaws and springs. A Duke or Victor 160 is made from different stuff (smaller) than a Bridger 160 (larger and heavier). Then there is the difference between the Asian made.....which I suspect are metric.....and US made, which are probably standard like 3/16" or 1/4". Not sure where Canadian made would fall.

Other than being light or heavy.....makes no difference as long as clip and wire are made for each other. But does mean that one brand's 160 is not the same as another and parts like clips may not be interchangeable. I do know that a Duke or Victor 160 is no where near as robust as a Belisle or Bridger 160.

I have had the same issue with about 2/3 the Bridger 150's I have and if over dipped or setting them in wet freezing weather they just don't set or I just check snapped and empty traps more often.
Careful examination of trigger working looks to me that the notch in the trigger wire holder is just not quite deep enough for the dog to go down enough to seat on jaw well(they may have wanted a VERY sensitive trigger with little travel). A small gap can be seen between three notch dog and jaw so filing it deeper doesn't solve anything IMO. The only solution I have come up with is making that notch 1/32" deeper, requiring removing that part of the trigger and gently fileing out the extra depth and reattaching(A PAIN, and not too much depth or trigger travel gets increased too much). Really like these traps in all other aspects. Anyone else dealt with this?

drake,,try squeezing the sides of the trigger bracket a bit. easiest is to lay the bracket on the anvil of your vise, and tap with a hammer. if the triggers are sloppy on the jaws, that usually means theres enough play that the hammer trick will fix the problem. ive never messed with the 150s, but have done over 200 159s. have you ever adjusted the triggers on any 159s, to remove the slop and trigger travel?

funny i bought some bridger 159s and out of the box they wouldnt fire. the trigger would swing almost 90degrees

thats common on the 159s, ours were all that way too. did you tune them or leave them alone?

The Bridger 150 can be difficult to keep set, particularly if it is there first time being used after treatment. I have found that roughing up the jaw around the wire trigger and the dog notch with a body grip safety tool or pliers helps out. A few passes over with either of the aforementioned tools usually does the trick, and they will then stay set for me.

I did something simular. Got a bit mad at it and started hitting the trigger keeper and jaws with hammer. It made them better. Than I filed on notches fairly good. I set them all and let them set over night.

Fossil, I did try squeezing trigger wire side hoping it might deepen notch. Didn't help much just made that side tight on jaw(especially if a little sand or anything gets in them). I will try removing the trap dip with a pliers method. Might be enough as they are so close.

drake,,,the 159s can be tuned with the hammer method in either direction, so i assume the smaller traps are made of a lighter gauge wire, or use a different trigger bracket, so the fit is different. i use the mb combo triggers when i need to replace any trigger on a coni, and on the 159s, the wire diameter is so much bigger than other similar sized brands, that you have to use the 330 combo on the 159s. hope removing the trap dip helps solve your issue.

I found that a Belisle 160 replacement clip works well on the Bridger 160.......using stock Bridger dog. Sets and holds, yet fires easy with 4 way trigger.

Makes it a beast of a trap.

I had same problem with the 150's, did what Fossil said, flatten trigger and file the notch. A lot of work like you said but the traps were driving me crazy with empty fired traps. This year they worked fine.