Hey y'all I just bought some wolf creek #2s and this happens every time they snap shut




Is it these lugs that push down on the levers causing it?



I know these traps need tinkering and I'm just wondering if I should grind the lug off?
I'm going to clip the top of the spring, put a brass washer on the pan bolt, laminate the jaws, bubble tip the ends and put a rod style baseplate/ center locator on the bottom.

More questions:

I'm a first year trapper so I have more questions as well.
Has anyone used the papio creek style center locator/ baseplate/stabilizer with the two little legs on it? Is it worth adding the legs if I have a hard time bedding in waxed dirt?

I bought the groundhog 3in 1 hammer.and it is junk in frozen ground. It throws crap in my face and is getting tons of dents dings and chips in both the hammer face and digging blade. Any suggestions for a better tool?I do have to walk to sets. So a rotary hammer us a no go.

Can you make waxed sand by just pouring melted wax into hot sand if you keep it moving with something like a drill paddle mixer?


My kids and I are hooked even though we had no catches this season. The best we got was a set of popped jaws in a duke 1.5. we made a step down dirt hole at the base of a tree on the inside of a creek bend. I guess a yote must have smelled the mackerel and wanted it. Now I know to bend up the jaw tips on new duke 1.5s. I would have loved to help them catch something but 10 hours a day 6 days a week at work kept us from putting out a ton of sets.

Bend the jaw tips up more on the traps. That will help keep the jaws from sliding .


Id.get a sodbuster hammer and a real trowel. The 3n1 is great for soft soils. That's it.

Hard frozen ground I like a wide masonry chisel. In fact I prefer it our clay type ground even when not frozen. Cut the exact size bed and control the depth better. And is mostly as fast as any other method I've tried unless you have sandy soil.

That welded on tab is to keep the levers from being bent forcing the loose jaw to ride up. Like Sniper said bend the jaw tips up to center both jaws.

Yep if theirs alot of side to side slop in the jaws I'd bend the jaw tips up to center them

Bending the tips fixed it thanks y'all! I think they will be pretty slick traps once they are modded all up. I'm deciding between the #2 dogless with outside lams or the number #3 regular with inside lanes to make the state compliant. I grabbed a few of there diablo dps and picked up a couple duke 550s.

Thanks for the tip on the masonry chisel I think I have a 4 inch one laying around somewhere. I might try using an old splitting maul too. The hard grounds no joke and mist of my season it's frozen down a few inches.

Y'all really are about the most helpful bunch on the internet