In the off season do you have springs compressed or open, i bought some 330s at a sale and the springs were compressed they seem a little week compared to the new ones i have, might be the age of them also.

This topic has been discussed ad nauseum in the past. You will get people who swear by compressed and others who swear that compressed will weaken springs.

Flip a coin, it seems.

It's corrosion and constant firing that weakens springs.

I'd add "excessive heat" for those that boil. Still remember buying a newbie trapper out a few years back...his equipment looked NEW and was a newer line of traps but he had left the traps in the boiling pot too long and the springs were "soft" both coils and bodygrippers. Talk about a costly mess...

I just caught two beaver in an old Duke I haven't used in 4-6 years springs were compressed the whole time. They are weak and I can set it by hand. I would not trust it where there was a chance at an otter..

The only time my body grip springs are not compressed is when there is a animal in it

Leaving springs compressed for extended periods of time causes "creep", and basically causes the spring to deform over time. You won't notice it right away with a spring that is well made, but leaving any spring compressed when it doesn't need to is unnecessarily decreasing its useful life span.

This is not the same thing as "fatigue", which is also deformation but is caused by repeated compression and relaxation (which of course happens during normal trap operation), but creep will cause fatigue to occur more quickly.

I wouldn't leave any springs compressed in storage, no matter their use. It will decrease the useful life span, and I don't like replacing things simply because I didn't take care of them.

I can't imagine it would be good for them to stay compressed all the time. My Belisles store up better not compressed so I have no reason to do anything different.

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I dont understand the advantage of leavin them compressed. What am i missing here?I only use 110s so i am guessin its just easier to set them beforehand. How long do they useally last and is it even worth it to change the springs?
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Storage

So you remove the springs from the trap every season?
Hooked or not the springs are always under tension on a trap.

Bingo

First thing is thanks to every one for the reply's.

Second thing is i'm thinking either way works.

Third thing is they still work, i caught 6 beaver this spring 3 were caught in the weaker spring traps.

I’m no expert, however, I recently got some traps from a friend.. For some unknown reason, most of his 330s had 1 spring compressed, with the other uncompressed. They were rusted pretty bad. There is a very noticeable difference in strength between the 2 springs. The compressed ones are very weak, whereas the uncompressed ones are fairly strong. I would assume the steel quality also plays a role. I think leaving them compressed while rusting is what does the real harm.