Hey guys, new to the forum and somewhat new to foothold trapping but I had a question regarding jaw spread. I currently have permission to trap a bunch of private land here in AZ which allows me to use footholds. I inherited a bunch of dogless Bridger #3 fully modified traps from a friend that passed away. According to the regs here in AZ it says "shall not use any trap with an open jaw spread that exceeds 6 1/2" for any land set." My question is regarding what exactly does open jaw spread mean? outside? inside? The reason this comes up is because the traps without the modification would have both an inside and outside spread under 6 1/2" but with the modification it puts the outside spread over the 6 1/2" mark. It seems almost every other state says directly if its inside or outside but not AZ. I'm going to call the game and fish tomorrow to see what they say but just curious what everyone thinks.

I can't speak for AZ. But
Welcome to Tman

If not specified inside, I'd go with outside to be safe unless your CO says different.

Traps can be inside laminated to close that measurement also. (( if you need a laminated trap.)

I agree. You can't be cited for an illegal trap that way.

Ended up calling and after talking to 5 different people with different answers the head law enforcement guy emailed me and said the traps were fine to use. So based off that he must have used inside spread. Just hate stupid stuff like that that can give a warden room to screw you if he wants to. If I purchase any more down the road I'll do the inside laminate or maybe just go without the laminate. (Thr more I think about it the less I think i need the laminated jaws anyway.)

welcome , make sure you print that email , and have it with you,

Glad ya got an answer and like Dahlgren said, carry that email along because if your luck is like mine you'll get checked by one of the ones that said differeht. lol

It seems like some of Arizona's trapping laws are under-defined or vaguely written just like many of PA's game and trapping laws. It's hard to believe it was not done that way on purpose to create "gray areas" open to individual warden's interpretations.

The fact that here you can get three different answers, in you case five different answers, to a game law question from three (or five) different wardens bears that out.

As Trapper Dahlgren and hippie suggested; keep a copy of that letter with you while trapping.

Print and laminate that email