Could be. There were probably different “runs” in each “generation”, some may be stronger than others. To be clear, I have not noticed any of mine losing strength over the years. All of my Adirondack (2nd gen) CDRs were purchased by the dozen within a span of about 3 years. They never lost strength from the day I bought them near as I can tell, and I thought that was VERY strong. Then I got ahold of some first gen originals.

None of this would matter if they were all reliably holding beavers. I was having beavers caught on video, that I could clearly see had a good catch (both front and rear foot catches) that were empty at the bottom. In almost every case I caught that same beaver again and could clearly see the scrape marks, further confirming that they were just flaty pulling out. I started making a mark on each trap that lost a beaver each time it lost one. Some of my Adirondack traps got up to 3 and 4 marks, while I noticed that older MO pans had none. I came up with a setup to actually measure the spring strength, and started tinkering with the Adirondack traps to get the spring strength to match my originals with MO pans, and it drastically reduced the pullouts.
Im not implying that your Adirondack traps aren’t holding, they may be stronger than mine or have some other differences. If you arent losing significant numbers of beaver, then there is no problem to solve.

If the springs are of good quality, just wrapped wrong. Why not just take them off, put then in a jig in a vise and unwrap them a quarter or half a turn, ( whatever is needed ). That is how they are made to start with. The tempering of the spring.is done while the metal is still a long round wire, then twisted into a spring. If the springs are cheap and won't retain there strength, buy some music wire springs. Sometimes we over think things. I have been guilty of such before.

Yep I did that. It sort of worked, but the spring came back a bit after setting. So you have to go bit beyond. The re-heat treatment seemed to help with the rebound a bit. Much easier to shim them, no overthinking on that one, just taking the simplest and easiest route to the fix. No removing the springs, no unwinding, no heat treatment…. In fact as I mentioned shims are so easy and quick they can be made from a stick and installed standing on a beaver dam. And no stressing the spring metal.

If you are suggesting “just buying music wire springs…” for CDRs, you should look at a CDR spring carefully and then get back with us and tell us how to do that.

Thanks for letting us know loosanarrow! If i end up having trouble with mine ill at least know what to do. Appreciate the info. The springs on mine are pretty stout yet.

I could post a pic of the New York pans but i dont know how, im not the sharpest tool in the box, lol

I can’t make heads or tails out of them Canadian pics anyway!haha

Ya theres probably to much snow to see anything anyway! Lol

Think you can email them ? If so you can send them to me and I'll post em

Pics sent. Thanks Wolfdog!

Posting for D2009

I think you and I could have a good time bouncing ideas off one another…. Mississippi is a haul, I’m going to need picked up at the local airport!

Just curious how shimming these spring worked out?! Has anyone else had luck trying to shim springs?

I did what loosanarrow recommended on about a dozen WCS traps years back and it worked OK for a little while.
AND NOTE this was with HARD USE...traps being used 6 months or longer for beaver work.
I began to have issues with empty traps and the beavers I did catch had scrape marks on the their caught feet
where trap slipped down ankle. And this was with INCREASED pan tension.
There is definitely a spring issue here and the spring replacement is NOT simple.
When Kurt Beaugard ...the guy that was making the traps...left WCS these issues began.

Were are CDRs made now?

Like

Vinke, they are no longer made Allan Hout of WCS bought the rights to produce them

I was never able to match the strength, durability of strength, and consequently the holding ability of the first generation Missouri pan CDRs.

Those first gen were and still are as reliable as an old hound, good to go with no mods. The “second generation” NY pans I had were not as strong and I had some trouble with pullouts until I shimmed them. But others have reported that the NY pan models were fine with no shims - may be different runs or something.

Unfortunately I was never able to come close to the original CDR strength with the WCS version even with shims. I hate to have to report that because I really liked the WCS guys I met at conventions, and they typically make and sell high quality products. I would not be surprised if they were handed an existing stock of components including springs, so I am not placing any blame or calling anyone out - but I made a spring testing rig and it clearly confirms about half the spring strength of the originals, and I am not able reliably hold beaver with that spring strength.

I wonder if the springs off of the jake trap would work as a stronger replacement. They look to be very similar in design as far as mounting and bend locations for loose jaw. I’ve used a couple jake traps on beaver few years ago and they held everyone that stepped in them. No not a beaver trap but in pa we are only aloud 6.5” jaw spread thus why I tried them out haha

Hammer I agree...I caught a few extra large beaver by the back foot in Jakes when I was testing them for JC back when the trap was first introduced...top notch trap.

Maybe some of the springs off of the NO BS wire lever traps would work. Maybe not, but i nominate the hammer to try it lol