This is directly from ODWC's website...

Legal traps: Box traps and colony traps; smooth-jawed single-spring OR smooth-jawed double-spring offset no less than 1/8 inch OR smooth-jawed coil-spring offset no less than 1/8-inch foot-hold steel traps with an outer diameter jaw spread of no more than eight (8) inches for land sets and no more than eight and 1/2 (8.5) inches for water sets; enclosed trigger traps (dog-proof traps); body-gripping traps for fully submerged sets with no more than twelve (12) inches in diameter on private land only. Any trap not listed here is illegal.

Legal traps:

Box/Colony traps

Single longspring with an outside jawspread of 8" or less.

Double longspring with minimum 1/8" offset, jawspread of 8" or less (land sets) 8.5" or less (water sets)

Coilsprings with 1/8" minimum offset, jawspread of 8" or less (land sets) 8.5" (water sets)

Bodygrips 12" or less, fully submerged on private lands only.

Dogproof traps.


On the coilspring description it does not specifically list "double spring." Am I safe to assume that four coils are now legal? (Somebody wanted TS-85's?)

It's worded a bit weird... But does the 8" land/8.5" water jawspread limit also apply to double longspring traps?

And I noticed (didn't copy and paste the text here) that we no longer have to post signs on private lands unless requested by the landowner/lessee. (That may have changed last year and I just forgot)

Mike

that no more signs law is a HUGE improvement. Nice to get good news

A few commas might have made that understandable....

Yes 4 spring is legal, the reason that there is no specific number of springs stated is in case for some odd reasons someone makes a 5 or 6 spring trap it will also be legal. That was pretty much the exact words the biologists told us at the fall convention.

Couldn't agree more. Still have to use them on public land. But I pretty much quit trapping public land years ago anyway.

Pretty excited to be able to use bodygrips too.

Mike

Absolutely. It's a mouthful. They should have broken it up in to separate lines like I tried to do.

Mike

Nice. I might dig my gear out and trap a little. Fur is pretty much worthless, but the wife has been wanting a fur hat so it might be a good time to trap a few critters for that.

Mike

I would call the laws about perfect if they would...

• ditch the stupid 20 trap limit for general resident trapping.

• allow the use of snares/CR's with laws similar to surrounding states.

• change the language from 24 hour checks to "once per calendar day for land sets, 48/72 hours for drowning sets."

Mike

Same way I understand the laws. I had to read and reread it several times myself. I can put the extra springs back on my #5's .

I saw the changes proposed for next years regs and there wasn't anything about snares/CR's .

When I called the main guy, I think his name was Reggie, to verify he said it doesn't matter if it has 9 springs. I had bought a few dozen 2 coil No BS Juniors last year just for the trip. Ordered the extra springs to 4 coil them and also loading up the MB 650s for this years trip. Nice to see a state gain practical regulations rather than loose them.
Good luck to you guys down there. I should be down mid January again and taking my 16 year old daughter with to run a few barrel races as well.

I love seeing positive movement like this. I heard OK is allowing lights and thermo’s for hogs and coyotes at night now as well.

I did a cursory search on snare use and regulations in KS, MO, and AR. And I mean just a quick glance at each state's laws. If we want to submit a proposal perhaps we should look at contacting the biologists in each state; find out what they recommend... Find out about conflicts with other sportsmen... and injuries/fatalities to non-targets, if any.

Missouri had about the most informative posting of requirements out of the 3 states. I would be interested to get numbers from them to see how successful their regs are at preventing injury to hounds/domestics/non-targets.

It might be doable if the submittal had actual data... "Trappers in MO have been using CR's with these restrictions for over a decade and here are the numbers showing that CR's have been used safely."

It might take several of us contacting numerous people and compiling data, but it could pay off.

Just a thought.

Mike

Correct. I don't know all the details off hand though.

Mike

I agree we are moving in the right direction. I don’t like posting signage on public lands but it sure beats what New Mexico did to trapping on public lands.

Maybe your state association could send a crew down to Georgia to kick some tails into gear. Our guys think laying low is the only way to operate.

The body grip change is good for fur trappin. But makes all body grips fully submerged it looks like. The nwco regs are different. When doing nuisance work I can use any body grips but the only the 330 has to be fully submerged. So I can use body grips on land the way it's written.