Necessary? No. Are they nicer on an animals foot? Yes. Trapping in Nevada I always use laminated offset jaws, center swivelled traps with a bunch of swivels, but that is because of my check schedule. I’m not sure what your laws in Idaho are but here we are required to check once every 96 hours. Because of my work schedule at times I run right up against that 96-hour mark. So I always use traps designed to increase the comfort of trapped animals.

If you’re checking daily, I wouldn’t worry a whole lot about modified jaws. Just make sure they don’t have sharp edges. Some guys like to bubble weld or turn up the jaw ends but I don’t do that to traps. I have some like that but that’s because I bought them that way. Reason is if you don’t modify the jaw tips and add a baseplate, there’s a decent chance a lion can pop the jaws and escape and I’d rather not deal with a lion if I don’t have to.

Glue a piece of roof shingle to the pan and drop a few fines but you can guide them with no issues.

We don’t have the weather y’all have out there, but stock MB550 2 coils regular and offset jaws will both hold a bobcat and even by one toe, lol. Never had an issue with one getting out or missing them.

Anyone got a pic of a trap just on the ground exposed for cats? Guessing you at least have to dig a little something to get the center swiveled chain and swivel down in the deck to get it level and stable.

I caught my PA cat this year in a MB-550 2-coil closed jaw. Had 3 toes and held just fine. 32# Tom.

Usually just grab a little duff or some sticks or pebbles to get the trap stabilized. Here’s some I made the other day, used a fiberglass pan cover just to hold some fines and give a nice looking spot to step







I’ll try to get some more pics next check. The last pic caught a grey fox on the very next check after that photo was taken