jaws popping? No welder to bubble jaw ends.

I'm sure they do but there's a lot of well made traps on the market today that can catch there target animals and hold them without welding on the jaw tips or shock springs. If your buying traps I'd start there.

Just lightly bending the tips1 up will do wonders too!

High theft area (public ground) traps I'm building. Use my good traps on private ground.

I get it but there's some very good budget traps out there that I'd feel very confident in holding coyotes without welding jaw tips or running without shock springs. Just out of curiosity what does a good shock spring cost.

I recently bought a dozen duke # 2 dogless to try. Haven't set them yet but for the money they appear to be a very adequate trap. Don't quote me but I believe they were around $140/ dozen. They came 4 coiled but they were way to strong for my liking so I took the second set of springs off.

YES. I have shock springs on all my traps. EVEN IF they dont need them ! Shock springs work well for = Extended checks , Big Mean Male Coyotes, less foot damage and incidentals of the Large kind ! So my gues is = YES. And at 3 dollars a peice? WHY not ? Especially in high theft place like you are saying WHY buy new budget traps when 36 dollars a dz and shipping may fix your problem??

LT just my opinion...but I think the shock spring does both reduce the '"jarring" to the caught animal and the vibration motion/activity to anchor.
The issue is for the lighter weight caught animals...the shock spring at times doesn't give at all. Then consider IF a trapper uses a lighter rated shock spring(NW traps and SoftcatchTraps)
and then catches a hard fighting bigger animal then the spring's value is lessened....catch 22. I think a trapper just needs to decide what set up and shock spring
to go with and see what the results are at the end of each season and either change or continue....KISS

My take

My thoughts exactly. Spreads the impact loading over a longer duration on both ends of the system.
However, we lack total control over the input force by weight of the catch. Best we can do is opt for a targeted weight.

But in my experience it's all more theoretical that actually practical.

I have never used a shock spring in my lifetime. I know how the device works. In my experience it is just something else I have to bury, add weight and cost to your set up. Nothing wrong with those wanting to add them to your system. The longer your chain set up is, the more benefit it will have. For medium length cable/chain set ups I see no need.

And in some places, regulations come into play as well. The following is our regulation that applies to foothold traps set on land:



Drags are not considered solid anchors but I use shock springs on all my land foothold sets, even on DPs so I can run extension cables to something solid where stakes will not hold where the trap needs to be.

I'm with Bob on this.
I know that a short chain set up and a few swivels will accomplish the same thing. I can see where If you were running 30" of chain where the animal could get a running start but a 8" chain set up with 3 swivels not so much.

I'd be curious if the op is buying new traps for the stated situation or thinking of adding springs to existing traps and if existing traps has he had issues with popped jaws or is it an imagined problem looking for a fix? Just don't here a lot of issues with popped jaws nowadays with better trap builds

Could’ve swore I saw a study someone did on here about shock springs years ago and the end result was they were basically worthless. I’ve looked at some and couldn’t even pull them apart by hand. I don’t run long chains, just haven’t found a need for it down here. They can pump the trap chain all they want, it isn’t coming out.
I have DP’s out that I pushed in the anchor by hand in the wet areas. I can pull them up by hand, but a coon can’t. Done caught 3 in one DP and moved the DP because of how tore up the area was. Pulled it by hand and cleaned out the anchor and pushed it in right outside the catch circle area in “fresher” mud, lol.

I'm with you. While I like the "on paper" concept of springs in my overthinking it engineering type mind my actual in the field with and without springs says minor to no difference on coyotes, none on smaller critters.

Maybe there would be on long chains but I wouldn't know as I've never run long chains.

I could see them on drags, maybe for the initial run. But every pic I’ve seen on drags shows the critter wrapped up to the actual trap chain anyways. I have some drags made up and a couple out now, hoping to really utilize them when the ground turns to rock and I can’t get an anchor in or out, lol.

I run JC Conner Shocks on mine with about 12 to14 inches of chain all total. I do like to drive up and hear that spring squeaking when a coyote puts pressure on it . Correct me if I am wrong but isn't a good solid base plate the main factor that prevents Jaws from popping out?

I have a dozen or two shock springs that I have thrown on traps here and there so I don’t run them that frequently. I have noticed two things with shock springs. It seems that most of the coyotes I catch with shock springs on my chain fight the trap harder and more aggressively than just the short chain with multiple swivels I normally run. My theory is they feel the “give” and think they are winning so they try to exploit the perceived weakness. I have also noticed that they seem to have less of the cutting on their feet than the chains without. The cuts aren’t bad, and you may not notice them much if they were dead leaving the trap, but I seem to have less cutting with the shock springs. My guess is they don’t have the hard stop initially that causes the skin to bunch and cut. These are just two observations I’ve made with my limited experience using them.

Not new traps just small traps for coyotes. Coyotes not the intended target but possible. Of course it being a coyote, it deserves to die, I just want to hold him if I get him.

Thanks for sharing that. Good observations.

Shock springs are NOT for everyone or every situation. How many on here have run = Shock springs where a trapper is —- allowed long check times???? With a 30 inch chain and shock spring and multiple swivels. The coyotes can lay down and get comfortable. How many have = rolled up on multiple coyotes laying down and asleep ???

Agree with others, one more thing to hassle with. Frozen ground is hard enough to work in without having to bury a shock spring as well.

Main thing for me ?? Is the coyotes be in the trap when I get their!! Take. For example. Montana. Nevada. And Wyoming. 3 to 5 day check times. IF you catch = a breed female OR a big male OR one of those = bad trap fighters. Without shock spring they want be their in 3 days. That is NOT exceptable in sheep country

I've never ran shock springs. But I can say I live in a three day check state, and there is a huge difference in traps on foot damage. Some traps I can have coyotes in for three days and never leave a mark, others not so much. And, if the trap is the wrong size, designed for a different animal they can be pretty hard on feet.

Bearcat2, can you elaborate on your observations on what you’ve seen as being the best and worst on those long checks?

Great point. Most of us have never had the opportunity to run springs in all possible scenarios so our knowledge is limited.

Thanks Warrior. I am lucky. Get to trap lots of places. In West Texas now. But all I seam to be able to catch today is hogs ! LoL!

Bout 80 lbs is my guess. LPC 3 & 1/2 and 8 ft chain and drag. BUT still went 1/4 mile ! Bobbed and weved threw the brush for a minute

Targeted or incidental?

I'd imagine they could haul a load deep into the brush. They're built like tanks.

EVERYTHING is on the hit list here! If it ant cows or game the owners want = It has to go! LoL!

Badger Are not wanted for sure with horses and cows !!

Grey fox. Eat the quail.

Lots of big game here.

^^*** was told that was a = Big One ?

Yes that is a fine pronghorn !

I have seen = Elk. Mule Deer. Pronghorn. Whitetail and Audad so far.

I guess we are done talking shock springs

Sorry. Got carried away. I need to start a new thread. BUT every thing I caught was on = Shock Springs ! LoL’

I'm no expert, so I can just say some of what I've observed. The absolute worst traps on coyote feet that I've seen are not designed for coyotes, those are modified TS85s. They don't damage their intended targets feet, but are terrible on any incidental coyotes. From what I have observed, cast jaws or wide laminated jaws with rounded edges and narrow offsets seem to produce the least damage. You want some offset, if you don't have enough offset to allow decent blood flow the foot will go numb and they may chew on it, also in the colder areas it will freeze if you don't have enough blood flow. Too much offset and the coyote can slide their foot around a little, which will cause damage. This is where the argument between center swiveled and side swiveled emerges, because if the chain is attached to the side of the trap the coyote will pull its foot up tight to the opposite edge of the jaws and not move it any more, whereas a center swiveled trap he can slide it back and forth causing more damage, but a properly offset trap or close jawed, where his foot never slides at all and the center swivel will cause less damage with the straight pull than the side swiveled trap. A big heavy trap can cause more damage with them fighting it, but from my observations some big heavy traps do, and other even bigger, heavier traps do not. If you are trapping where you are targeting or may catch multiple species it is going to be tough to pick the right trap. A couple swivels close to the trap help a lot, swivels on down a long chain don't seem to do a lot, in my experience.

Shock springs are kinda like “anti-hitch” devices on drags.

Overrated.

Only reason I’d use them again would be if mandated by law.