Anyone played with these much? I notice 4 coiled they are way way to strong but 2 coiled they feel on the weaker side wondering if anyone plans to run these 2 coiled for beaver? I did add some #3 4coil springs and that seemed to help with out getting obnoxiously hard to set

I have one but I can't set It and It's illegal to use In WI. But It's a well built trap.

Interested to see how they perform on wolves, the price is right, but I haven't seen one in person yet.

So does the 850 have an 8.5" jaw spread? I get wolves, but what in the world else would one trap with those? If you say beaver, then I'll just ask if it's necessary, not trolling just curious.

8.5" outside, 8.0" inside, OS for wolf and lion, FJ for beaver. ... so the ads read.
Alan Probst has a short video introducing them, in MT I think, says the law there is minimum 10lb pan tension.

Thanks

Has anyone caught a wolf in one yet?

I just talked to Mr Bill and he was In Ketchican Alaska not long ago and quite a few trappers had caught wolves In the 850 and were pleased with the traps performance. I think It was a trapper from Prince Of Wales Island that caught the first wolf In a 850. And Mr Bill has that wolf hanging In the office.
Daniel Peters (sp)name comes to mind in our conversation.

I would like to here a report and opinions from anybody who has caught a wolf in one. But the guys I've talked to that have them haven't caught one in one yet.

Call Bill Duke and I'm sure he could give you names of persons that have caught wolves In the 850.
If yo don't have the # PM me and I'll give It to you.

There is a quick trick of adding screw and nut on the pan will like most traps to get you to the pan tension weight you would like if you must have more the bent dog will give you.
I did it to there 650s because 3.5 to 4 lbs is not enough for me trapping coyotes but I sold them I was scaleing back on traps.
Red

Yeah, they've caught a bunch in them in Alaska. Haven't talked to anyone here in Idaho yet that has, but I know that time is coming.

I bought reds 650s and used a couple of the bolts from the 650s on 850s. I am convinced that is the easiest most repeatable method to get pan tension. I got one 850 to 10lbs by bending the dog but it is a very iterative process. As Seldom pointed out to me in another thread the fulcrum point is more important than the slope of the dog. Getting the pan tension idea from red and some free trapping advice was worth the price of the traps.
JBS

Can you post a picture of the nut/bolt mod on the 650/850's?

Cascadecat made it simple by drilling a hole on the arms taking bolt and nut tighten to pan tension you would like. Very simple fix
JBS got them now

This should show you the concept.

Thanks

That "mod" looks like crap. But...if it works.....

Lots of good info Thanks everyone. I'm hoping to set my 850 soon for some beaver and yes bigger the trap the better in my opinion for beaver I love ts85a but bought 1 duke 850 to play with.

Duke will send you actual pan tensioners for the 850s free of charge if you call them up -they come with a new pan and spring bar with what looks like a drill stop collar welded to each leg of pan that have allen screws that tighten against the spring bar 662-494-6767