Also, should I be engaging the night latch, then pulling pan down a little until level so there isn't as much play?

If its adjusted right, when the night latch is set the pan should be level. And you shouldn't be able to push the pan down without it firing.

First take a file and touch up the underside of pan with file to remove any burs
Then touch oup end of dog with file
Level pans
Set trap with pan engagement above night latch
Reach under loose jaw and slowly push pan down until the night latch engages
Now slowly push down on pan and see if there's too much travel before it fires. The extra travel will either be in the eye of the dog or end of dog where it engaged the pan.
If it's in the eye u will need to crimp eye tighter. If at pan and dog engagement u will need to file end of dog shorter.
If you wax ur traps check pan tension after waxing if not check the tension now. If it's too high after leveling and deburring then u will need to bend dog to attain desired tension.

U will want just a bit of travel on the pan before it's fired so it's not on a hair trigger or else your going to have trouble with trap firing on its own with freeze thaw conditions

Okay sounds good. Thank you for the info. So is filing the dog and underside of the pan technically adjusting pan tension and decreasing it slightly? And how much is too much movement in the pan? I may be overthinking it. It's not like my pan is moving an inch before it fires. Most of them is just a slight downward movement and it fires

Filing pan and dog can affect pan tension if there's a bur it will increase pan tension and if u smooth it up it will decrease pan tension. I shoot for about an 1/8" of travel at end of pan before it fires.

I catch a lot of cats in 550s. I prefer a 6-1/2" trap when targeting cats but you won't have any problems holding them. Just set them were there stepping and you will be fine.

Okay, I filed underside of pan and end of the dogs on my traps and have little to no pan travel now. I feel like they are all in the range of 3 to 4 pounds of pan tension which is where I want them but I want to be sure. What's the easiest way to check pan tension without a tester?

Get a hammer that weighs about 4 pounds and see if it sets them off when you set the handle on the pan.

Fill a water bottle up to the weight you want to test and use that.......

Alright I tested my traps with a 3 pound hammer. Some of them are set off by almost all the weight of the hammer and some are set off by the weight of the hammer and just slightly more. So some of my traps are between 2 and 3 pounds of pan tension and some between 3 and 4 pounds. Are either of these pan tensions considered okay for bobcat trapping? Or do I need to go back through and adjust them all?

Where is a 550 a big trap?

They will all be just fine the way they are.

Need be 2.28 pounds exactly. 97.3% catch rate on cats and keeps the catch rate on possums and coons below 21.7%. Keep tuning on them. You will thank me later.

I almost believe you,,,,,,,

I tried real hard.... even used decimal points

I dont have any Duke 550’s, but about 6 dozen MB’s. I dont care about the copying because it seems like nearly every trap is a copy, but I sure as (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) havemt havent had to tune an MB for play in the trigger.

Dukes don't need it either, unless you read too much on the internet, then you'll believe you have to tune every trap to mil specs, and use a secret lure or you can't catch anything.

I have 1 dozen of the Duke 550’s and 10 Dozen of the Duke 650’s, all I have had to do to them is level the pan on a few of them. I most likely didn’t have to do that to catch coyotes with them but I did. I also changed out the chain and swivels but that was just for my preference, I like JC Connor’s rod swivels.

wws