how do i make a conibear magnum? could i do it without welding?

Got to weld a extra bar is the only way I know of

Theres pics here somewhere that had a person weld a triangular piece of 1/4 to opposite corners for the same effect

Check Boco' pic of the 120 mag. in the skunk thread.


My take.... the term MAGNUM does not just talk about strong springs but also jaws that almost touch when closed.

I always wondered how that term came up in regards to body gripping traps.

Outside of work out victors or rusted out other traps,.I never noticed a whole lot of difference in spring strengths of 330s.

I always wondered how that term came up in regards to body gripping traps.

Outside of work out victors or rusted out other traps,.I never noticed a whole lot of difference in spring strengths of 330s.

Gotta weld kill bars on there

I mean like the jaws to close fully, thought that’s what magnum meant? Also AK timber tramp, I caught 3 muskrats under the ice with your advice you gave me. Pics In kids forum in case ya want to see

Nice job! I'll check it out, glad I could help out

Magnum on body grips does mean fully closing jaws.


There's only one thing you can do really without welding to make them more fully closing is to squeeze down the spring eyes which makes them a bit more of a pain to set. You could suppose bend the jaws if you had a press to do so, but if you had to do something like that you'd be better off just buying new traps.

What are you trying to catch? Really the only thing worth having magnum jaws is on 280/330s for miscreant beaver, otter and muskrat that don't follow directions.

And sorry if you misunderstood me there, you were correct about magnum meaning the jaws touch, but the way to achieve that on a pre-existing trap is to weld an extra bar to each side, causing a full closure. They're called kill bars as far as I've ever known, and they just take up the extra "slack" between the factory bars. There's actually a company in Canada that makes them that way, I can't remember the name (it's french-canadian) edit: sauvageau (I looked it up)

Belilse and sauvageua make magnum jaw traps. Belilse achieve it with a bend and the sauvageua uses a kill bar

I always forget belisles are a magnum trap until I show up to a tail caught beaver, and remember why I spent the extra money lol. But I can't say anything bad about Duke either, they're not perfect but they work if you put them in the right place

Magnum traps are measured for both clamping force as well as striking force.
If you add weight to the jaws of a non magnum trap to make them close tighter,you dont have a magnum trap unless you also beef up the springs to compensate for the reduced striking force due to the heavier jaws and thus slower closing (less striking force)

There’s the dog on some traps that never let the jaws fully close.

LDL, Belisle and a few other traps like Rudy I believe have figured how to fix that bulky dog issue but you knew that already...lol
Put a few Belisle dogs on some of my older Duke 330 mags...modified the dog and trigger a bit so it works right and it turned out nice.

i was told that if a 110 isnt magnum then it wont kill a mink, i have some sleepy creek 110s that have a big gap and idk if they would kill something with a small neck

You may occasionally have one that doesn't cooperate on dry land. Under water you don't have that issue. But you won't lose a mink because of a non magnum trap.

Thanks for clarifying sniper

I've caught lots of mink in Sleepy Creek 110's with no problems. Killed em all dead.