I got bit the other day. 1st time ever. Ouch! We were pulling traps on the river. A Perfect storm of situations got me out of my routine. Grandkids were in the boat. Trying to Pay attention to them to make sure they were in a safe location. My Trapping partner talking to me as well. I was trying to undo a fully set 330 from an H stand. I put the spring safety’s on (or so I thought) .. It was in deep water. I did not have my water gloves so I did not reach down and put on my Conibear safety on. Normally taking it off is the last thing I do when I set a 330 and putting it on is the 1st thing I do when pulling a live 330. Anyway instead of just firing it with a stick, I tried to de-arm it. I got distracted,wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing and the next thing I know I have both thumbs pinned in a brand new Belisle 330. Scary. Plus it hurt like heck! Luckily one safety was still on one spring. I was able to pull that thumb out the side and use that hand to help pull the other out. Lessons learned. Pay attention,don’t mess w/ live 330s, whenever possible get that dang safety on!

Current president of the club. Welcome!

Whole hand! Ouch. Those jaws on a Belyle really work.

I've heard people say you haven't trapped til you've caught yourself.

I have several times. Apparently the first one didn't suck bad enough I had to try again a few times to be certain I wasn't enjoying it lol. First time I got 3 fingers grabbed by an MB-750 I would have sworn was froze down (they usually are). The worst one was getting my foot in a 330 that was in a deep beaver house entrance, I was already about 2" from the top of my waders, so there wasn't much I could do under there. I had to shimmy over to where it was tied off and make my way to dry ground to get it off me

My partner says the same thing. He done it with a foothold and a 330. I was trying not to be a member of that club.

I try to avoid it, but it happens to most of us eventually. I've caught myself on purpose several times also (always to prove a point to someone who is trying to argue that traps/trapping is cruel or harmful) people may not change their opinions because you put your fingers in a #4, but they at least open their eyes a little bit

Me....way too many times to mention. Worst was a little Victor 120 across my thumb. Freezing outside...had just caught a big buck mink...was resetting trap and Bam!
Had to wired down to a root....have you ever tried setting the springs with one hand one a slippery little body gripper...lol

Who hasn't should be the question.

I caught myself in a fully modified Bridger #2 4 coiled last year by both of my thumbs. That was an experience, to say the least. And then earlier this year when I was getting ready for hut trapping rats, I caught myself in a NOS blake and lamb guard trap straight across the meat of my thumb and it took me about 5 minutes to get out, I almost had to call someone.

Lots of times, but there are certain traps I'm particularly careful of. I've not joined the 330 club. Most painful by far (and now a trap I'm particularly careful of) was a brand new Bridger 120. was making a marten set with a flower pot and already had the trap tied off to the tree. Managed to catch both thumbs in that one. The other bad one was a modified TS 85 wolf trap last winter. Now I've caught myself in them before, and they hurt, but apparently not bad enough to make me trap shy. But I was redoing a trail set and next thing I knew I had my right thumb in it. I had my setters beside me that time, problem was I had got caught in the corner of the jaws, tight against the lever (actually so tight the lever was a little down. My caught hand was in the way and I couldn't get setters on that side! Finally got the corner of a boot on that side and got it off. But it took about five minutes and that was my throttle thumb, made the snowmobile ride out not too pleasant.

Even with the safeties on they'll ring your hand, always near a sensitive joint too. The pain lets you know you're still alive...lol

A couple of years ago I was attending a class/meeting with the LDWF concerning hunter education and a friend dropped off a box of traps, putting them in my truck. When I got a break I went to my truck to see what I had in the box. My friend who was the bear biologist and several LDWF personnel came along as we just got done talking about trapping and wanted to see some traps. I reached in the box and I saw stars. I pulled my hand up and there was a big #3 CS on my thumb, I said see, traps don't hurt the animal at all. They laughed and I sat there on my tailgate with the trap on my thumb. When the break was over I asked my friend to get the trap off of my thumb. He laughed at how stupid I was. Later I called my other friend who had brought the traps over and he said it must have been the trap with the zip-tie on it. He used it as a demo trap and had forgotten to take the zip-tie off. Sure enough there was a busted zip-tie in the box. A couple of days later I was setting a 110 in a mink run and it fired on the same thumb. I'm not a smart man...

I over modified a duke 3 a few years ago with 1 1/2 music wire helper springs. I set it and was holding it by the lever with my thumb way to close to the pivot point of the jaws and it fired.

That was my worst one, I've since been much more careful

OMG. Not good. And I thought my little incident was bad!

Duke 3's are rough on the paws of everything they catch....

Ouch

One thumb in a Belisle 280. Was cleaning weeds off the triggers and thought I had the safeties both hooked. Apparently one wasn't. Where was my spring style safety at? In my pocket. Where were my setters? In my truck about 100 yards away. I was knee deep in water, about 15 degrees out and the trap was staked into the bank with 24" rebar, frozen solid for weeks. I was wearing heavy gloves and was able to slide my thumb to the side that had the spring compressed and pull it out. I took off my glove and stuck my hand in the creek to make it go numb to stop the pain.

When dealing with BG's now, the safety is the first thing on and last thing off.

I bet that throbbed for quite a while. I've been caught a lot but never that bad. OUCH!

Oh many times. 110, 220, #2 coil plus #3 coil a couple of times. Just bruised fingers mainly.