Previous owner left some Duke 1.75" (1-3/4") coil spring traps. I was going to use them for muskrats but a friend said I should heat/torch the coil springs to soften them up for muskrats.

I've searched the internet and YouTube and cannot find anything on that. He's never done it, only heard of it done.


Does anyone here have an idea on how to do it or a link to a video?


I have a propane cooking torch that can get to 3,272' degrees, and I'm assuming that is enough heat?


Thanks in advance.

I do all my rat traps that way. I have one of those handheld propane torches. I heat each spring for about 30 seconds. You could start with less time and then check to see if that makes them as weak as you Want. Wait till the springs are cold before setting.
If you are a rat and mink trapper all your traps should be weakened. When I trapped In ND I watched lots of rat just sit on those new 1 1/2 coils and never set them off.
Make sure you use the very tip of the flame when doing It since that is the hottest part of the flame

Thanks!


How do you know when they are weak enough, put your hand on the pan to set it off?


By heating the coils are you making the trap more sensitive, correct?

Start out on the light side. Take a new trap or at least one that has strong springs and set it and fire it. You will see or feel how much pressure it takes to set it off. You want to weaken the springs, so it goes off a lot easier. It's hard to explain it's all about feel. You want some spring strength when you're done.

Thanks!


By heating the coils are you making the trap more sensitive, correct?

Yes

Thank you.

I know what you mean about the stiff strong springs. I bought a few brand new ones years ago and have never used them for that reason. Old traps are usually pretty dang cheap for a box full and that’s all I’ve ever used. The junk or ones that are too weak get hung up for parts.

I’ve gotta tell you folks, IMHO, weakening the spring is the last thing I’d want to do but that’s me and not anybody else. Instead, think about the trigger on a dogged trap as sitting on a fulcrum which is the jaw!. Adjusting the fulcrum center point is IMO way, way, easier to adjusting pan tension to literally zero! Just my experienced opinion though! LOL Also, don’t forget what happens to pan tension when you bend the end of the trigger downward!. I’ve just explained a couple of viable alternatives to heating springs to lessen pan tension. Neither will help in setting the trap though.

As long as you have those very strong springs pushing the spring levers against the dogged jaw you are going to have too much pan tension for rat and mink trapping. Even if you loosen the pan tension bolt and bend down the end of the dog like Seldom mentioned. You can only bend that dog end down so much before you start getting empty sprung traps.
I caught lots of incidental coon using those weakened sprung traps and never had many pullouts. As long as you have enough spring pressure to close and keep the jaws closed your good to go on a rat and mink trap.
It does make a difference.

I'm mostly after coons, but I just adjust pans so they fall on their own and leave it at that. I like strong springs. Catch plenty of rats and mink too.

As this thread is about mink & rat traps and stout springs, I've got a little tip to pass on. When I was trapping mink in the 90's I used Duke 1.5s and did change the fulcrum point so they didn't hardly have enough pan tension to hold a Sullivan tester but this tip hasn't anything to do with pan tension, it has to do with spring strength! Now even in the mid-90's I couldn't just hold a new Duke 1.5 out in front of me and set the trap, Nope and I didnt want to set traps on my waders. I had to set it on some thing which presented a problem when I was standing in crotch-deep water and nothing but water around me. I got the idea of using a piece of rubber shop mat rtv'ed to each of my wader's thighs. This easily enabled me to set any trap I was using for mink & rats by setting it on those pads. Worked like a charm!! That's my tip, saved my waders and setting traps was just plain easy! Yellow arrows show the pads.

That's the beauty of weakened trap springs. You don't have to set them against your knee or thigh.
We were running 400 traps a day and sometimes checking twice a day. Evey little bit helps.
And trapdog1 there is a big difference between a 15lb coon and 2lb rat.

Not $ wise.....lol.
Seldom, that's a good tip. The Dan's brier proof have been holding up good so far, but they sure ain't cheap. Need a lot of rats to pay for them!

Yep the rats are worth more. And easier to catch and put up. LOL

I knew there was more to it than pan tension! LOL

Depends on where your coon are coming from.

Duke 1 1/2 s are a copy of the victors. Much of the holding power is through design as opposed to spring strength. High levers that lock and don’t back down and flat/straight jaws account for the holding power. Spring strength helps jaw speed.

Mine are weak and fast enough. Rarely snapped and empty.

Yes there is a difference. I said I was primarily after coons so prefer a stronger trap.

Why not just remove 1 spring?

OR: Post on the shed for some weak spring take off's, should be pretty cheap.

Yes, there should be some folks who have some “helper” springs laying around that they’ve replaced with stronger music wires! I’d think doing a little searching would be wiser than dickin around ruining stock springs! Because of this thread I removed the main springs on a Duke #2 but left the helpers on. Easier to set of course and certainly strong enough to easily hold a mink or rat!

Just put mink pans on them, the flat part of the pan engaging the entire width of the dog will cut the pan tension in half.

l dont know why anyone has not suggested using the right trap for mushrats for crying out loud. Maybe its just more trouble than its worth

Yup!! The Wild River Pans make a big difference. No need to weaken the springs.

Such as?

When I started float trapping seriously I wanted to mimic the 1 1/2 sized triumph single grip. Took a 1 1/2 duke removed one spring and lever. They were bought new. Just couldn't envision setting 75-100 (or more) of those every day for a couple weeks. Still have the levers and spring in a bucket in case I want to sell them. Work very well .

I second Killbuck. Takes less than 5 mn a trap and you haven’t damaged springs. Also one spring can be positioned away from path of travel like an underspring.

Do what trips your trigger. But I know what worked for me. And all those heat-treated 1 1/2 Duke coil springs caught me 1000s of rats. And I caught a few coon in them too.
And those large trap pans do not solve the problem for those overpowered traps.

ADJUSTED PROPERLY, the Wild River pans installed on brand new Duke traps work just fine and you don't have to weaken the springs unless of course you want to. I catch several hundred mink, rats, and coons, as well as some otters and a few beaver in them every year. I've got some Duke 1 1/2 coils that are 15 years or so old all the way down to brand new shiny ones and I have never heated the springs on them.

Different options achieve similar results.

It's not how many you catch it's how many you miss.

I agree.

And we will have to agree to disagree whether it is necessary to heat the springs. With how I adjust and set my traps up it isn't necessary for me to do that to achieve a light enough pan tension.

No doubt the flopper pans make the trap plenty enough sensitive. The issue is the ease of setting if handling several hundred a Day.

I would think you'd be just as well off to take one spring off and not mess with the heating part

I'd just buy some no.1 long springs before I started taking off springs and heating them up.

Trade your strong Duke 1.75’s for older weaker Victor pinch pan 1.5’s.
PM if you want to trade a dozen

I weaken some springs by heating them on some Duke 1.5's when my kid was young because they were easier for him to set in deeper water for trapping rats. I later just changed them out for 1 1/2 music wire then he got stronger and wanted them for other uses. No big deal.

This post is about heating coil springs to weaken' them so sorry if this is off on a sidetrack........Many years ago Charlie Dobbins told me the #1 Triumph LS was the best LS trap for rats and mink because the spring bend allowed for twisting the spring to either side and the jaws (and entire trap) laid flat, same for the Triumph 1.5 LS. On a float, that is a plus and have used them occasionally through the years. Don't like them for anywhere a coon catch is also possible but for rats in a pond/cattail marsh etc. they are good. Talked with Rich Kasper once about LS in the marsh vs.CS and as Charlie told me 'You only need 1 hand to depress a LS as opposed to 2 for a coil". Hand fatigue (thumbs) will get guys (it got me) with both thumbs working 100's of traps but you can switch out the thumb/hand/heal ache when setting LS's all day TO YOUR OTHER HAND. Don't tell me you can't unless you only have 1 hand, just learn how to use both. Like dribbling a Basketball. I am not a fan of using a weakened 1.75 coil for rats. If you want that big of a trap for rats, save the 1.75's and get some old used #2 V SJ coils. They are lighter in weight, pan falls with ease, jaw spread is greater, springs can be over coiled in a vise to weaken them if you want, can be used as a killer trap when set correctly to catch both front feet or head of a rat and cheaper to buy. Cheaper always attracts me LOL. So if using floats or in/on a rat house there are other alternatives than the torch. .Been my Experience. ..................the (handache) mike

So, If the Op has traps and can weaken them why go out and buy more traps.
Have any of you that oppose spring weaking ever used a trap that has its springs weakened? Have any of you caught over 3,000 rats in a season?
I can tell you it makes a difference. Before I wreaked the springs on my 1 1/2 dukes, I watched rat sit right on top of my stock traps. Sure, I short notched then loosened the pan bolt even bent the dog end down. It helped but I was still missing lots of rats.
ND is a rat trappers paradise you can sand on the ditch banks and watch rats working your sets you can see what is happening and see how rat works a set. I'll tell you a little story. There was this road going through this mash. We only had permission to trap one side. The road was probably 1/4 mile long and it was washed out at the far end. WE set 60 some traps and it's hard to believe but by the time we started back we had caught 42 rats. I actually watched 2 rats get caught and When I removed one rat from a trap and re set It, I stood right by that trap and watched a rat swim up to that trap and get caught right in front of me. And that was early morning we came back 5 hours later and had 10 more rats. It was pretty common to check twice a day. This was in the spring of the year.

I learned a lot about what works and what doesn't when it comes to trap adjustment.

Weaken a few and see what happens. You have to remember that once the spring levers are locked up on the jaw edges the springs have done their job. We caught quite a few coon in those traps and can't say we didn't lose a few, but we did catch and hold some. But then again, we weren't making coon sets. All these sets were adjustable baited and lured stool sets, set along the ditch banks. It didn't work in Wisconsin.

Me too.

And 95% of the trappers that trap rats will never see population densities of the magnitude that Beav describes so for the majority of rats harvested across the U.S. do guys weaken their springs when they catch 50 - 200 rats/season? That's a question each guy has to answer himself. Once weakened you can't stiffen the spring back up if you want vs. buy some other tool (#1 LS's at 1.00-2.00 ea or #2 V SJ coils @ 4.00-5.00 ea. that can also act as a killer trap). A specific trap that fits a specific method. Weight, thievery, trap mechanic time etc., are factors along with what trap you choose. Your best path might be to ask any LOCAL guys who are rat harvesters in the same situation you will trap in/around. Local experience Trumps (LOL) keyboard experience every time. Or like Beav suggests, try a dozen of each, if in doubt and when you catch 3000 let us in on your choice..................................... the mike. ................. enclosed is this years 2 rats in a 330 BG, does that count for anything?. ...........the (any trap works) mike

Lots of good info here from experienced guys....and lots of used traps for sale now....fairly cheap too.

Actually the 220 BG was and is a great rat trap.

I know a few big-time rat trappers here in WI that use wakened foot holds for rats and their numbers would put a 3000-nose count to shame.

I'll say it again It's not how many you catch It's how many you miss.

Beav has a point. try it. 6 traps, whatever.

Our greatest flaw is over confidence and stubbornness. Nature sometimes defies “logic”.

Serious trapping generates humility. Humility should create growth.

Don’t be scared. Dip a toe. Believe

I dont live in rat country per say, but stronger traps do catch rats. maybe the rats were lucky and standing on the dead spot on the pan. I use 1 1/2 & 2 coilsprings for mink. I cant say because I never saw one working my set and use a lot more 110s and 160s vs footholds.

They are your traps bud. Give it a try if you want to. At this point I'd do it to irritate the folks that are so adamant that you shouldn't do it. lol