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.