Do we tinker when we don't need to. I'm not master trapper. Not by a long shot. All I ever did was file night latches. The other day I read a post from the beav about heating and weakening springs for muskrat and mink. Now I got more tinkering to do. Will it help that much to take the time to do it?

Anything the Beav suggests should be taken as pure gospel and treated as such.

Beav has been down that road a long time and knows his stuff. He has forgotten much of what others have yet to learn.

It’s fun. I’m going to try and make a pan bracket for a #5 Bridger DLS so it’ll accept a dogless pan. Ordered the pans, but they never came with brackets….lol.

Depends on the need and what traps ya have, but yeah most of mine are "adjusted" to what I want them to do.

Anything more than leveling the pan and dipping them is fiddling. And I have way more important things to do than fiddle with traps. Some folks absolutely love it. Not I.

I know two advantages in doing so,
Beav probably knows five.

I'm a fiddler

… agreed

I only fiddle with coyote traps, base plates, crunch proof swivels, rod swivels, tack weld J hooks, 4 coils, other traps get center swivels on chains all short chains, pans tension tested, make sure it sets level, NO drop, dye and wax

What is the reasoning for weakening the springs for muskrat and mink?

I'm am a firm believer in, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

I tinker way too much haha!