Your choice and why?

One reason is cost. Both traps preform the same.

Billy D trap made in China and I try not to support.

I have far more MB's than I do Dukes for obvious reasons.

I'm not going to support foreign business if I can keep from it.

I'm not a long liner with 100 or more traps out. I understand the money side of it for those guys.

I choose to buy American whenever I can.

I run MB 450 on land. I bought a couple dozen duke 450 and had to adjust the dog on every one of them. Dozens of MB 450's were all good out of the box. Choice made for that size trap

I have both. Is the MB a better trap? I believe it is. Is the Duke a great trap? It is. I have about 10/1 dukes verses MB because the difference to me is not enough to offset the cost.

I can't have foreign traps, guns or knives. But yet I can drive a foreign truck. Don't know.

x2

MB is better like said. I have to work on all my Dukes before I use them.

I have a dozen Duke 450s and they are tough as a tank and hold up well to coyotes. If I ever buy any more 450 traps though, they will likely be MBs because they are both the same price now on F&T.

A good quality trap at a good price point was why I went with the Dukes but I guess the tariffs put a stop to that.

I like my Dukes.

I bought 10 dozen of the Dukes when they came out. Cost was a big factor. Bill isn’t Chinese, he does a lot for the trapping community!
Also my customers don’t normally have a clue what traps I use.

wws

Which trap are we talking about? Both MB and Duke make quite a few different models. Only MBs I own are 750s and 650s. Only Dukes I own are 330s and 850s. Closest thing to compare is the MB750s to the Duke 850s. In that comparison Dukes win hands down. The 850 is twenty times the wolf trap the 750 is, for about the same price. The 750 is better made, if you are looking at consistency of product and craftsmanship, but the 850 is a much better wolf trap.

Foot traps? They are not the same not even close. They may both work and do what you ask of them but definitely not the same.
MB a much better built trap for land predators. I can’t speak for the wolf size though not an issue for me here.
I do own a lot of Duke 220s and 160s, and the Duke DP is a home run.
The Duke 1.5 for coon is a good trap.
Above that size though for bigger land animals (up to coyote for me that is) and for foot traps to catch them with the MB is the better built trap. But you pay more for MBs and when it’s a numbers game you may be able to buy a whole lot more dukes than MBs for same amount of cash and that will help you catch more animals: but are they better? Not really in my opinion. The MB is built like a tank. I have a bunch of 450 and 550s. I tried a lot of mid size dukes and those now all sit in a tote and may be on the market soon. FYI, I love Bridger 2s for coyotes and cats though. That is my own inexpensive alternative to MBs and the bridgers serve me very well.
Jim

Just happy we have so many choices to choose from!

If you are talking 550 foot traps I have MB's but would use some Dukes if they were given to me

For my current needs I have no reason to buy more and the MB's have been working for me

I bought some Duke 550 use when they first came out. the levers bent when a coyote was caught [china junk] got tried of fixing them.

Now I use MB 550s and never have an issue.

The 10 dozen I bought were the 650 pro’s. I have 550’s and 450’s too,
I don’t own any of the body grip Dukes yet, just Belisles and a few of the mb 1216’s.

wws

I can’t speak to much to MB versus Duke.


I will say it’s silly to pay extra for a Bridger over Duke though!

Same trap anymore!

I am curious about the Duke 850. I have never seen one in person. I do have a MB750Wolf I bought about 20 years ago as a curiosity. Now that wolves are an option I am going to buy a couple dozen more traps. What are the details about the Duke 850 that is preferred over the MB750 ?

The 750 is under powered, especially to come up through any crust, and is the worst trap I have dealt with to freeze down. They don't have either the power or the jawspread to come up through much snow. They aren't a bad summertime wolf trap, if you are trapping in bare ground and mild conditions, and they are a great to bed. However I don't really like having both jaws locked down so I have to reach between them to do anything. Like clean snow out of the mechanisms. The Duke has a bigger jawspread and more power to come up through more snow and or crust, plus as a simple dog over design it is much better in freeze/thaw. You are going to have to work on the dog after a catch, most wolves will have bent that rod dog up and you will likely have to straighten on it to get it reset. They also sometimes bend up the dog rods on the 750, and they are not nearly as easy to fix in the field in order to reset.

There are better wolf traps out there than the Duke, but at it's price point it stands out against the competition. Also the Duke has thick, rounded, cast jaws that are easy on nontargets. Not that the MB 750 is, but some of the other wolf traps are.

The Duke 550s have a square pan and lighter swivels, otherwise no noticable difference. They work as well as the MBs and are cheaper.

You get what you pay for. Simple as that.

The irony, china produces traps and is a leading consumer of fur.

With some fairly simple mods the 850 can made into a wolf trap. They call it a wolf trap, but it’s not designed for it. A small 55lb pup mangled mine up, but it held. Like bearcat says, the 750s are great for summer ADC, but that’s it. Having said that, there’s a fella in Winnipeg that usues them without issue, they just don’t work in certain situations.
Buy once, cry once. Can not go wrong with Obermier‘s trap, and support him too. As for boycotting China, they’re also the biggest fur buyers out there……2 thumbs up!!….way to go!…..lol
Duke is one of Paul A’s sponsors, but he did let him know what he thought about his 850 “wolf” trap……lol.
Here’s a good vid of his mods that’ll help the trap do its job more than once or twice….

I just use a die to thread the end of the spring rods and put a nyloc nut on them. The nuts are bigger than the spring holes so there is no need for a washer or plate. Everybody seems to do something to lock those springs on so they can't come off the end of the rods, honestly I don't know that the chances of them being able to come off are very high, but it is easy to do and provides peace of mind. Then I cut that big wolf swivel off the bottom of the trap and replace it with a crunchproof with welded j-hooks to make it easier to bed. Not necessary but it makes my life easier. That is pretty much the mods I do, although I may I start cutting the pans down some. I've caught nine wolves in them without a problem, but I had a pullout the other day where I pinched a wolf on about 12 feet of chain with the drag hooked solid to a tree, he hit the end of the chain and you could see his body imprint in the snow where it flipped him, he rolled and was up and running. I'm assuming a toe catch that didn't grab behind the toe pads.

Duke admitted they had a bad run of levers and offered to replace all those in that bad run of levers free of charge for anyone who wanted. That's the good customer service, that Duke is well known for.

Yep, more Duke traps for the same money.

Dukes. Yes, made in China, but that has been stamped on the trap and completely transparent since it's inception.