Had a big zero today on the cat/wolf line today so I tinkered some this afternoon. I ordered some Bridger #3 dogless pans a couple weeks ago to see how they’d work with the jumps and some #4 DLS. I think they’re a bit big for #4 DLS but they look pretty good on a #4 jump.

I removed the pan and dog and clamped the spring down with a small welding vise grip. With the big washer for a thumb screw on the vise I could easily back it off so the spring put enough pressure on the jaws to hold the pan in place. I used a piece of 1/8” black pipe and a 1/4” bolt to secure the pan to the frame. I used a small block of wood and some tongue depressors to position the pan. A quick tack with the wire feed yo hold it together then I welded both sides of the black pipe to the frame.

A 1/4” nyloc nut to secure the bolt annd pan and I trimmed to dog arm off.



Things tacked in place.



The finished product

Nice work.

That's an awesome mod. Thanks for sharing. Nice work

That looks really good

How does it work? With that spring coming up from beneath that pan? It looks like there isn't much room between the spring and pan, so wondering how much room when the trap fires? Can't tell in the pictures. How much room is there for say a beaver foot when snapped? Any difference from the original pan?
It does appear to cure the wobbly pan problem that the #4 and V-14 jump traps suffer from.
I guess my questions pertain to the fact that the new dogless pivots under the pan, and looks like as the pan gets forced up by the spring, it may hit the frame going toward where the old dog was. The old pan pivoted out from the pan, allowing it to flop away from the spring.

There is enough clearance. Pretty much the same as the original pan. I’ve not tested it yet on the line but have no doubts about it working fine. There is ample room under the pan to clear the hump and the pan doesn’t come up any higher than the original when fired.

Excellent. That cures the wobbly pan, then. I used to use the V-14s for wolverine and occasionally beaver. I tightened up the pan best I could by tapping the open slots the pan rode in but didn't work very well. My trapping partner in Alaska swapped out the factory pans for Pit-Pans and was a huge improvement. I quit using them altogether and sold them all, (the 14s), after losing a few wolverine with them, (got a couple toes, too).

I know there are better traps than the 4/14s but used correctly they are pretty good traps and I like them. And where I trap beaver there is a lot of boat traffic so having a little less sensitive pan is nice. I’ve watched wake action set off a #4 jump. And #4 jumps can be bought for a lot less than many of the new and popular beaver traps. I would rather loose a #4 jump than an expensive #5 coil or long spring. I’d rather not loose any traps to thieves but that’s not realistic on public ground.

Looks great, Marty. I've got a couple dozen #4s laying around. I may have to copy your idea.

I think I have a couple 4 jumps left around here somewhere. I never cared for them for beaver, but they worked. Mainly I didn't like trying to set them when knee deep in the water, or trying to stand on them in muck. So I had the same theory as you, whenever I had a spot I was worried about thieves, out came the jump traps. Thus over the years my collection of #4 jumps (never large) slowly diminished

I have a Lines setter for the jumps. It takes all the hassle out of setting them. I used to struggle with them as well.

Marty looks good! But I have to ask, what’s a line setter? I’ve used channel locks to compress the spring seems to work ok. They can be hard to set.

The Lines Setter. I had or may still have a homemade version of this as well. It may be buried in a long unopened box or tote if I still have it. I think I’ll fabricate a similar setter as these originals are getting scarce and somewhat collectible.

Learned something! Thanks Marty.