I got some #2 square jaw dukes and was wondering if I should use bigger pans on them? My trapline is is mostly coyote with bobcat and fox sets when I can find sign, is there a down side to have bigger pans for coyotes?

I wouldn’t worry about it, there is no downfall per se. I’ve used #2 bridgers and #2 dukes round jaw and never wished I had a bigger pan for coyotes

I have no experience with the bigger pans. All the traps I have used in the past 50 years had stock pans. This is just my opinion that if I use stock smaller pans when the animal steps on them is that their foot will be as close to center of the trap they can be. In so I will be having a stronger hold on each animal. But like I said, I have no experience in add on bigger pans.

That is what I was thinking. I had seen people talking about bigger pans for bobcats and such and was wanting some thoughts on it. Thanks for the input.

quite some years ago I was on a quest for the perfect wolverine foothold. I was un-happy with toothed Victor 14s with stock floppy pans. While they would hold them with a perfect whole foot catch, they also left me with a few toes. A partner and I fooled around with MB 650's, both off-set and closed jaws, a couple of different long springs, and I forget what else. We had Kendall build us a dozen NO BS Canine Extremes with closed jaws, and when they arrived, we couldn't have been happier with how sturdy and precise they were. The only thing I was hesitant on was the huge pan. I cut 1/2" off the "loose" end and cut the corners off at 45 degrees, again taking 1/2" off the corners. I did that to 6 of them.
I will say that there was no difference holding wolverines. On a side note observation, 3 different wolves got hung up in those traps. One left me an entire toe, pad and all, and it was one I had cut down the pan.
The other two where pad catches, with in-tact pans. Those wolves went on stretchers.
I don't think the pan size had anything at all to do with the wolves, and probably the wolverine, either.

When I was live market trapping In SC I was using Duke 1.75s laminated inside and outside. I caught a lot of critters, but I also had a fair amount of sprung and empty traps.

I figured that maybe the pans were too big. Then I remembered back in the day when I was talking to Woody Roberts about fox trapping. Some of you Wisconsin trappers may remember Woody. Other then his snake hunting skills he was a 300 or more a year fox trapper. Back then fox had no fur value, but we had a $5.00 county bounty and a $10.00 state bounty on red fox. I noticed that all his traps had the pans cut way down. The traps he was using were # 2 square jawed victors. He explained that with the small pan he still had misses, but the number of sprung traps went way down. It made sense to me. So, I removed all my stock pans and put on 1 1/2 duke round pans. My catches went up and the number sprung and empty traps went down. Reason being is the whole foot was on the pan, and no part of the foot was on the jaw.

I remember that Morse Oberto's beaver traps had no pan at all, just a bar where the pan had been attached to.

Thanks for all the advise guys my end up cutting som pans down then.

If they have the stock pans they’re fine. Use them. You’re just making more work for yourself that’s not necessary..

Oversized pans are only an advantage for exposed style sets. Mink, cats, etc. They can contribute to poor catches in buried sets.