What was the purpose of teeth on the old traps

Occasionally I see old traps pop up for sale that had teeth, or nails welded to the jaws. Just wondering what the purpose behind those was?

I know the old timers that used those traps were after results, but I can’t see what kind of advantage that has over regular jaw, besides Mabey holding an otter or beaver that hits the trap with their belly

Helped keep the foot from sliding. Traps weren't quite the the quality of today's traps.

The trap used to capture the wolves released into yellowstone had teeth. They cause LESS damage. Just like a lot of other trap related stuff, the people writing regs have no clue. Another example is states requiring offsets. The reg happened because the legislators thought that the traps grip less not more.

Holding power, when springs were weaker

There idiots offset traps have more holding power than regular jaw traps

Sometimes i have a few coons almost escape.
if i had teeth on my traps they would definately escape alot

Are you sure about that.

Some flawed information there Ethan^^^ you shouldn't speak about gear you've never used

Please explain...if both traps are equal other that offset vs regular jaws, what makes you think one holds with more “power” than the other? The only thing offset does for me is cause more damage, but I would like to hear your experiences with the two different types of jaws.

He can't explain it. He's young and presumably learning how to trap.

I would however suggest he do more reading and less posting.

X2

I have teeth on all my beaver traps and wouldn't set one without them.

You have obviously never handled old traps such as Newhouse or others, many of them even after a hundred years are still stronger today then new ones made today

I am sure that some old traps were junk then as some are junk now, but I would say many of those old traps made by name brand companies were better back then, then most of those made today just because labor was a whole lot cheaper then nowadays so they could spend more time on fit and finish

What gman said. Ethan would lose a bet with me using offset traps or regular jaw traps versus my Victor 14 and other teethed traps.

Ive used offset traps before the only time they dont hold as good is when you get toe catches and the levers come up higher on an offset making thwm lock up higher makes it way harder for an animal to escape as long as you got a good catch

Snap one with teeth on your hand and snap another one laminated on your other hand and get back to me.
You will find out why they are seldom used anymore.

The levers on a regular jaw are lower when caught an animla applying less pressure on an animals foot

Wanna be, its simple mechanics. An animals foot is thick enough that the trap jaws do not come completely closed with a foot between them. They do however come closer together than non offset. What happens with the offset is the levers come up higher. That gives them a mechanical advantage. More leverage. The disadvantage is when animals like coons step on them. A coons front foot is thin. The jaws close completely. That gap allows the thin front foot of a coon to pop right out.

And I trapped for 30 plus years where my major beaver traps were three dozen #14 Newhouse double longs with offset jaws and teeth. I had tried numerous #4 size traps and tested them with hundreds of beaver catches to arrive at the 14 Newhouse traps that produced the highest catch and HOLD rates. I always set for front feet and the 14 Newhouse with the offset jaws and teeth seemed to result in less problem with wring off than the tight jaw #4 traps while also holding far more of the beaver who stomped one of their big hind feet partially into a trap and were held by a toe or two and a bit of web. The Newhouse had enough power to get a good grip on even the hind foot or tail while lesser traps with teeth could not set the tooth and the critter pulled out. I recaught a number of beaver that had pulled out of #14 Oneida jumps and left just a series of parallel skid marks down the hind foot where the teeth did not dig in and had some of the same problem with #4 Victor longs with welded in teeth EXCEPT that welded in large fence staples are so sharp that they did bite and hold. During those many years trapping beaver in extreme Northern Wisconsin I caught a number of otter in those same #14 Newhouse and can assure folks that they grab and hold otter better than any other foothold I ever set intentionally for otter.

I never used toothed traps dryland trapping BUT another employee at the research lab where we both worked did the trauma assessments for a major wolf capture study that utilized both toothed and non-toothed traps and she found that the toothed traps resulted in less trauma to captured wolves than non-toothed traps, especially shoulder trauma. The best explanation for those results seemed to be that wolves taken in toothed traps fought the traps with less force due to the puncture of a tooth into the lower leg or foot.

Thats crazy but bet you wouldnt be releasing any wolves from ones with teeth!
Or am i wrong?

The trap selected for use in MOST of the major wolf capture and release programs were #14 Newhouse with teeth or similar modern traps made to copy the #14 Newhouse. A single tooth puncture is easily treated and much less damaging than a severely beat up leg, foot or shoulder when the ultimate objective is to release the healthiest animal possible.

As a young trapper Ethan your number one priority should be to seek to understand and apply humane trapping practices regardless of what you hear and read here and elsewhere. We would all like trapping and fur management to continue for decades to come.

Apparently Ethan your not old enough to post your thoughts on here But i'm glad you're learning

Yep you're wrong

Blake & Lamb ...double under spring.

Kids now days..can't teach em anything if they alredy know everything

I’ve read that too, as has Ethan I’m sure. I was giving my experiences with offset vs regular jaws. I don't trap wolves, mountain lions, or bears. The biggest predator I have to worry about is coyotes. I don’t lose many of those if any throughout a trapping season. I have yet to have any animal escape (from a pullout by definition) a perfectly functional trap whether it be offset or regular jaw. I have had foot damage with offsets and not regular jaws. Coons and grey fox losses are chew outs and nothing to do with the trap other than maybe being too large.

My 2 cent is offset laminate allow blood flow to the foot keeping it alive so the animal doesn't fight he trap as hard. (I run 3/8 offset not 1/4 though) Regular jaws cut the circulation off and the foot below the traps freezes, no feeling to the foot and the animal fights hards which to me is less than ideal for the respect of the animal. Coyotes cats etc not coons of course. The teeth would seem to me to cause increase in broken bones if the tooth hit the bone just right. If not just soft tissue damage between the metacarpals. I would think that is high enough that the foot would heal in a month or two for catch and release.

Amazing the lack of understanding of mechanics in this thread, yet the emotional side is driven quite hard, this is the kind of thread that always ends up being used against fur harvesters, due to the lack of understanding of use !

Ethan, you must not have read everything. The traps used in wolf relocation projects HAD TEETH! There was less foot/shoulder trauma to wolves caught with toothed traps!!

Cohunt, did you ever use the #48 Newhouse. They were my go to trap for beaver and otter for a long time.

This is kind off topic but caught a coon in a new z-trap in town and the animal control got to it before i did ( theirs a bit of story behind this) but they took it alive removed the trap and x-rayed the front foot to find out most the toes were fractured or broken so they had to euthanize it. (I had to explain myself in person to them afterwards) I was thinking the cuff style traps were a little more friendly on the foot but than i released thier is a square stock welding on both sides of the spring to create sort of a binding force on the foot.

Ive released stuff from the coon cuffs but never noticed broke toes

Dr. David Mech is responsible for many states having wolves again. He trapped them in Minnesota and they were relocated in several states
His trap of choice--#14 jump,and that That ethan is a toothed trap.
Tom

I know its a foothold trap but wouldnt their feet be injured and make it hard for them to walk

Ok i understand they wouldnt pull much with traps that have teeth but would the teeth cause infections in their feet

LOL--Doesn't seem to be the case as the wolf population continues to climb,and they have been taken off the endangered list.
Tom

Nessmuck you could trap a bear with that trap

Kid you'd need to use an x-ray to seem. Clearly no knowledge with the medical world.

This is the style of teeth people are talking about, they are not sharp and are of a decent sized diameter, they keep the feet from sliding around in the jaws. They don't poke holes through the hide even most of the time, just dent it in.

Would you want wide smooth jaw faces on your pliers or vices or something to give you grip?

A bear would take one small bite and turn that trap into scrap metal!

Ok i didnt know that the teeth were big and round and yeah i dont have experince in medical field im 15 and ive never owned a trap with teeth cause there illegal in my state and thnks ~ADC~ for the info on traps with teeth

You should also notice in that picture of the #14 jump---the teeth are spaced so that the teeth on one jaw do not meet with the teeth on the other jaw.
Tom

I disagree on Offsets allowing the flow of blood to the foot. After several minutes the foot begins to swell and all circulation Is shut off to the trapped foot. That's why you don't trap In freezing conditions when trapping live market critters. If there was circulation the foot wouldn't freeze.

We either stopped trapping or checked twice a day to make sure we didn't end up with frozen feet.

Its not really your fault. You have been subtlety trained your whole life by anti's. Just google "trap" first image that comes up...

I was just stating that it in general not just for live market animals. And i did fail to mention the cold weather part I just assumed it my bad thanks for the correction.

Exactly why the old bear trappers had teeth on their traps. The teeth allowed the swelling to drain and extended checks were possible without twist outs.

I actually asked a surgeon about this once. He confirmed that a "puncture" heals better than a laceration.

Mike

True enough eb which is why our f&g use a modified tooth for wolf studies and relocation (if they don't disperse naturally of course) lpc traps are what i've seen
Bears were varmints around here till the 50's i believe when they got game animal designation and protection the half doz.or so i've handled around here had large teeth and offset jaws more so for ease of casting them IMO

The idea behind using traps with teeth for the 1996 wolf relocation project (and this was proven to be true) small sharper teeth broke the skin on the foot allowing edema to escape and not allow the foot to swell, swelling and edema are the main cause of foot damage. Traps equipped with this feature and correctly spaced offset jaws also kept the foot from sawing back and forth as an animal does when first caught in a trap, allowing for very little foot damage. Just hoping to add further clarification to some prior good posts.

Unlike many other foothold traps,traps with teeth could not pass the international humane trapping standard-why they are illegal in jurisdictions which follow the AIHTS.

Just wondering, what trap do they have approved for bear?

Bears are not an AIHTS species Footsnares and cages legal in Ontario.Not sure in other provinces.
Cages the best choice as some females with cubs have to be released.

I would take some issue with that. Newhouse traps were some of the best quality traps ever made, maybe with the exception of their dog/pan release set up.
The number 48 Newhouse, closed jaws with teerh is probably the best otter and beaver foothold ever made. A hind foot catch on the slippery hind foot of a beaver was sure to result in a beaver catch.

Cool your jets lil bro, read a lil more talk a lil less. No need to respond to or believe every thing you read in here.

In regards to the toothed traps in research

I humbly disagree. He's been posting on topics that he has little to no experience with. The other day he posted on a thread asking about the most foot friendly fox trap that will regularly hold a coyote. He recommended three traps and if I remember correctly he has only caught 1 fox and no coyotes thus far.

Some friendly advice Ethan
You started out not being honest about your age and your job but because of your age you were given some leeway. As a beginner Wolfy has given you good advise above. Until you have more experience, talk less and listen more. Repeating information you read on the internet and having no experience yourself you could accidentally come across in the wrong light.

Iam smelling a “Rat” amongst the ranks here......

Nah, just a kid Nessy. They don’t know what they don’t know.

I don't see that as disagreeing with me. What I meant was he's bound to think the worst when he hears "traps with teeth" based upon what the youth of today is fed from movies and the like.

I agree he's been posting replies to threads based upon what he's read on here or seen on youtube and not through any on the line experience, that is quite prevalent though and he's not alone. Even one of the guys admonishing him is pretty guilty of it and was basically him only a year or two ago.

ADC
I get you on the information being fed too the masses about trapping

Ethan's just young excited a little hot in the head ,I was doing the same thing when I got on here ...what ? Nine years ago ?.... Christ I feel old..

I've been sniffin more than one
And it stinks

Only because bears have been brought up, but don’t they use cable for bears in Maine. Could’ve swore I saw it or read it somewhere. Something similar to a foothold, but when the bear steps or reaches in it releases a cable? I’ll have to check some old magazines or maybe it was on here, but I don’t believe it was an actual foothold style trap.

Dead is dead so not concerned with blood flow, etc, concerned with holding high percentage of beaver, etc. I put them under water on a heavy duty double staked slide rod. Traps with teeth have an advantage over regular and offset jaw traps. The Victor 14 with pit pan system is a killing machine. I catch one or two beaver a year in them.....

Wanna Be Maine is the only state I believe that can trap bears, but it's with foot snares kind of like a big dog proof but with a snare instead