conibear "safety release" springs

When were the conibears that had the release pins on the springs made?

I believe early eighties. I had a few. Around 1980 anyway.

I always thought they were aftermarket. I have been known to be wrong before.

Not sure of exact dates but I know I bought 4 dozen new In victor boxes in 1983 from Pacific Hide and Fur/ scrap metal etc in Casper Wyoming Still replacing the little hair pin clips as they rust away

I think I only seen one in a collection.
Looked like a gimmick to me.Not hard to yank your arm out of the old victors with the big jaw gap.

I still have a couple Victors like that from early 80s. They came stock for a few years. It was supposed to make it easy to remove the spring if you got caught in the trap. Turns out, it wasn’t really any easier than other methods so they quit making them that way. That’s the way I remember it anyway.

They recommended tying a piece of leather or something similar to the cotter key to help give you something to get ahold of to help pull the pin which would let the clip fall off the spring great sounding idea but not so good in real life

Yeah, I think Victor may have known it wasn’t that practical but thought it would calm the fears people had about handling large body grips.

I hated those traps. I’d rather have a Belisle and risk getting caught in one.

There were no Belisles back when those traps were made though.

There a r e Belisles now and people still don't understand the Real features And SAFETY of the real stay in place- safety hooks.
Too stubborn to really look.

That feature was on the Victor 330 conibears the first 2 years they made the humped corners. Those traps also came with the “wishbone triggers”. Both ideas were scrapped after the first 2 years.

Those 2 features caused untold numbers of missed catches. I bet the guys at Animal Trap Company got an earful about how bad those traps were.

Hahaha I bet they did!

Still have a 220 with that on it. It never gets set.