Built a wolf trap.

Now that we can trap wolves in Montana, I figured it would be interesting to build a few traps. This was my first attempt at building a wolf trap. I had to change several things as I went along, and ended up building the trap over three or four times. I didn't like the looks of the angle iron that is welded on the spring levers of the Alaska #9's so I drew up and designed my own. Now that I have it together and working, I plan to make some jigs and build a few more. Everything was made from scratch, including the coilsprings. I still have a little work to do on the pan and dog to work a little smoother.

Good looking trap! Ive been thinking about building a few traps. What kind of wire did you use for the spring?

I used music wire for the coilsprings. They turned out extremly strong after I wound them and heat treated them.

Looks nice but I'm not sure I understand your comment about 'angle iron' on #9's.

If you really plan to use that on wolves I'd suggest changing those regular nuts for Nylocks.

MThound that's pretty slick, hope you do well with them this season. Would you mind elaborating on the technique of making the springs and how to, or why, heat treat them? In the rare event I get a spare weekend I'd like to fab one up.

White, I plan on using 1/4" steel rivets in place of all of the bolts. I also plan on welding on another piece of flatbar to laminate the jaws. There are a couple of small changes I will be making again on the next one.

If you look at the spring levers on the #9's, they bend a piece of 1/8th inch steel in a U shape. Then a small piece of angle iron is welded to each side. The angle iron are the "ears" that the springs then slide under. I did not like the looks of the added on "ears". I decided to offset the spring levers enough to allow the spring to be placed under the lever itself. This is done on several smaller traps and I modified the levers accordingly. So far they seen to work good.

I understand.

Don't get me wrong ....I think the bolted jaws are a good idea because they would be readily replaceable that way. I just don't like those nuts.

That looks good! Will be cool to catch a big dog in your own trap!

Looks like you are on the track of very usable and serviceable wolf trap.

Have you thought of making a dogless one. What do others think ?

The jaws look a little heavy and may come up slow or maybe not, but if you are going to laminate you could trim them down some to speed them up.

Have you compared the the speed to other traps or for sure an AK #9?

Not real oridgnal idea for a wolf trap. you just knocked off a AK NO.9 . Good job!

I think it is super cool. I am not sure the idea was to come up with something new as much as it was to do it yourself. Make a bow and arrows the old way from scratch and hunt with it... nothing new or original there, BUT... it is a heck of an accomplishment.

That is my take on it.

If the pan is level or lower than the jaws it is an improvement on AK #9 and I can see the dog is shorter since the hinge on the pan is moved back so that also is an improvement over the AK #9.

whats any of it matter? there is always going to be something above the open jaws.(except maybe a dogless)

This is my first attempt at building a trap. I have never seen an Alaskan #9 in person until just a couple of days ago. I was not attempting to build something new or unique, just some good traps to use this winter. It has been a fun and very challenging experience. It would have saved me a lot of time to have had another trap to look at as I was going along. Another person sent me prints of his version to make one and I tried to copy much of his. For some reason I could not get many of the pieces to fit and had to change them. After much work, I got this trap put together.

Any comments are appreciated. Especially from those fellow wolf trappers that are knowledgable of how the traps function and their weaknesses. I am looking to make some changes to improve them the best I can, and your information shared will be very helpful. I don't want to spend a lot of time making a trap that will not be beneficial to me in the end.

Thank you and I look foreward to your comments.

What happened to Paysho ? ( the french canadien)
Is he still on here ?

MThound,

Looks good. I'll send you a message on FB.

Really a super looking trap.The guys that taught the wolf class liked to see something on the ends of the spring pins to keep the ends(angle)and or springs from being pulled off the pins.

What is the jaw spread?

What is the width of the offset gap.

If I had the ability and tools to do work like that,I would want to make all my own.Real quality there.

Sweet, very nice trap.

Power Plant #16, AK #9, Power Plant #9 and a MB750
I have build a couple as well.
I'm working on a cross between the #9 and 750

Wow! Now that's a trap!

Good job MThound. Coil spring traps have been around a long time, so I suppose the arguement could also be made that the #9 is a knock off of a previous trap design. IMO it doesn't really matter since there is always room to "build a better mouse trap".



I like the change you made in the jaw levers. Looks like it took some heat to get the bends made
without distorting the holes, but that would still be faster and easier than making and welding
on clips to the outside of the levers. Making the hole in them a rectangle shape rather than a
trapizoid shape would add a little more leverage at the point where they contact the jaws. Doing that might speed them up a little and give them a little more strength to fire in freezing
conditions. Just a thought.

ps. You won't need to laminate the jaws, unless you make them out of thinner than 1/4" steel.
The 1/4" is strong enough and anything more will only slow them down in closing.

isnare , yes there is always something above the open jaws but it is the amount the matters. If you drop the pan down level with the jaws then you don't have to put as much snow over the jaws to cover. I believe that having the spot over the pan just a bit lower than the rest of the trap will naturally guide a wolfs foot to the center of the trap. I could be very wrong on that idea. If you have dry powdery snow then it does not matter how much is over the trap. If you have wet snow that refreezes at night it makes all the difference in the world. A 9 is strong but not that strong. If it can't get moving it wont' snap.

The AK #9 is on the right

Fine job right there podnah!!! In making dp's I was going to try and coil some regular #9 wire and anneal it after it's coiled then heat treat it and see what I come up with... i figured it might make it tough enough to produce some power... not sure... maybe I'll go the route you took... did you anneal the wire or just heat treat it a couple times?

Nooksack, what is the trap on the left?

Wow that photo says a lot nooksak. Very telling. I think you are right on in your comments about wanting the pan lower. That bugger looks like it would be a lot harder to cover. You would end up with a lot of thickness over the jaws in order to cover the pan and appear flat. I have not set a number 9 yet. I bought 4 last winter so this might be the year.

Nice trap. You must have more than a hammer and a vice grip in your toolbox.

MThound, nice work on your trap, I should have said that originally.

smalltime, the trap in the picture is a Wolf creek #9.

Nice job, hope you get to test it soon!

You could use a TS 85 type pan on it and be dogless. That's what I installed on my home made single spring 4 1/2. Works really good.

Nooksack, that wolf creek #9 is a pretty rare trap. You should put it on Ebay.


or not.

All save you the trouble Nooksack, next time you stop by to talk trap shed just bring it with and we'll add it to my collection

Ahhh it can't be worth too much it's just another knock off of an AK #9 Ha Ha!

LOL.

hey a nut is missing! grat looking work there!

The picture does tell a lot. I had the same thought about the high pan when I was setting my (one) #9 last year. Mine sets the same way, with the jaws kinda katy whompass. Very strong and fast, but kinda rough around the edges. Hard to rag on a trap thats caught as many wolves as those things, but would be nice to have a little more refined product for the money they go for. Maybe someone on here will go for it and produce a model for sale.

Very nice looking trap there. From one metal worker to another I can see a lot of time and thought has went into that. I would also like to suggest a dogless trigger. Helps to keep life simpler as in no lost or tore off dogs.

Drifter

Awesome, wish i had all the tools to do that! It would be fun, especially when you catch something!

The dogless set up has to have the pan hinge point under the trap jaw which makes them
more susceptible to freezing up in freeze/thaw conditions.
You can do a full fledge mod on the #9's and lower the pan down level with the jaws, and at the same time shorten the dog up an inch. Takes some time doing it but it is worth it, especially if you are in an area with the above mentioned conditions. (actually IMO it needs done regardless of where you're at).
If you don't have the means to do the full mod then a quick and simple way to bring the
jaws up so they are closer to level with the pan is to leave a fairly big eye in the
dog where it attaches.Or bend a hump in the dog, or do both. This lets the jaw on the dog side come up higher when the trap is set. You can raise the free side up some when you bed the trap. This will gain you a little and cut down on the amount of cover you have to put over the jaws on a stock trap. (but it still leaves that extra long dog sticking out there for a wolf to hang a toe on).

So I made a few changes and come up with this trap. This trap has an inside jaw spread of 8 7/8ths inches..outside spread at 9 and 3/8ths inches. I have to change the nuts to lock nuts, but other than that it is one powerful trap. Any tips or comments before I make a bunch more are appreciated. Thanks

That is a nice looking chunk of steel!!!
Excellent workmanship
Is there a night latch?

You might have problems selling to Alaskan, I believe there is a 9 inch outside limit on jaw spread.

If you had wider laminate jaws you'd maintain blood flow to paw. This opens up the live capture and release market. A lot of bio's foothold wolves and release them. The pan looks small to me. You are a talented guy.

How many hours into making one once you have it figured out. Is it cost effective to make a doz. after tooling up and buying the materials. If it is like anything else, making snare etc it would be. But then again plasma cutters etc are not cheap.
What are the main tools used to make it that would not be readily available in a guys shop?
plazma cutter?
What are you cutting the metal with?

I would like to see someone put together a detailed how to on making such a trap.

Very intriguing. I would love to make a trap and catch a wolf.
That would be totally awesome.

I am in the process of setting up some jigs to help make things go quicker and smoother. I'm not sure how many I will be able to produce in a day once set up. I'm sure most people with good metal shop tools can build one, but it does take quite a bit of time through trial and error. I cut the parts out with a plasma cutter, and bent the jaws and spring levers using heat and jigs.

I wasn't sure about laminating the jaws..they are already made from 1/4" steel. Would they need to be thicker than that?

The pan measures 4" by 2 and 3/4". I can make this bigger if necessary.

This trap is legal in Montana and Alaska. Both states allow the inside jaw spread up to 9". This trap is almost 1" larger diameter than my first attempt which gives it about 20% more surface area.

Hopefully a wolf will be introduced to one this winter!

I think laminating the jaws would be a good idea,meaning with rod,so as not to add a lot of weight.I would also say laminate a rod on the dog to reinforce it or make a rod type dog,otherwise you will have to straighten it out after a catch.

I've never worried much about pan size on most predators.A smaller pan just centers the foot better and I'm sure you don't want toe caught wolves.MB750 pans are 3" and yours is considerably bigger than that.I bet you would be OK as it is but looks like you could go a little bigger if you wanted to.

Having that pan level with the jaws or a hair below is a big deal,especially with canines and dirt sets.A high pan requires a thicker layer of dirt over the jaws and in freezing and thawing conditions,stuff can happen.And on high wind days,like we get,the pan will be the first thing to be uncovered by the wind.Nothing like coming up to a beautiful canine set and seeing the pan completely exposed saying"don't step here".

Anyway,truly beautiful work.I look forward to seeing the finished product.Do you plan to make some drags?

I may try to make the pan a bit wider. I don't plan on making any drags at the moment, but mabey in the future. Was thinking of anchoring the chain solid, but adding a couple heavy springs. Not sure what would be the best.

Isn't Montana's jawspread limit also 9"?

In the Trapping Equipment Requirement section (Page 4) of the MT wolf regs, it states: "The inside jaw spread of foothold traps must not exceed nine inches."
Link to Regulations: http://fwp.mt.gov/eBook/hunting/regulations/2012/wolf2012/index.html

Got it,thanks.

Just my opinion, but I would not laminate the jaws. They are already 1/4 inch thick
which is strong enough to hold without bending. Any more weight will only slow down the
trap and make it harder for them to come up through crusted snow and ice. When you have
freeze/thaw conditions keeping the set traps in working order is one of the primary issues you will encounter, and is something that needs to be kept in mind in the designing and building of a good wolf trap.

I don't think you want the pan any wider than the gap between the jaw levers. If it sticks out over the jaw levers, when the trap fires the levers will hit the pan and knock it upwards pretty violently. Not something you want happening when a foot is setting on top of the pan. Could mean the difference between a pad of the foot catch or just a toe catch, or maybe even a complete miss.
As far as the length of the pan, the first ones I made were patterned like the ones you have there, but I have since cut them down about 3/4 of an inch. Basically all that does is give them a better appearance, and has no functional advantage. If you place the trap right and direct their foot placement then pan size is kind of meaningless. It
could be the size of a dime and still function just fine. But idealy you want their foot to land inside the jaws, and when that happens, with their big feet, any reasonable size pan will be suffiecient. Anyway, just my thoughts on those two items.

Can I be the first to say I want to buy one! Beautiful trap, PM me if you are willing to sell one. I'll do my best to field test it for you

thanks

I had an email from him awhile back. He said he wasn't making his kill springs anymore. I'm not sure if he is still making the traps.

Wow. This is absolutely incredible. I'm blown away by the talent and skill this would require. Kudos to you sir.

Power plant ? Home brew ? What are you using the #16 for ?

Thieves and trespassers. I know if I start having problems with that I'd be burrying some 330s flat!

I jokes, I'm not sure what he uses them for, but I do know what I would use them for if it ever became a problem...

Ditto for me.

Osky

FYI. Remember a proper nyloc has at least 2 or 3 threads showing through it.

I built a bunch of something once and learned that lesson the hard way.

Great looking though. Nice job.

Nice job.Building your own equipment,like fishing rods or bows or axe handles, is quite self satisfying,whether original idea or not.

There is no money in building wolf trap's.It is to please your self and sell to other trapper's cheep . So they can get some wolf's to.That is the way i do it . GOOD JOB .it is a lot of work for no money.

I bought one from him, it's a nice trap. He also cut a wolf paw into the pan. It's almost too nice to use.

Very nice looking trap.

This is the last batch of traps I recently put together. Even with jigs, they are time consuming. I am working on making a dogless design. Any suggestions for improvements are always welcome!

I want one!! Those are really nice looking!

Dang ! I gotta get to that level one of these days ! Ever think about making beaver traps ?

If you buy a good trap you do not have to replace it.[ LASTED A LIFE TIME]. You buy cheep you will lose. Some trapper's go cheep and pay later by wolf's getting away.To small of a trap's .

Is that like the Alaskan number 9

2traps, A little history.
Basically what this trap is, is a modified number nine. Where I live we have a lot of freezing and thawing conditions and I was running #9's a lot and having serious problems with freeze up. The pan on a number 9 sets high, almost 3/4 of an inch above the level of the jaws. Due to this you have to put a lot of cover over the jaws in order to leave the set so that the covered pan is the low spot or at least level with the surrounding terrain.

In colder climates than what I have to deal with here, where trappers are making sets in colder/dryer snow, the high pan on the # 9 is not a problem at all. The traps are plenty strong to come up through a lot of snow, even if the snow is packed down. But if you get a lot of crusted, frozen snow conditions then there is a problem, and so the amount of cover you have over the jaws becomes an issue.

After a lot of frustrating experiences with frozen traps, I started looking at ways to improve on an already pretty excellent trap, and following a lot of trial and error I came up with a way to lower the pan, shorten the dog, change the jaw anchor point from a hook to a hinge pin, and several other modifications that made it a better trap for MY purposes.

After modifying all my #9's I decided to build me some more traps incorporating all the modifications I had made to my #9's. After I built a few I made a post about them on this forum. It's debatable whether that was a wise thing to do. In a short time I got a slew of PM's from people wanting me to send them my designs and seeking answers about how to build a trap. MThound was one of them. Generally, if I can help someone in any way within reason, I will do it, and I mailed out around 25 or 30 packets with design maps and trap building information to members of this forum. I didn't charge anything for that information, and even paid the shipping on the packets, and didn't mind doing it.

When I first put pictures on here of the traps, I made it clear that the stock #9 trap was the base for my inspiration in building my own trap. I didn't build them to sell, I built them for my own use. I felt like it would be wrong for me to market them commercially in competition with the Alaskan #9, from which I received the base portion of my design. I have let a couple of them go to close friends that I have a lot of respect for, but I won't build and market them commercially.

Maybe five or six out of those I sent plans to eventually built their own traps. The ones that did usually posted it on here when they got one made.

I can't find the original post I made when I first put pictures on here of the re-designed and modified traps, but in it I explained in detail the reasons behind all the changes I made in the design. It may have been lost in the last crash, or I'm just missing it. I"m not computer compatible enough to know how to post links but if you look through my post on 2/08/2012 under "building wolf traps" there is pictures and some information behind them from a later post.

I still get request from people wanting me to send them information on building wolf traps. Well folks, I am burned out on doing that. The results and experiences I've had from that has been time consuming and has left a bad taste in my mouth, and so, sorry, but I will not be mailing out any more information.

Out of respect for the new owner of the Alaskan trap company, from now on, as far as I'm concerned, if somebody wants wolf traps they can figure it out and build their own themselves, or order some #9's from AKhowler, who is on this forum.

Spek, are you insinuating that the traps posted above are of your design? I'm just asking, and have no skin in the game. Just curious as to your post.

No AV, I'm saying they are of my design. lol. Well actually of my re-design of a #9. It's not a big deal, and I didn't mind helping him build a trap for his own use, but if that
turns into a commercial operation then I guess I will have some regrets.

He did make a couple of changes, like cutting a paw print into the pan and making the spring clips different, but neither of those will alter how the trap performs in freeze/ thaw conditions.

Very interesting. On a side note, how is the bear hunting going up there this year?

Yes Spek was the one that sent me his prints on the trap design. He was very helpful and informative on the process as well. Very nice to have a guy like him willing to share his hard work with other trappers.
About the only changes I made from his plans were I built the trap about an 1" larger, and made a different style of spring lever. The only other thing I may change is to build a dogless design, but that's time permitting.

They are fun to build, but are very time consuming and I have yet had a chance to put together enough for my own needs. I've yet to catch a wolf in one of my sets, but am trying!

The trap ready:

Trap dug down and anchored to tree:

Placed inside produce bag and covering with dirt:

All set back to as natural as possible:

sure would like to see a wolf in it for you!!!

Spek- I know I thanked you before and will again now- thank you for your time. I was one of the ppl you sent your templets to and have had a lot of fun building a few traps. The Bear trap I built was base off the AK#9 and your changes, I'm currently working on another one.

FullFreezer, thanks, you were one of the first, and was upfront from the start. That 16 is impressive. Can't use them here, but I may have to build one of them for a wall hanger.

ttt!

I am no wolf trapper. I have trapped my share of coyote and fox in dirt holes.
I am wondering about the choice of trap cover here. Is this trap so powerful as to make short order of this covering in a slight freeze situation.
What haver you experienced MThound ?
My first thought when I saw this photo is wow that is a lot of trap covering. I know plastic wrap can be pretty tough. expecting the dog to come up through that wrap seems optimistic.
Just curious. As I know I would tend to cut the wrap, (which I didn't care to use) and put the edge under the jaw as to not impead its travel. I have always used trap covering to cover the pan and to keep debris from going under it. I prefer to keep the jaws out in the open.
I would love to set those #9's I have some day. Thinking a head.

This was my first attempt at trapping wolves. I'm not sure if the produce bags are a good idea or not, I was trying to protect the pan from the freezing and melting of our moderate temperatures we were experiencing. I do believe that the trap would be plenty strong enough to break through the crusted ice. Prehaps you are right that the produce bag may hinder the dogs ability to fire correctly if it is frozen down. I did have the free jaw exposed and just the loaded side covered.

I only trapped a couple of seasons as I was very busy with work and had minimal time to check a line. I did have a miss on a wolf at a pee post that first season. Looking back at my only miss, I had that trap covered with freezer paper covering the pan and loaded jaw. I had the pan tension close to 9 pounds as is required here. Not sure why I didn't have a catch, but did see wolf tracks headed to the trap. I'll post pictures of that set.

A few friends set my traps in our area but we never had any other wolves come by during the past few seasons. If I get time this winter, I may try again. Last week there was a group of 6 or 8 that come through and stayed for a couple of days. Would be nice to connect with one.

can we get some more information on the #16 power plant please ?

Ttt

Wow, this thread came back to life... nice traps you made. Catch any wolves in them yet?

i recon if you took them parts to a cnc man and got them cut out you could have a dozen made in no time and likely much cheaper than bought

Now that is a cool project.

Ttt

Pretty cool,,want to see one caught. Spek Jones thanks for helping it along. Would like to have as a wall hanger also.

Man, you Alaskan guys are some outstanding craftsmen! Beautiful work! Spek ....good on you for advising others what/how to do things correctly. Mthound, I’d be interested in how you plan on rigging that trap up off the base. Spek, have you found a base plate or bottom rigging system that seems to work best? I look at the old Newhouse big iron and notice that goofy looking J hook looking contraption that holds the chain off the base and wonder if Sewell could have come up with something else...lol I kind of like a heavy duty rectangle shape piece of 3/16 th round stock (1/4 for wolves) kind of like the old Northwoods traps. Your thoughts

Again great work guys!

Ttt

Nice job.Very interesting.

You have a talent with metal. They look really nice.

Impressive work!
Any catches yet?

Any catches with the traps?

Why wouldn't you 'oil temper' them ?
Wouldn't hat make a better product ?


Just curious ?