Sleepy Creek vs Victor Long springs

For those of you that have used both Sleepy Creek and Victor/Blake and Lamb #3 or 4 long springs on coyotes or bobcat, do you feel the cost of the Sleepy longs are worth it over the older Victors/Blakes? Thanks

Not if you find strong used traps IMO. The old B&L hold their strength very well.

Consider the cost of adding PIT pans….

I agree that good strong springs are fine in old traps. B and L have some of the best.

Either one for me. Dont forget the #4 bridger long

Blak spot read my mind...did you guys know that Bridger also made a #3 dbls back in the day?

I have #3 sleepy creek and victors, the sleepy creeks are stronger, faster than the victors, the sleepy creeks i put rod dogs on, the victors, pit pans and base plated, close to the same cost after mods.
My #4 are sleepy creek and bridgers

I like the old Blake and Lambs better than the Victors, but I've got lots of Victors and never had a problem with them. Blake and Lambs tend to have stronger springs though. The only Sleepy Creeks I have are 4 1/2s which are a good trap, super stout springs. They are built like a Newhouse with the baseplate sticking out past the jaws so you can't break them over your knee like a Victor or a Blake and Lamb. Not sure if their smaller longsprings are built like this or not. I like the traps and they have a pan setup like a PIT pan, but if I was setting a lot of traps in a day I would prefer the ones you can break over your knee. Dealing with trapsetters is a pain, especially using the bodygrip setters and U clips like Sleepy Creek sells for them big 4 1/2s. Been going to get me some Jiffy trapsetters for them, but haven't yet. Knew an old guy who used them on the Newhouse 48s and heard several people say they work well on the SC 4 1/2s.

Jiffy setters work great on the sc 4.5's.

Dont forget sometimes you can pick up a #3 newhouse for the price of a new sc #3

I'd like to try a sleepy creek 4.5 where would the best place to look be seeing as there not made anymore?

Murray's lures has some

I thought they were being made again. I got a couple off the Trap Shed and bought some more from Murray's when Sleepy Creek quit making them. You could find the closed jawed ones a few places but since I wanted offsets for wolves Murray's was the place I found with offsets in stock.

Out of stock on Murrays as well, Going to have to watch the trap shed.

The only thing I don't like about my #3 sleepy creek traps is that when I break over my knee I feel that the jaw posts will bend out and the only way that I cured that was by adding my own baseplate onto it. But I haven't had any problems with the #2. I try and find all the good older Victor's I can find being I've always had good luck with them

Yes I am not finding any SC in stock at this time either. Was going to get a few and try them, but I will probably stick with the Victor and Victor 3N's for now.

You might call sterling fur for the 4.5's

Southern Snares night have some new old stock since they bought SC.

I've used a lot of different DLS but the way I have my SCs set up has me spoiled. The bases are soft but I add a plate to all of them anyway so in the end it doesn't matter

I have some Bridger No 4s and some old Victor No 3s that are in good shape.

Is there anyone else making No 3s?

LPC make a 6 1/8" outside spread trap though that's closer to a #4 in dbl long size

Those look nice but dang they are pricey.

Yeah, you need to be in the predator control business and have a good CPA to run more than a few of those

I’m in the camp of the old victor / B&L. I’ve used many of them all over many years and have honestly found the SC springs to be inferior to the older Vic & B&L traps. That said, I have several dozen SC #3 & #4 traps and use them - they’re good traps.

LPC are the cadillac of new longsprings. But the only people I've ever known that used them were people that had someone else (USFW or stae game agencies, usually) buying their traps for them. Very nice, but not nice enough to justify the price tag.

Wow just looked up the price of LPC dls. talk about sticker shock! Cheapest was 3 1/2 dls at 78 bucks and they went up exponentially from there.

Sterling fur has use Newhouse longs in their catalog in that 48ish mark in nice shape. I think I’d buy those as I think the LPC traps as still based on that design. I saw one LPC first hand and it was very obvious the difference between it and a stock victor as far as steel and so on. Very well made no doubt. In the end however my victors are in that 50 plus year old mark and get used every year and I have to date knock on wood not had one pull out yet.

I do leave my chains on the spring which I feel allows the trap to have not as strong of spring but the way the springs work on a long spring it doesn’t matter as much. Again from what I have seen in using them for years. Miles trigger on some and some just plain stock dog and floppy pan. I have tried the base plate and the laminated jaws on them too Nothing bad but I seem to have very nice feet when many swivels are in play more then any other add on. Just my observations which probably don’t mean much haha. All options and ideas work in the long run.

Sterling Fur has a catalog listing their used traps?

Yes, but call for availability

Blake and Lambs for me too. My brother bought some Sleepy Creeks a few years ago, I didn’t like them. I remember getting 4 dozen Blake n Lamb #3s back in the 80s for $60.00 per dozen.

I've used Sleepy Creeks for sometime and I really like them.

I also was not impressed with soring strength in the sleepy creek 3s&4s so I took and went and bought some 4.5 springs and put in my 4s now you will have a trap one of the fastest dbls I have ever seen. And set over your knee surprisingly easy.