Quick Rust and Dip Traps?

I didn't think id be trapping this year, but the girlfriends younger brother (12 years old) took his trapping course and completed it and wants to run a winter trapline for Beaver, Mink, Muskrat and Weasel. I have a mixture of brand new traps of his (Christmas gifts) and my own set that didn't get dyed last two years (good coat of rust). I usually would clean, rust, and dye my traps in the summer, but now I'm not sure how to go about doing this in the winter time. Figure I'll soak my old traps in vinegar and clean them up a bit, but unsure how to get a good coat of rust on the new traps inside and am new to using dip instead of boiling in dye. Any advice?

Just degrease and spray paint, or paint dip, this year. Rust and dye next year if you want.

Degrease em.

Dip in Formula One.

Why rust a perfectly good piece of steel ? If your going to be water trapping just degreased and primed and painted will work just fine. Yea yea a rusty trap takes dye better, a non rusty trap takes dye too it just doesn’t get as dark . Dye them when they are new and dye them every year or two after that and they will eventually get dark. I can’t think of any other tool that you would rust on porpoise, protect and preserve them and they will last for generations. Pass this on to the boy and he will always know how to take care of new traps .

Vinegar and bring the damp traps inside to rust up pretty quickly. Humid area works well.

Leave em be and just go set them. Then after the season Is over deal with It.

I’ve caught critters on traps I received on a Tuesday, soaked them in a water/Dawn dish soap mix that evening, and rinsed of Wednesday and set them that afternoon. The critters didn’t care one way or another whether that foothold holding them was dyed, waxed, rusty, or shiny. Set some traps and deal with everything else after season.
If they get too bad of a rust coating, soak them in vinegar after season for a day or so and they’ll look just like you took them out of the box…brand new.

Degrease the new traps. Rinse many times to remove soap residue. Use them and your present traps to go set a line. In the spring deal with the traps.

I have one job where I trap beavers. The water is so acidic that I purposely take rusty traps there. After a week, the traps are back to clean metal.
How can the beavers and fish tolerate it?

You obviously don’t have guns or at least any old ones anyways rust bluing was a preferred method of bluing guns especially high class ones, though it’s fallen out of favor nowadays in favor of caustic bluing


It’s distinctive in appearance having a glossy satin finish and is my preferred type of blue job

But to answer the original post after you soak in vinegar place your traps loosely stacked in a container such as an old cooler and place a glass jelly jar or other container with a couple ounces or Muriatic acid in it, in a couple days your traps will have a nice coat of rust and be ready for dye and wax

It’s my preferred method to prepare traps for dye and wax, though for water traps I nowadays just paint and go

I see no point in rusting traps. They will get rusty with use, which is unavoidable, but I try my best to minimize the rust. New traps get degreased and waxed or dipped if they aren’t already rusting.

Yea the older guns are still the hardest ones to keep the rust off of . Believe what you want , they are going to rust with use . Rusting them from the start is just wrong .