Duke 850

Anyone played with these much? I notice 4 coiled they are way way to strong but 2 coiled they feel on the weaker side wondering if anyone plans to run these 2 coiled for beaver? I did add some #3 4coil springs and that seemed to help with out getting obnoxiously hard to set

I have one but I can't set It and It's illegal to use In WI. But It's a well built trap.

Interested to see how they perform on wolves, the price is right, but I haven't seen one in person yet.

So does the 850 have an 8.5" jaw spread? I get wolves, but what in the world else would one trap with those? If you say beaver, then I'll just ask if it's necessary, not trolling just curious.

8.5" outside, 8.0" inside, OS for wolf and lion, FJ for beaver. ... so the ads read.
Alan Probst has a short video introducing them, in MT I think, says the law there is minimum 10lb pan tension.

Thanks

Has anyone caught a wolf in one yet?

I just talked to Mr Bill and he was In Ketchican Alaska not long ago and quite a few trappers had caught wolves In the 850 and were pleased with the traps performance. I think It was a trapper from Prince Of Wales Island that caught the first wolf In a 850. And Mr Bill has that wolf hanging In the office.
Daniel Peters (sp)name comes to mind in our conversation.

I would like to here a report and opinions from anybody who has caught a wolf in one. But the guys I've talked to that have them haven't caught one in one yet.

Call Bill Duke and I'm sure he could give you names of persons that have caught wolves In the 850.
If yo don't have the # PM me and I'll give It to you.

There is a quick trick of adding screw and nut on the pan will like most traps to get you to the pan tension weight you would like if you must have more the bent dog will give you.
I did it to there 650s because 3.5 to 4 lbs is not enough for me trapping coyotes but I sold them I was scaleing back on traps.
Red

Yeah, they've caught a bunch in them in Alaska. Haven't talked to anyone here in Idaho yet that has, but I know that time is coming.

I bought reds 650s and used a couple of the bolts from the 650s on 850s. I am convinced that is the easiest most repeatable method to get pan tension. I got one 850 to 10lbs by bending the dog but it is a very iterative process. As Seldom pointed out to me in another thread the fulcrum point is more important than the slope of the dog. Getting the pan tension idea from red and some free trapping advice was worth the price of the traps.
JBS

Can you post a picture of the nut/bolt mod on the 650/850's?

Cascadecat made it simple by drilling a hole on the arms taking bolt and nut tighten to pan tension you would like. Very simple fix
JBS got them now

This should show you the concept.

Thanks

That "mod" looks like crap. But...if it works.....

Lots of good info Thanks everyone. I'm hoping to set my 850 soon for some beaver and yes bigger the trap the better in my opinion for beaver I love ts85a but bought 1 duke 850 to play with.

Duke will send you actual pan tensioners for the 850s free of charge if you call them up -they come with a new pan and spring bar with what looks like a drill stop collar welded to each leg of pan that have allen screws that tighten against the spring bar 662-494-6767

I've caught five in them. One by three toes with 8+ inches of snow over the trap, the others all deep pad catches. No misses, you do usually have to straighten the dog after a catch, but I haven't seen a dog on wolf trap yet where that isn't true. I like them and recommend them, there are better wolf traps out there, and some will need a little tweaking out of the box, but for the price point I think they are the best wolf trap in their price range.

Not a fan of the new tension adjustable pans, but then I haven't used them, just looked at them. I'm using all original floppy pans, I don't like the looks of those big collars with a lot of tight joints there for water to potentially get in and freeze.

Im kinda surprised they did not go with a PIT style pan. They already use one on their #5 long.. Seems like it would have been a good fit for that trap, maybe because the dog would have been so long is why?? Though PIT had extra stout dogs for wolf traps at one time.. Dont know if they still do

I agree 100% on all points -I saw a video a guy cut the bar the pan is on and welded in a piece of all thread with nuts on it to adjust pan tension and another one where a guy discarded the whole pan spring bar and went back with 3/8 bolts for springs and levers and welded a piece of pipe in to hold pan with a bolt running through the pipe and pan the latter looks way better imo and only takes 3 bolts and a short piece of pipe . a guy could also just cut the bar and tap on end for nuts & weld a washer on the other but bolts are fairly cheap if your times worth anything. I took some 650s and 850s apart today to check and see if the D rings were welded -they are . not great but enough I guess I put one in the vise and pried on it pretty good and it held . I was gonna thread the ends of the bars on the 850s and add nuts but after checking them out I dont think its needed -even if wolfzilla knawed the helper springs loose the primary side would still hold -pretty strong springs

I threaded all mine and put nylock nuts on the ends, probably unnecessary but cheap and easy to do for peace of mind. Plus I already had the die.

Ten wolves in 850s so far this year, flawless performance. Perfect pad catches. That said…… it will never out perform a Alaska #9 but is another tool in tool box. Have had bent dogs and pans. But I will trade a bent dog or pan any day for a wolf . The only pans I have never had damaged are LPC and 114.
Wolf traps in order of choice.
#9 above all else
Duke 850
MB 750 (these are perfect for footprint sets)
LPC and 114 (these are equals)
CDR, Bridger, TS85
I haven’t caught one in a No BS yet. But no doubt it will work well too.

Just my opinion and worth exactly what you paid for it.

I haven't used the LPC, 114 or CDR so I can't comment on them. Otherwise I would agree with GUK's list except I would swap the MB750s and my modified TS85s and add the Sleepy Creek 4 1/2 just above the MB 750 and below everything else. Those two are a good dry ground trap in my opinion, but the poorest of the list in freeze/thaw and deeper snow conditions. I will also note that they are very easy on nontargets while the #9, NOBS (which I haven't used, but is very popular in the lower 48, undoubtedly the most often recommended in Idaho and Montana) and modded TS85 need to be set with a lot of caution where nontargets are a concern.