Getting ready to try speed dip. What kind of wear can I expect out of this product. I use 1.75 o.s. victor modified w/ base plates, taos springs, shock spring and 3 crunch proof swivels no chain. In the past I've cleaned, died and waxed after each catch. This past year I spent enough $ on propane to buy a doz traps. My catches consist of coon, fox, opposum, cat and coyote. I dry land set about 95% of the time. Couldn't find much on wear of this product in the archives.

It's not going to "wear" any better than wax.

Why do you redo the trap after every catch?

-- Hal

Well my records show that I was having better results with fresh traps. I rarely got good results remaking a set ( in the same set w/ the same trap ) after a catch. I just pull the "dirty" trap after a catch and move just outside the catch circle with a "fresh" (clean newly waxed)trap and reset. I was hopping to find a coating that could last for four or five catches w/o having to be recoated. I would as in the past want to "sterilize" them after each catch.

Okay. But why not leave the dirty trap at the dirty set, and make a new fresh set outside the catch circle?

But, that may be a moot point.

No matter what you put on the trap, it will be contaminated after an animal is caught. You're going to have to clean that trap up, before you make a new set with it. You can boil dipped traps to clean them up. You're not saving any clean up costs.

Now let's say you have your dipped trap cleaned up. It may have some, maybe even most, of the dip on it, but it will be nicked and scratched and those places will rust. I am primarily worried about rust from deterioration point. It could be really bad if you resued that trap with a corrosive antifreeze like salt or calcium chloride. It is up to you how much rusting you can tolerate on a reset trap.

In my estimation, trying to redip traps during the cold weather of trapping season would be unwise. Dip just doesn’t dry quickly in cold weather. You can, as you know, rewax a trap and use it the next day.

The only kind of coating that would hold up to any extent would be the powder coatings that we talked about on here a while ago. But that would be expensive, and it would have to be done when the traps were brand new.

So, the question is how much rust can you stand?

-- Hal

Well, here in South Al. we don't use any of those corrosive antifreeze agents. So rust from moisture is my only problem when the trap's metal becomes exposed. Would I be correct in saying that the speed dip would have about the same "wear" as wax?
To give you an answer on the amount of rust I can tolerate - very little to none. I can't put a trap in the dirt if I don't feel it is as fast as lightning. May be thats why I go to the trouble of cleaning and waxing after each catch -just to make me feel better.

MUDDSTUD,That last line-"Just to make me feel better".

You said it ALL.If you are not satified with a set you put in.
Just plan and simple.
IT WONT CATCH ANYTHING.

If you are planning on dipping the traps then using them in a few days I would suggest usinf f1 instead of speed dip wears about the same, no $3 a gal. gas to buy and can be dipped today and set tomorrow. Try that with speed dip.

"May be thats why I go to the trouble of cleaning and waxing after each catch -just to make me feel better."

Don't get me wrong. If you are going to make a new, clean set; you need a new, clean trap. I just think you are missing the boat by abandoning a set that has already made a catch. You can remake a set already contaminated with animal odors using the same dirty trap in which you caught the animal. After all, the trap smells the same as the dirt. You do need to clean any or fluids off the trap but you can do that by rubbing it with dirt. However, if the trap does get too scratched up you may need to replace it with a new one.

I know you can run through a lot of traps replacing after every catch, because that's what I used to do years and years ago. But if that's what you insist, then you are probably using the best method you can right now.

As I said, you are not going to get away from cleaning the traps. If you clean the dipped traps, and don't redip them they are just going to rust in the scratched up places as soon as you put them in the ground. If you redip them you have to let them dry. In winter weather, it will take a long, long time for a coating of petroleum based dip to dry. Put it this way, it would be impractical to dip traps in the winter time.

In reality, boiling and waxing is the fastest way to get traps back into the field if you have to do it in the middle of trapping season.

-- Hal

Yes Hal I agree w/ you about missing the boat. But intil I find out why my catch rate is down on these remakes I'll have to stick to remaking w/ new just outside the old catch circle. It also sounds like I'll be waxing again this year. After some thought I'll probably buy more traps to help reach maximum efficiency with the cleaning and waxing process. Do you have any suggestions on a particular brand of dip incase I decide to experiment.

I'm sure this will probably get some telling me what an idiot i am over this deal, but i really think the amount of time spent re-doing traps during the season is better spent scouting and putting in new sets.

i never do a midseason boiling on my coon and mink traps. just swish the mud off real good and on to the next location.

i run a coyote line with everything clean, with a few extra clean to do just as hal was talking. you catch one, i reset the circle and put in a fresh set. my experience, i may pick up that ol shy dog in the clean set that will not work the circle. but i'll catch more in the remakes than the clean as a rule of thumb.

then unless the traps are really bad, i'm taking them strait into my cat line. (this is the part where i expect to take some flack) if the traps are really bad, they get cleaned, but if not, they go right back in the ground for cats. and its not unusual to catch a few coyotes in the dirty traps on my cat line. with this said, i have no indication from tracks or digging that the traps have bothered the critters.

moral of the story, i'm all for clean traps, but there maybe time better spent than cleaning them up after each catch. by the time skinning and fleshing is over for the night, i'm ready for bed and another early morning. If i thought i was educating critters, i would darn sure change some things, but until i see that, what i'm doing works for me.