here is a couple pics of a grey and a coyote cought in the same trap a day or so apart, the trap is a stock bridger 1.65 w offset jaws, 4 swivels and a JC Conner shock spring. The grey was dang near perfect paw wise and had a very nice catch circle so she had been in there for some time. The coyote had damage as you can see .........THOUGHTS ??

I run quite a few 1.65's and like them.The factory springs seem to work fine with regular jaws but on the off-sets I have had some similar problems.I bumped the off-sets up to a larger spring size and that helped alot.Still get some paw movement in the off-sets which is what I attribute the problem too but not like before.I recon that reds or greys don't have the horse power to move thier paw and the coyotes do.Also needed to pay attention to the jaws on those off-sets more so than the standard jaws

You have a pretty good trap and setup. I am not sold on the offset concept, but I am sure that debate has been waged on this site already. The best luck I have had limiting damage is in lamination rather than offset. The increased surface area spreads out the load from the trap springs. I do not recomend the use of laminations without double coiling or jumping your spring size. Anytime you add weight to a trap by laminating of baseplating you slow the trap down and the ideal paw catch can becomes a toe catch. I think the movement of the animals foot within the jaws as Ric mentioned is a key and you will limit this also by powering up a little. My best suggestion if it is legal in your state is to move up to a Double CS #3. If you are trying to avoid adding the # 3 to your trap arsenal I would have to again suggest laminating and boosting your spring power. Just for reference how long is your chain ?

Fred,

I got bunches of 3's but I hate the damage they do to my tiny greys. While I am not a live market trapper by any means ( I hate the live market ), I dont like to inflict undo pain either. Im gonna start the season this year w/ a batch of stock reg jaws and just bubble the ends and belt sand a radious on the jaws both on the top and the bottom..... see what happens.

im thinking of trying almost the same setup for greys, only im thinking of laminating the jaws ans adding #2 music wire springs. not sure yet

Lamination certainly helps a bunch. Now all our traps must be offsetand I can't speak to that issue. Ever since I laminated my traps I have dang near eliminated foot damge like you have shown. I also have 4 coiled. I like a fast trap.

I use tricked out offset #3's and have never had much in the line of foot damage on a 24 hr. check; reds or coyote. I have my own opinion about jaw type but think you're on the right track making sure there are NO sharp edges on the jaws.Some of the Bridgers I used to have needed to be touched up a little and some were OK. I'd check them all. Try a few offsets and see what what happens and I think you'll be surprised.

Most of my canine traps are Bridger #2 OS and like stated before I also had some foot damage on both reds and yotes. No real greys up here so I can't comment on them. So I laminated with 3/16 round stock and four coiled with taos lightning kits and my foot damage now is nearly zero. When I touch up my jaws all I do is run a file over them to clean up any burrs.
Bill

The use of laminations and extra swivels and shock springs will Indeed cut down on foot damage. Strong springs that lock up the trap will reduce foot movement. I'm not sold on 4 coiling but strong springs are very Important. I also belive Inside lamination will reduce foot damage more so then outside lamination.Both would be better.

Then there Is the animal itself. Some critters will fight a trap with more tenacity then the next one. Sometimes this Is do to a stormy night,or maybe the animal Is being harassed buy something while caught.There Is nothing we as trappers can do to remedy this situation.

I find very little damage on the feet of coyotes and red fox,bobcats seem to never show any foot damage. But the small fragile footed grey fox can really mess up a foot. But then again you can catch 10 In a row with no damage and the next one will be messed up. In my opinion It's just the nature of the beast when it comes to grey fox.

Beav

I agree with The Beav.

Noel