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Post by happersilderness on Apr 9, 2012 22:38:04 GMT -5
This past weekend I bought some used 330's. The jaws didn't close far enough and I missed about 10 beaver So I decided I'd add some striker bars to them so they'd close fully. Pic#1 Just shows the striker bar welded on. Pic#4 shows the old trap. Set. Pic#5 shows the old trap compared to the modified one Pic #6 shows old trap set off and gap of the jaws. Pic #7 shows the one with striker bars added when set off. As you can see the gap is VERY small. Pic #8 shows the 2 traps compared to eachother when both are set off
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Post by happersilderness on Apr 10, 2012 7:00:45 GMT -5
I will be doing more mods to this 330 tonight and will get more pictures up!
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Post by walkercoonhunter on Apr 10, 2012 7:15:19 GMT -5
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Post by lyonch on Apr 10, 2012 7:30:25 GMT -5
It sure looks like it LOL! Hap i love the thought process you have fella! Did you ever think those "10 beaver missed" could have been muskrats
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Post by happersilderness on Apr 10, 2012 10:12:49 GMT -5
I only have 1/2 inch rebar. Couple hundred feet of it. Might as well use it.
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Post by happersilderness on Apr 10, 2012 10:15:46 GMT -5
Hap i love the thought process you have fella! Did you ever think those "10 beaver missed" could have been muskrats The sets were tore up a little bit. I've thought about all possibilities lol
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Post by Furtrader on Apr 10, 2012 10:32:22 GMT -5
10 missed.... could have some otter by the tail... maybe??
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Post by happersilderness on Apr 10, 2012 10:43:07 GMT -5
In one of the 330s I still had a beaver that was alive. Does that also say they were bad 330's?
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Post by huntingmaxima on Apr 10, 2012 18:15:36 GMT -5
10 misses in a wk. something is not right. you have to be missing rats not beaver. i agree with chris
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Post by walkercoonhunter on Apr 10, 2012 18:27:22 GMT -5
while i agree that something is going on about the misses im more apt to think that you have your trigger wires placed wrong and the beaver is getting all the way thru them before they fire and when it does fire its hitting them on the tail and they are going away....
i can see your purpose for the "kill bars" but i would think one could have re worked those jaws to get them back to where they close alot better than they do... for me i just dont see the need for those kill bars that you have installed on those....at best i would say they shouldnt be any more than 1 inch out from your jaw...but thats just my opinion....
if they was my traps i would have re worked them and bent the jaws to make them fit the bill...but if im setting connis for beaver im usually walking a long distance and dont need the added weight of those boat anchors on the traps.....
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Post by sniperbbb on Apr 10, 2012 18:55:19 GMT -5
I would be worried about the weight of the rebar seriously slowing down your trap.
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Post by bushdog on Apr 10, 2012 19:38:39 GMT -5
I'm with walker and sniper on this Hap.....IMO, I trap WMA's (foot traffic only) the extra weight would not be worth it . I would try to rework the jaws in a vice and bend them back to original shape. I also like how you think "outside the box", the mods you did should work. With all that re-bar, have you made any 330/220 stabilizers? Rick.
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Post by happersilderness on Apr 10, 2012 21:40:47 GMT -5
I would make stabilizers but the rebar is to big to fit between the spring. I caught beaver in the traps. 3 of them. 1 was alive. But 3 beaver to 10 sprung traps is bad. I was going to bend the jaws but don't have any way to bend them. Don't have a metal bender.
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Post by walkercoonhunter on Apr 10, 2012 21:43:57 GMT -5
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Post by littlewolf on Apr 10, 2012 22:59:10 GMT -5
myself i am familiar w duke 330's and know they have monster springs but when fired there is maybe at most 1" space between the jaws. if you have that much 1/2" rerod on hand i agree may as well get some use of it, however i agree with the others of tweeking the jaws back to relative straightness in a vice then add the kill bar with a 1" long spacer of 1/2" rerod laid FLAT between the jaw and the kill bar not standing betwween the two. just my humble thoughts
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Post by happersilderness on Apr 11, 2012 6:48:05 GMT -5
I do but it doesn't close as tight as it should. And when I go to bend it all it does is move around in the vise. Trust me first thing I did was try to bend the jaws.
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Post by walkercoonhunter on Apr 11, 2012 7:22:47 GMT -5
sounds like you need to buy another vise....from what i seen you just dropped your used trap value in half from welding those on there...you may not care now but some day you may....remember anything you do to a trap is supposed to improve it for the long haul...all i personally see with what you have done is give yourself more head aches.....
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Post by lyonch on Apr 11, 2012 7:58:14 GMT -5
Hap - i have some 330's that have some pretty seriously bent jaws from catching big beaver from past seasons, and i still use them and catch beaver consitantly. A 1" gap isn't going to allow a beaver to escape unless you catch it by the tail. I have a handful of belisles that i bent the jaws on from larger game hitting them like big boar coon on the 220's and beaver on the 330's. I will be running my line on friday and sunday i will be pulling. If you have either day open, you should ride along with me. It will be a long day, but you will see 100+ sets and you will have about 12-14 hours of asking questions. The only expense you would have is getting to my house, i will even cover lunch for you!
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Post by happersilderness on Apr 11, 2012 10:18:34 GMT -5
sounds like you need to buy another vise....from what i seen you just dropped your used trap value in half from welding those on there...you may not care now but some day you may....remember anything you do to a trap is supposed to improve it for the long haul...all i personally see with what you have done is give yourself more head aches..... I don't have money for a vise. I didn't plan on selling them in the first place. I thought I might as well have some fun with them.
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Post by happersilderness on Apr 11, 2012 10:59:26 GMT -5
Hap - i have some 330's that have some pretty seriously bent jaws from catching big beaver from past seasons, and i still use them and catch beaver consitantly. A 1" gap isn't going to allow a beaver to escape unless you catch it by the tail. I have a handful of belisles that i bent the jaws on from larger game hitting them like big boar coon on the 220's and beaver on the 330's. I will be running my line on friday and sunday i will be pulling. If you have either day open, you should ride along with me. It will be a long day, but you will see 100+ sets and you will have about 12-14 hours of asking questions. The only expense you would have is getting to my house, i will even cover lunch for you! I have traps with gaps in them to. And I catch beaver consistantly in them. But it was these used traps I bought that started screwing things up. I've never had a live beaver in a 330 until I got these traps.
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Post by lyonch on Apr 11, 2012 11:06:52 GMT -5
hap - did you cath the beaver a little far back? What was the exact location of the 330 when it held the beaver? I have had a handful of live beaver in a 330, and it is typically the smaller ones as they got too far into the trap, or for example i caught a big guy by his two back feet this season. Things happen, and i think you are too quick to blame the trap and not what other things could have been happening. weak springs will also hurt your 330's when catching beaver too far back.
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Post by shadowalker on Apr 11, 2012 13:15:55 GMT -5
Your trigger settings may have had something to do with it also. Remember though. Kill bars funtion just as well on fingers as they do on anything else. That inch of slack is why a lot of trappers have managed to get out of them things lol.
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Post by cattrap on Apr 11, 2012 18:21:30 GMT -5
I would just buy some belisles, they close up tight right out of the box
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Post by ronnie on Apr 11, 2012 18:24:25 GMT -5
Im with walker on this one, you must be having a problem with your trigger setup or your getting hit by muskrat. I certainly wouldnt be adding 1/2 rebar to those jaws, your going to have a very slow trap with little striking power. A better option would be just to straighten the existing jaws, its not hard to do.
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Post by happersilderness on Apr 12, 2012 6:39:46 GMT -5
I would just buy some belisles, they close up tight right out of the box I'd buy Belisles if I had the money to do so. But I don't. That's why I don't own any Belisles and likely never will
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Post by trappertb on Jul 9, 2012 20:23:22 GMT -5
cant see you missing10 beaver in those traps , but you may have. I use 330 Belisle super and have caught lots of beaver only 1 or 2 still alive. I thnk you missed something else
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