How many of you wolf trappers will?

[trappincoyotes39]

How many will be trying the new sterling mj800 this year for wolves? Just curious.

[edge]

Not me;the CDR has it beat hands down seven ways from Sunday.While the jaws are quite impressive,the springs are a joke.
Grabbed the one they had on display at the NTA and bottomed out the springs easy;with no thumbs,try that with a CDR.

Edge

[lynxcat]

Edge...keep in mind...the springs are WIRE...not levers...I've held mountain lions WAY over 100lbs in the MJ600's.....me thinks they'd do fine from my personal observations....but hey...I'm NOT a wolf trapper...BUT I DO catch AND hold mountain lions EVERY year...5/6 this year....have YOU ever caught a wolf or mountain lion before...just courious..
later
lynx

[edge]

Lynx,I have caught wolves,no MT Lions,I am not a Wolf Trapper.

I have,however been setting traps since age 8 and know a weak spring when I use one.Have you set the 800 yet?

I realize they are wire,so are the CDR's,whats your point?Weak is weak.My first Walkman was harder to open.

Edge

[lynxcat]

Edge...yep..I did play with..fondle and try to abuse an 800..I was ALSO taken back by the easily set springs....COULD be there's more there than we think...I know I can take a "weak" spring off of a #3 coil...put it on a 1 1/2 and be DAMN'D if I can set it over my knee...could be the size/leverage difference that makes it "appear" to be weaker...food for thought..AND no...I wish I didnt catch any mtn lions either...but I KNOW I'll be hookin up with the "big dogs" sooner than later...
lynx

[musher]

I had a wolf pop a spring off a sterling last season. Judging by the catch circle the wolf wasn't there for long. my confidence in sterlings for wolves got rattled.

[trappnman]

5/6 this year

how can you forget how many lions you caught? LOL just count the pile of dirty underwear....

[trappincoyotes39]

Interesting edge, your alot like other guys, thinking a trap must have stronger than heck springs to hold, in talking with Glen Jr, do you know the mj800 has more lbs of lift than a 114 newhouse??? yes thats right by 30-40 lbs more lift. Lynxcat your onto some of it, bigger wider levers more leverage, Glens problem is, people think you have to have springs that require a setter to make it wolf worthy, the line of thinking is different with an mj800 or 600, you see the jaws "lock" and once they do the springs are more than adiquate in Glens mind to hold wolves and lions with few problems. He has alot of time into those springs, he wanted something that would work well yet no have to be worrying about carrying setters with you. You have different physics with a longspring, than you do a coil spring and exspecially when you add in the locking of the jaws on an mj800. Longsprings can be opened easier because they have no lock up and the leverage issue of the jaw versus the spring!!!

Musher the mj600 was never meant to hold wolves while many have held lions and some wolves that was the idea behind the 800, to make a trap that can hold them well! The base is 1/2" thick and good steel and the pan system uses a hardend bolt and pan assembly, time will tell but I think it will do the job on lions and wolves.

It will be interesting to see how the wolf trappers of Alaska and Canada who try them out say after they catch wolves with them.

[lynxcat]

Steve....hooked 6....held 5....my WORST year yet....lol

[mmwb (Andrew Parker)]

"hooked 6"
Tell us about releasing lions... Tranquilizer, heavey snare pole, or do ya just put a choke old on it, release the trap, slap it around and tell it to stay out of your bobcat sets...? In all seriousness, I stand a fair chance of lion problems this year myself.

[edge]

TC35;

Put the trap into use.Dig into the wallet and pay the 125/ea.Let me know how they work out.

And you are right.I am like a lot of guys who think weak springs suck.Please explain how a weak spring cuts cover as good or better than a strong one.I realize that holding jaws shut takes less pressure than closing them thru cover;do you?

While the Sterligns have enjoyed,well,a 'sterling' reputation in traps and accessories;I do not
buy blindly based on prior performance,or name recognition.

Edge

[trappincoyotes39]

They cut cover by how many lbs of lift they have!!!! Thats why I pointed that out! The 114 has been a trap of high reconition by wolf trappers, and the lbs of lift is higher on a mj800 than that of a 114. Meaning can cut cover better!The idea of weak springs suck, what is weak to you? On what trap do you classify weak springs? How much spring pressure is adaquit in your mind for a #2,#3 or a mj800?

I plan on in the future of using these traps on a mt lion or two, maybe this year or next who knows, I'm interested in seeing what the wolf trappers have to say about them. The ones at the Western NTA for the most part thought more of it than those who don't trap wolves thats for sure. I'm saying time will tell all, but don't discount the sterlings their both very bright guys and are excellent at manufacturing quality items for trapping and many other items as well. Their not into making junk, that I can gurantee you!!!!

[musher]

$125 U.S. is going to eliminate lots of Canadian trappers. They'll buy a couple of CDR's instead.

I bought the sterlings because I heard biologists in B.C. used them to trap and i.d. wolves. Dopey me thought they did it during the trapping season. I've since been told that many biologists do their work during late summer. They are also not trappers. Their catch often consists of pups.

The Sterling is a great trap, though. Nice jaws, good springs, and well made. It does a nice job on lynx.

[trappincoyotes39]

So musher do you think they will hold wolves well for you? Also one of the guys is a top wolf trapper from Alaska and traps them durring the fur season from what i was told he thought they would work really well.

I heard that alot of wolvers use 10-20 ft of chain so they can catch more than just one wolf from a pack, if you use a small chain set up staked that you'll catch that one wolf but very hard to drag others into a smaller catch circle? Is this what your accustomed too? That would be alot of strain on a trap I would think and we will see in that circumstance how well it holds up!

[lynxcat]

mmwb...in the past I've released them with a long oak shovel handle...it was ALWAYS iffy getting that close to them...LOTS of sweet talking...then BAM..right on top of the head hard enough to kill a person...OUT COLD...release em and leave..they ALWAYS got up...a bit sideways..but up.VERY dangerous!!! Now..where I'm trapping I use the method prefered by the game warden that works the area...1 .22 between the eyes...notate on the license..turn em in when I come thru town...he shakes my hand and we're "friends"...any other way and I'd have "problems"..
lynx

[edge]

**They cut cover by how many lbs of lift they have!!!! Thats why I pointed that out! The 114 has been a trap of high reconition by wolf trappers, and the lbs of lift is higher on a mj800 than that of a 114.**

A "Newhouse" 114?PUHLEEEZE!!

This topic is over for me.Either

A)You have never set a 114

B)You have never set an 800,or

C)You took the shortbus to school.

Your "pounds of lift" statement reminds me of the "New Acre".

Get yourself a 114,and an 800,knock yourself out.But be careful out there;you cant believe or repeat everything you hear.

FWIW,all I talked to at the NTA agreed on the woefully inadequate springs on the 800;including 2 MAJOR trap manufacturers and about 20 actual trappers.All were stunned that Sterling would have it displayed.And it aint a name thing;we all have respect for the Sterlings and the help they have been to trappers and trapping;heck I even said it in an above post..............

What do I call weak?Ask Blakcoyote how I worked that Sterling like a toy;then went and grabbed a CDR..........

Edge

[edge]

BTW;I have held Wolves in Duke 1.75's,but that dont make em a wolf trap.

Edge

[musher]

TC35: I meant that the 600 is a nice trap. I haven't seen the new one. The wolf I lost last season was on a long grappled chain. The wolf tangled right quick. Not much of a catch circle. I think it popped the springs with its teeth. I fixed the trap in less than a minute.

I've caught wolves fairly close together with snares. I've seen where the pack has lain with a caught member. I don't really understand the long chain scenario helping make a multiple catch. I would expect the opposite.

[trappincoyotes39]

Edge I own 114's and have been around the mj800, no new kid on the block!!! Glen jr knows more about building a quality trap than you or I could ever dream of!!!! If he told me lift lbs, which means the amount of pounds it takes to lift the jaws which by the way, I would bet the mj800 has a heavier pair of jaws than that of the 114, then I know him to be true to his word!!!

The amount of lbs to lift and show force on a 114 is like 60 lbs or so, because of the small pressure area due to the long springs, versus the wider surface contact or the wire levers, so you get more lbs of lift from the mj800 than any brand new 114. You have such a small area of pressure transfer from a 114, alot in the spring it self but very little of that translates into the jaw, versus the mj800 were you have the pressure appiled over a larger area, that you can use a weaker spring and end up with much better holding capacity!!!!

When dealing with a coyote trap that has a good offset and lockable jaws then you can get by with less pressure, but when you have too small an offset and a trap that can't transfer the lbs as efficantly then you need far more spring pressure!!!!! Hence the craze to add #4 springs and to pound out those on 3n's by many Gov trappers through the years, a very inaefficant transfer of the pounds from the springs to the jaws and no lock up!!!!

Played with them both the mj800 and the 114 and I can believe what I know to be common physics and I learn from those much smarter in the area of trap manufacture than you or I could ever dream of! I I can see by looking at that trap why the springs need to be so stout!!!

You see I know both of the sterlings and their good guys and know how to build the cats a** of traps. You think someone with that kind of experiance would put an inferior product on the market? Without research or putting things through the testing procedures first!!!

2 major trap manufactures huh? Don't think there would be some jealous tendancys their? The 20 trappers are they wolf trappers? I doubt it highly!!!! You also see that the mj500 has been selling extremely well out east!!! Alot like to bash the concept, but many don't know a wolf trap from their a** and many don't have a clue what a wolf can and will do to a trap, the reason I started the post was to see 1. Who is going to use this trap and 2. To see if the blind sided comments like you make would surface!!! He may just have to put springs so strong you pop a hemroid on them just to satisfy those who won't be really using them in the first place!!!!! LOL!!!!!

[edge]

**2 major trap manufactures huh? Don't think there would be some jealous tendancys their?**

No.Neither of them market a wolf trap;simply professionals stating their opinion,just like I did.No blind-sided comments;just the facts.

With witnesses.

From *personal* experience.

FWIW,you are correct in my opinion;in order to market that trap to wolf trappers;he is going to have to put real springs on."New Acre"mentality does not fly well with actual trappers.

Dont trade the family cow for magic beans,Dude.

And while I seldom boast,I have an excellent working knowledge of not only physics,but calculus,and trigonometry as well.In point of verifiable fact,I exhausted my high schools math curriculum before I was old enough to drive.

Party on.

Edge