AboutMongo Expertise I can answer most basic questions concerning predator trapping and some water trapping. Questions about lures, baits, sets, traps, trap treatment, modification, sizes, equipment, usage, etc. I have been certified by the Okla. Dept. of Wildlife Conservation, First Okla. Trapper`s Assoc., and the Okla. State Univ. Extension Service as a trapping instructor. I also have a number of years experience in predator calling and can provide some basic answers to these questions as well.
Experience
Past/Present clients As far as teaching what I know to others. I take this to be what you mean here... I have helped my son, and son in law, as well as a number of others in this area, to get started in trapping and predator calling... I have had personal instruction from professional government ADC specialists, and I have 30 years experience running my own traplines, and over a half century of experience in the outdoors...... I have a friend who is a troop leader with the Boy Scouts. I have done several demonstrations on trapping and predator calling for the boys, and on a number of occasions have helped the troop to set up and run a trapline during the winter, with proceeds going to the troop.
Question Hello, I am a grad student doing a dig on a 1898 cabin on the Kenai Peninsula. What I need to find out is what the dimensions are for various leg hold traps. I found the spring off of one and need to know the size of trap it would have been from. The size is approx: 6" from ends to the bend, 1/8" thick, 1" wide at the bend, tapering to 1/2" before the eyes. One eye is 3/4" inside, the other is 3/8".
Thanks for any help you can offer.
Answer Hello Richard,
To begin with, I am afraid that finding a positive and correct answer to this question will be extremely difficult, for several reasons... To begin with, at that time period, and particularly in many of the more remote areas such as the Alaskan bush, a good many traps were hand-made, or locally made...many having been made by local blacksmiths, or individuals...and there were no set or universal dimensions or standards...and add to this the fact that many repairs were made by the trappers themselves while out in the wilds, and you can understand why there would not be any set, specific, all-inclusive measurements. Also, over time the metal could take a "set", particularly if left in the set (cocked) condition... What I mean by this is that a spring that is only 1/2 inch wide between the eyes, and 1 inch wide at the curve of the spring, was probably left set for many years, and finally, thru metal fatigue, "took a set" in that position. Because a spring of this type generally should be MUCH wider between the eyes than in the bend. This is what gives the trap it's strength. So I am betting that this trap has been in the "set position" for a good many years, and finally the trap jaws and frame just rusted away from the spring, leaveing it in this state...............
Also, you will want to consider the fact that even among the different companies that made traps at that time there were no set standards as to the sizes. For instance, Company "A" may make a trap which it stamps as a #4, while Company "B" stamps #4 on a trap which it makes with an inch and a half wider jaw spread, 2 inch longer springs, and larger jaws and spring-eyes, and even possibly a thicker frame, jaws, and/or springs.... Even today, the same stamped size trap made by different companies can, and sometimes does, vary just a bit in the overall dimensions..... Were I just "making an educated guess" at it with the dimensions you give, I would guess the trap to be somewhere from a size #1 to possibly a size #2 (But I'm guessing a #1 or #1 1/2)...but I am fairly certain it would not have come from anything larger than that... But as I said, there is no positively sure way of knowing without having an idea of who made it, and what their idea of trap sizes and dimensions were for various animals, at that period and place in time... And if it was an individual who made it, and not a company...it would be even more difficult to tell for sure.
I'm sorry that I can be of no more help than this... But good luck with your dig.
