# New MB550 Adjustments



## Ol' Gobblero

Picked up 5 dozen MB550 closed jaw traps from Brian at Southern Snare and Supply in Hortense GA yesterday. Along with 5 doz chain stakes. Great guy to deal with. He met me in Alma to save me shipping costs and time.



Unboxed. Time to go to work.



There is no such thing as a “ready to set, out of the box trap.” All traps should be checked for pan tension, pan creep and pan level. The MB550s are close to ready out of the box, but need a little tweaking. The first thing I do is trim the spring pins down to about 1/2 inch. This makes the trap bed easier. You can also bend them down if you would like. I prefer to trim them.





Next on the agenda is to check the trap for pan creep, tension and level. I start by setting the trap in the night latch and slowly pulling the pan down. If the pan travels at all before the trap fires, this gives the animal a chance to feel the pan move and refuse to commit to the set. Pan travel is adjusted by shortening the dog flat. The dog flat is the part of the dog that the pan rests on after it clicks into place. This flat is often times too long and allows a good bit of pan movement before the trap fires. A long flat can also increase pan tension.





The gap between the pan and dog is wahat causes the creep. I file the dog flat shorter to take out the gap. This produces a very crisp firing trap that averages 3 lbs. Take your time filing. You can remove too much and the trap will not set.



After making these adjustments, I will attach the chain stakes and degrease the traps. I normally run them for a few weeks to get a light rust on then. Then I will boil/dye. I do not wax my traps.


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## KILLNTM

Very good information. I do pretty much the same, but I don’t trim the spring rods. I occasionally will turn a two coil into a four and don’t find them too problematic even if I don’t.


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## Mark K

Can someone put this in the sticky threads? Good info to know. Some of us look to this site to learn from the more experienced trappers.


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## mossyoakpro

Great information!!  Thanks for sharing!


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## 280 Man

Those MB-550's are really good traps. Ive yet to have to "tweek" anything on mine. Of course I don't have 5-6 dozen either..LOL


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## SemperFi

Biggest thing with the spring pins for me is they can get caught in a chain link and render your swivel connected to the trap useless. The way I dig my trap beds the pins would actually help me support the loose jaw side. I trimmed mine to half an inch though after having a few get tangled up.


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## Nicodemus

Mark K said:


> Can someone put this in the sticky threads? Good info to know. Some of us look to this site to learn from the more experienced trappers.




Done.


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## Permitchaser

Great customer service


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## SemperFi

Aside frim clipping the pins I still like to add a another swivel mid chain. I also put a quick link on the end with a double stake attached to it. I close the j hook on the double stake in a way I can easily slide the double stake off the quick link. This allows me to switch easily from running rebar to running cable stakes.


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## cotton top

Ol' Gobblero said:


> Picked up 5 dozen MB550 closed jaw traps from Brian at Southern Snare and Supply in Hortense GA yesterday. Along with 5 doz chain stakes. Great guy to deal with. He met me in Alma to save me shipping costs and time.
> 
> View attachment 958184
> 
> Unboxed. Time to go to work.
> 
> View attachment 958185
> 
> There is no such thing as a “ready to set, out of the box trap.” All traps should be checked for pan tension, pan creep and pan level. The MB550s are close to ready out of the box, but need a little tweaking. The first thing I do is trim the spring pins down to about 1/2 inch. This makes the trap bed easier. You can also bend them down if you would like. I prefer to trim them.
> 
> View attachment 958186
> 
> View attachment 958187
> 
> Next on the agenda is to check the trap for pan creep, tension and level. I start by setting the trap in the night latch and slowly pulling the pan down. If the pan travels at all before the trap fires, this gives the animal a chance to feel the pan move and refuse to commit to the set. Pan travel is adjusted by shortening the dog flat. The dog flat is the part of the dog that the pan rests on after it clicks into place. This flat is often times too long and allows a good bit of pan movement before the trap fires. A long flat can also increase pan tension.
> 
> View attachment 958188
> 
> View attachment 958193
> 
> The gap between the pan and dog is wahat causes the creep. I file the dog flat shorter to take out the gap. This produces a very crisp firing trap that averages 3 lbs. Take your time filing. You can remove too much and the trap will not set.
> 
> View attachment 958194
> 
> After making these adjustments, I will attach the chain stakes and degrease the traps. I normally run them for a few weeks to get a light rust on then. Then I will boil/dye. I do not wax my traps.


Why do you not wax ur traps?


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## Ray357

Ol' Gobblero said:


> Picked up 5 dozen MB550 closed jaw traps from Brian at Southern Snare and Supply in Hortense GA yesterday. Along with 5 doz chain stakes. Great guy to deal with. He met me in Alma to save me shipping costs and time.
> 
> View attachment 958184
> 
> Unboxed. Time to go to work.
> 
> View attachment 958185
> 
> There is no such thing as a “ready to set, out of the box trap.” All traps should be checked for pan tension, pan creep and pan level. The MB550s are close to ready out of the box, but need a little tweaking. The first thing I do is trim the spring pins down to about 1/2 inch. This makes the trap bed easier. You can also bend them down if you would like. I prefer to trim them.
> 
> View attachment 958186
> 
> View attachment 958187
> 
> Next on the agenda is to check the trap for pan creep, tension and level. I start by setting the trap in the night latch and slowly pulling the pan down. If the pan travels at all before the trap fires, this gives the animal a chance to feel the pan move and refuse to commit to the set. Pan travel is adjusted by shortening the dog flat. The dog flat is the part of the dog that the pan rests on after it clicks into place. This flat is often times too long and allows a good bit of pan movement before the trap fires. A long flat can also increase pan tension.
> 
> View attachment 958188
> 
> View attachment 958193
> 
> The gap between the pan and dog is wahat causes the creep. I file the dog flat shorter to take out the gap. This produces a very crisp firing trap that averages 3 lbs. Take your time filing. You can remove too much and the trap will not set.
> 
> View attachment 958194
> 
> After making these adjustments, I will attach the chain stakes and degrease the traps. I normally run them for a few weeks to get a light rust on then. Then I will boil/dye. I do not wax my traps.


I actually like to have pan creep in my traps. Keepse from snapping my fingers. I set my traps so that when the pan is level, it is just about to fire. I have the pan up above level while I am setting everything. At the end, take my stick and press the pan level.


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## troutkiller2012

Very nice read......thanks


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## gawildlife

3lbs is a good "all purpose" pan tension.

As I trap strictly nuisance in Atlanta I'm often targeting specific animals so 4lbs is my coyote only tension. Not absolutely coyote only mind you but less likely to pinch smaller non targets.


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## Doug B.

Ray357 said:


> I actually like to have pan creep in my traps. Keepse from snapping my fingers. I set my traps so that when the pan is level, it is just about to fire. I have the pan up above level while I am setting everything. At the end, take my stick and press the pan level.


I always set mine exactly how I want it before I bed it.  I just always lift the loose jaw up and then push the pan down to the night latch and never get snapped fingers. I don't want any creep in my pan.  I always check my MB550's every year and tweak pan tension, level, creep and over all performance before I start setting them.


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## mallardsx2

Why do you not wax them? Never seen an answer to that. I guess he speed dips them?


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## Ol' Gobblero

mallardsx2 said:


> Why do you not wax them? Never seen an answer to that. I guess he speed dips them?



I do not wax because it takes too long for me. I have 400-450 traps that are running all year. Trapping is my full time job. Trapped every week except 4 last calendar year. I will degrease, pressure wash and dip in Zep’s once every 3 months or so. But if you keep your traps running and catching they never get a chance to rust. Our soil is sandy for the most part so a coon will knock any rust off of them pretty easily.

Nothing against waxing, but once it warms up here in March wax melts and turns into a big mess. I just see it as an unnecessary added step. If I only ran 3-4 dozen traps I would probably still boil them in dye, but not wax. I run a shortened dog on my traps with zero pan creep so I do not have to rely the wax to speed my traps up.


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