Your right Randy, I trap too and am trapping right now. Its a 2 way street and its also the responsibility of the dog owner to know where his dog is. Accidents happen and to show how concerned the DNR in Iowa is, its against the law to use a big body grip trap such as a 330 Conibear, big enough to do harm to a dog, on land, it has to be completely submerged under water to lessen the threat to anyone’s dog and 95% of the time their used around beaver lodges, holes, canals and slides. A 330 is rarely used on coon, although they occasionally are because a 220 is plenty good enough. 220’s can also do a dog harm but again its up to the dogs owner to ask the landowner if he allowed anyone to trap his land.
A good tool for a duck hunter or a bird hunter to carry is a trap setting clamp that is used to compress the springs on anything bigger then a 110 Conibear type body grip trap which can be compressed by just about any male. Duck hunters should have one in their boat where 330’s may be used for beavers and otters and upland hunters should maybe carry one on a lanyard attached to their belt for a just incase situation, their under $20. I used to hunt with brittneys and both of my dogs were from national field trial champion bloodlines and I knew there was a chance that someone might have a trap out there but I didn’t cuss that person because I knew he was doing what he wanted to do also. If my dog would have gotten caught in a trap it would have been unfortunate but I wouldn’t have cussed the guy who owned the trap.
Engineering is a remarkable thing and many things can be accomplished but its hard to do other things and get them to perform to everyones standards.
I know something about what it takes to make a spring for a conibear type trap, that can be collapsed immediately to release a dog. You’d have to make a hinge in the wire, used to make the spring, with a ferrel that could slide off of the hinged area of the wire etc. and it would take another tool to get the ferrel to slide. Or a mount plate that could be easily slid, The main problem is the traps spring isn’t relaxed and is in the loaded position because of the mass of the dog and there would be resistance, so again it would be hard to accomplish the task in enough time to get the dog out with minimual harm.
To make a long technical story short its a good idea to carry a pair of trap tongs that compress the spring on all body grip traps for a just incase situation. If a dog gets caught in one accidently its very unfortunate and you’d have maybe two minutes to get the dog out, then you may have to take him to the vet and more then likely would. Body grip traps play for keeps and their designed to be that way, a humane way to kill a fur bearer.
Heres another way to look at it. I knew a woman who was a seamstress and lived in N.E. Iowa. One day I went to see a friend of mine and he told me she died riding her motorcycle. I asked what happened and he said a 25 lb. coon ran out infront of her and she hit it. She lost control of her bike and she died and so did the coon. Trapping is very beneficial to everyone but like many things and often enough there’s a bad side too.
Because of resistance in the traps spring, it would be very hard to make a body grip trap where all you would have to do is move something and the trap would release because the spring is loaded and in that position their hard to get them to do anything without a spring compressing tool. If an engineer came up with a useful and durable design I’d be the first to pat him on the back and sorry to say but for now that’s just the way it is because Id hate too loose my dog too, and would if I didn’t have a spring compressing tool.
