I have micro locks on my snares. The way I read the rules you dont have to have the relaxing locks unless you set them with a loop on land, larger than a 15" loop. I set snares for yotes using the 12", 12" rule.

I will say last year I caught the neighbors 2 dogs in the same day and both were alive and were released unharmed. And, i did warn him i hard snares out.

Bean, I too cut off the old hardware to make new snares. I use a Dremel with a cutoff blade, works very good. h.h.