Never had to use nails to bed a trap. Learn how to bed in any cover just takes some practice. Sticks or small rocks can all be utilized to assist your effort at first. I can bed a trap on flat ground with sticks or stones if necessary. Pretty fast.

I use lots of peat for bedding and cover with a dusting of waxed dirt when weather calls for it. if conditions aren't too bad I just finish a peat built set with some local ground duff.

You can bed surprisingly easy using dried peat once you see it done a couple times. Kind of like visualizing a sandwich, bread on the bottom, trap in the middle and bread again on top. You must pack the peat all around the jaws and levers. Digging the right size trap bed to begin with is key. The better the trap fit the faster and easier the bedding becomes.

I would never consider using and potentially leaving nails or screws in a pasture, two track or field. Not a good practice.

I have done like the second video showed in a bark pile once. Only time I ever had to do it and I caught a cat, so it worked 100% of the time for me.

I believe Charlie Dobbins used wooden pegs/steel rods for one or two of his flat sets, in his book on (The Flat Set) circa 1995.

Shows the same thing in Land Sets and Techniques

Try using long Golf Tee as well. Just saying...

Good reply Bob Jameson

I used 3 1/2" wooden golf tees on a few traps that caused me a problems this year as I was afraid of the "nail to the tire" deal.

Mr Charlie used the steel rods when he made his buried bait set. One on each side of the dog and one up tight against the loose jaw.

I too won't be using the nails, not with the expensive equipment that our dairy farmers are using today. I will do the longer golf tees for sure. Those videos were really informative for me. I have tried in the past doing similar stuff but not the way they did theirs. Amazing what one does not know or learn in all the time spent on the line.

Bryce

Depending on your soil types I don't think 3" golf tees are going to work In to many situations. But those wooded skewers would work just fine. And you wouldn't have to worry about tire problems.

I went out and bought some of these,I am going to give it a try, I assume u mean to cutt off the heads so it wouldn't interfere with the trap firing?

They sell 4" tees though they're 17 bucks for 50

Finishing nails on my rat floats to keep the traps from getting knocked off. Not on dry land I don’t want to be buying any truck or tractor tires for my landowners.

I'm no golfer so I don't know about golf tees. But I have Pop up blind supports and i have lots of old arrows which can all be cut down to use as trap stabilizers.
When I used nails and I still do I always cut the heads off of them. No need to have a jaw get hung up or get slowed down. The cordless drill was pretty neat but you can just shove them In with your hammer handle.

Seems like extra steps and extra equipment to carry to me. In the time it takes to get a nail out of my pack and pounded into the dirt I can have the trap bedded solid and half covered.

The best trick I ever learned is to dig the bed a little bigger than it needs to be and sift dirt back into it. Then just press the trap into the sifted dirt and it will be bedded solid almost instantly. Maybe it doesn’t work with all soil types but it has in every soil I’ve tried it in

I think the point of the nails is when the dirt won’t allow normal bedding. About half of our season here, we’re digging in soupy mud, not dirt. Then add in nightly freezes, it can be a major PITA to keep sets going. Never tried it myself but I like the idea.

That might work in the middle of the desert. Come try to do that with some wet clay that'll freeze that night.

Spot on.

100% right Wade

Most of us deal with rain, sleet, mud/ snow, flooded beds and freeze thaw. I am in that category for much of the latter part the season. I don' start trapping until late Nov..- early Dec. many seasons.

Selecting better locations help with some drainage issues as you learn to do this with experience.

This is what I do when things go down hill as is with most seasons eventually. It works great for me.

Dig your trap bed a bit deeper and larger then normal for wet winter condition trapping. I use a good layer of salt for the first step of the bedding process using peat moss. Make sure it contacts the bottom and sides of the trap bed well enough to prevent any untreated set dirt from grabbing/touching any part of the trap.

Put a good layer of sifted dry peat into the dug trap bed. "Rub it generously into the trap bed sides also." Make sure it coats the bottom and sides of the trap bed and covers the salted area well. This doesn't take long once you have done it several times. This is your first step of peat moss bedding your trap well.

Now if have you dug your trap bed as near as you can to your selected trap size and depth you can now settle in your trap chain under your trap to somewhat wiggle and press bed your trap into the first layer of peat. Pressing, wiggling and compacting the trap with your hands and finger tips into the peat bed will be your first step in bedding securely.

The moist loose virgin dirt in the bed under the salt and peat layer will still conform somewhat to you working the trap into the bed. But it will provide a barrier of protection that can last for weeks when done properly. The surface cover is what is subject to giving you problems of your trap not firing.

Once that is done adequately cover the trap completely with another good amount of peat. Don't be cheap with your covering. After the second generous covering of peat over your trap find the pan by gently pushing the liberal peat covering away to allow you to know where the pan is located.

This will enable you to work the excess peat to pack it around and under the the jaws and pinch with your thumb and fore finger to pack under the levers as well. When you "layer bed" and coat the trap bed walls " as well" you can push or hammer in the top edge virgin ground soil around the jaws a bit to compact the top of the bed a bit if needed to tighten up things further.

Once you find the pan as a reference point this should let the average guy continue to bed the trap without firing it.

Some guys may need a bit more practice time then others..

This basic system can all be done fairly quickly with practice. Once you get on to it getting a good trap bed in peat will be much easier. I finish off the set with a dusting of waxed dirt most of the time but also use dried grass clippings from a local golf course. I get the cuttings from the greens. That stuff is 1/4 to 1/2" in length. Doesn't interfere with the trap functioning as does some longer clippings at times.

It is much easier showing this method then it is explaining it with words.

I have never been able to PACK peat to where I felt that the trap wouldn't move.
Dig a trap bed fill with peat place trap drive 3 nail's cover with peat then dress with local dirt.