What do you use or do to keep your set from freezing.

I’ve used peat moss with okay results. Works good until it rains and freezes right away or the snow melts and the trap bed is just full of water. Peat moss seems to do good with just normal freeze thaw conditions. I’ve used some wax dirt/sand and it does work well but it’s not perfect in many of the same conditions. I’m going to try grass clippings this year. Much easier to carry around and make. I also got some long springs to try that will hopefully not freeze down as easily.

I use sifted and dried peat inside the jaws of the trap and wax sand under the trap and over the set, so as to encase the trap in wax material to repel water

Dryer than a popcorn fart peat moss works well for me. I try to get most my canine trapping over with before deep freezing occurs. By the time continuous freezing weather hits that prevents dry peat moss from working I’m already switched over to chasing beaver.

What is this freezing that you speak of?

Waxed sand for me. It's about as bulletproof as it gets, at least for me. With that said, I don't get much liquid moisture during the season. Usually its cold enough to be snow.

Salt. It's cheap like me

I've caught a lot of fur with shredded leaves over the trap. It only freezes if you get a hard rain and then freeze but everything needs remade then anyway. Same with grass clippings.

Eth. glycol flakes

Is not a = Southern Thing !! LoL !

We don’t have freeze, but when that clay hardens and you’ll need a chisel to get them out during the Summer.

Waxed sand. I tried it in = Sandy Red Clay. It worked. MJ 600 s fired everytime. Just labor intensive

An 1”-11/2” over-night rainfall and dropping into the low-mid 20’s is quite common here in Nov/Dec. I have NEVER had a waxed sand bedded trap freeze! I did one time not be quite careful enough and left a shallow dish over the trap which turned into a ice puck that i had to pick off. I also made a mistake early in my waxed sand use make a set on a slope and it rained as I described. Water running over my set washed off all the waxed sand covering and it wound-up few inches down-slope of my trap.

What ratio do you use? I've made some last year to test and I'm happy with it just wondering what others use to minimize wax usage. Only downside is you better be trapping out of a truck or ATV, heavy as heck!

I’m sorry but I never weighed my wax, I just used a particular scoop and kept adding until I got the “color” right and when I squeezed a handful of either the cooled waxed sand or waxed dirt it would clump together just right to me. Even without clumping a little the waxed sand would pass the water test but I wanted a little more compactness. After that it was just repetitious.

My system is shown on my Youtube channel and I think I even showed the amount of wax in my scoop for 25# of sand.

BTW, yes, any amount of waxed sand is heavy. I used 2 gal HDPH wide-mouth jugs to haul mine in my atv. They were extremely handy carrying from the quad to the set and back. One jug of waxed dirt weighs 17#. But waxed sand is heavier!

Waxed dirt or sand here. The dirt blends better for me with our local soils.
I have tried just about everything else in 40 or so years of coyote trapping and in dead winter here it’s the ONLY thing that works for me.
I’ve literally tried dried peat, dirt with calcium or other freeze proofed sprays and mixed or added, coal shale, cocoa bean hull and coffee bean hull mulches, dried grass clippings, buckwheat hulls, and the list goes on and on and on. Every one of those will frost over and form a crust after a night or two then will not let a pan drop and they get stepped on by all kinds of critters visiting sets. Got absolutely sick of fighting it.
First three seasons using waxed dirt or sand here through freeze/thaw, light snow melting, freezing rain, etc. in December and January, I was sold on it. It’s the only thing that keeps me consistently catching coyotes and not wasting my time redoing sets and resetting every trap on my line in process.
The other stuff is fine in November here but later on it has to be waxed dirt or sand and I don’t skimp on the wax either.
Jim

I've never tried it but have heard of some using stone sealer on their sand to make it waterproof. Maybe someone who has tried this or done it can fill us in.

Waxed Sand, sorry I'm hooked on it .

2 days and I got all I need, 3rd day got enough to pay back my helper.

4th day got some more I can sell.

Don't do a 4th day anymore.

Waxed dirt or sand works better than anything else. Waxed sand better than dirt but it is very heavy. If you don't mind rusted to heck traps and canines (coyotes and wolves, foxes don't seem to mind) avoiding the wet spots you can use calcium chloride. Back when I was using it, I had it literally rust MB coilsprings in the bed so bad they didnt go off when the pan dropped. You can use dry duff, tamarack needles or anthill dirt all in a pinch as well as the boughten stuff like peat moss or buckwheat hulls, but none of it will work as reliably as waxed sand or dirt. Just be sure not to skimp on the waxed stuff, make sure and dig your trap bed big enough so no part of the trap touches native soil. I've had jaws freeze down when I was being conservative and never put enough waxed dirt between them and native soil.

Of course you can always just wait until you get enough snow to make snow sets.

This is the key to never having a frozen trap or trap bed!