Hey Folks,

Relatively new trapper here. Recently, I have had a few traps (MB450s) that have sprung with nothing in them. I am still learning about trapping and started thinking to myself about how well I am bedding the trap. I do my best to make sure that I bed the trap solid, but I got to thinking, how solid does it really need to be? Does a little wiggle mean a much lower or no possibility of making a catch? Should my goal always be to have it absolutely rock solid no matter where I press on the trap? My target species is bobcats and coyotes.

Thanks for any responses!

You can get away with a little sloppiness if you bed the trap deeper. But normally, you dont want any sloppiness.

My opinion is for coyotes it better be rock solid anywhere they might step besides the pan. U want a little movement there.
It's pretty easy and fast to do when you learn the technique. Just float the bottom of trap, only 4 corners of jaws touching and some support under levers. In most soil conditions u can just beat down the slight high spots with you hammer after u dig bed. U can also hammer some dirt towards a jaw corner if it needs a bit more support.
Cats you can getaway with a little bit of wiggle as on a straight up cat set u can block and guide them pretty much to step dead center on the pan.

That's my 2 cents.

Could be any number of things including deer. Was the trap pulled to the end of the chain?

I am not satisfied until there is zero movement when I bed a trap.

One of the traps I am certain it was a cat as I had a camera on it. The others I suspect were either cat or coyote (found scat close by) but definitely could have been a deer. Thanks for all the replies everyone. Going to be paying extra attention to my trap bedding from now on!

X2

This leads me to another question. If you pack dirt over the levers on the sides of the trap, could that slow the trap down?

Where in NC you located moneyball? Shoot me a pm

You want that whole trap buried and no movement. Covering the levers won't cause an issue unless you use clay or your dirt freezes.

Only issue would be if it gets wet and freezes

Same for me. You cannot go wrong by doing this.

Thanks for all the replies everyone. Appreciate the input.

To me bedding a trap is packing the dirt around the trap then sifting loose dirt over the entire trap.

In the ground around here, if you have to pack dirt, you've already lost the bedding battle.

Explain??? Are you setting in sand?

Our ground here goes from sand to gumbo. Either soil I would pack around the trap so there is no movement of the trap. Plus we use waxed dirt also because freezing condition happens in our season early. Pack around then sift over when done.

[quote=Wanna
Explain??? Are you setting in sand?[/quote]
Clay. If you dig your hole right, you don't have to pack. Dig it wrong and you're gonna be playing with the thing for 10 minutes before you get it stable.

Clay. If you dig your hole right, you don't have to pack. Dig it wrong and you're gonna be playing with the thing for 10 minutes before you get it stable. [/quote]
I'd agree. If I'm tuned up I can take a couple swipes with the shovel and set the trap in the bed and it's solid a lot of the time. I dig it just big enough for the trap, nothing more. If anything maybe a little small and I might have use the hammer to make the bed a little bit bigger in a spot or two. I might pack a little inside jaws to make the soil a little firmer but if your packing outside the jaws to stabilize the trap in our soil it's an uphill battle that you want to avoid by not digging bed too big.

I am new to the game and find my trap beds way too big and using up a lot of waxed dirt to complete the bed. Getting better but evidently I’m a slow learner