I've found out the hard way that when using waxed dirt or sand to prevent freezing, too big a trap bed is better than too small. Unlike other times of the year when you want solid, preferably native dirt up tight to the jaws, when dealing with freeze/thaw you don't want any part of the trap, particularly jaws or levers touching native dirt, you want the trap completely incased in waxed dirt or sand. I've had the pan dropped with a track on it more than once and the jaws frozen to the outside edge of the trap bed because I didnt dig it big enough.

Of course the bigger you make it the more waxed dirt you need, so there is a happy medium.

I pack it tight with native dirt (clay) then salt the parts of the trap touching the clay, fill with peat moss, cover everything with a layer of waxed dirt. In the last 5 years, our winters have been freeze/thaw, snow/rain, warm/cold and this system has worked for me. Perfect? Naw, nothing is but works enough that I keep using it.

I quit using antifreeze a long time ago, besides the corrosion aspect, the attraction of hooved game to salt was bad, but the biggest reason was that antifreeze leaves a wet spot and melts the snow off the trap bed, and I found a lot of avoidance from our canines, they simply wouldn't step in that wet spot. I've had excellent luck with waxed sand as long as I'm not being chintzy with it and dig the bed big enough that the trap is completely encased in it, it will go off regardless of the weather, if the pan is dropped. Only problems then is when it freezes snow over top of the trap, so the animal can't step down to the trap.

You might be able to get away with a slight wiggle in a stepdown dirthole. By the time they step down, they're committed. However I get them as rock solid as possible.

Thanks for all the replies everyone. Really paid attention to my bedding being solid over the weekend and connected on a nice yote Sunday morning!

Are you using any pan tension?
Tripped traps are often a result of no or to little pan tension

I do not have anything to test my pan tension. I usually check the pan height and fire the trap before setting it. I do not feel like they are going off without some thumb pressure while holding the trap. I plan on buying a pan tension gauge before next trapping season.

Couple other ideas is a cookie cutter or what I like to do is power bed take two nails an pin the trap down somewhere on the frame

I try to bed my canine traps tight to the sides of the trap bed. But even if they’re not very tight, I use my trapping hammer to pound the dirt against the jaws. This tightens everything up right now.

Because of the wet soils we always have during trapping season, I’m setting pipe dream sets almost exclusively. It’s rare I make a dirthole or any other set anymore. The traps are suspended over the hole. I use a metal pan cover and the covering is made up of dried grass clippings. The coyotes and fox dance around the set trying to pull the pipe out of the ground and in the process step on the jaws along with the screen and pan.

When I canine trap, I use either Montana #3 regular jawed or offsets, or MB550, regular or offset jawed. I’m sure other traps work fine. These are just what I’m comfortable with using.