Hey guys, been at this a few years and figuring more and more out but still haven’t landed on a preferred bedding/blending method.
Curious what you guys typically use. I am sure we can all do several styles but what is your go to?
So are you a:
-zagger pinch with the ground/screen/grass clipping
-pan cover/peat/dusting
-dirt and poly
- all natural dirt and no help

…you get the idea. What’s your preferred method?

It depends on the terrain and weather on what I use.

For bedding I try to use the same dirt I dig out of my set. But, there are times I will bring a bucket or two of really nice bedding dirt, if the soil is clay or really dense wet dirt.

When it starts raining and my sets start to get flooded I will use peat moss to bed and if needed grass grass clippings to cover.

I don't use pan covers, unless there is a chance of the temps dropping and the ground is wet. Most of my land sets I use poly under the pan.

There is a spot on one of the lands I trap that has several bar pits. There are "cliffs" and I fill buckets up with the dirt as it is dry and beds beautifully.

I have to be creative as I trap in sandy soil pine woods, hardwood bottoms, gas lines, crawfish ponds, rice fields, ag fields, fresh water marsh, tidal marsh, cypress swamps, and ...I'm running over 200 traps so it comes down to being not fixed on one method and being prepared with options.

Mostly poly and dirt from my trap bed. Unless I'm using waxed sand.

Climate and soil type will dictate your best method bedding and blending a trap. If trapping in the DEAD of WINTER with gravelly soil better bring in some waxed soil. If in the early season (little chance of hard freezing conditions) with only moderate moisture there is a host of methods mentioned above that work. Big rain/moisture time frames call for Zagger's or Louisiana methods. "Check the box" on WHEN you will be trapping and your typical soil - then you can settle on a bedding median. My experience. ...........the mike

I pinch the trap rather dirt hole, flat set, pipe set, post set, or blind set. If nice dirt comes out of trap bed inside jaw spread gets filled with dry peat and covering of dirt. If in a clay or rocky field pinch trap add screen cover with grass. If along gas well road which are normally sand stone filled construction I peat the inside jaw spread and have dry sand available in trapping rig to cover with if material at set isn’t suitable.

I pack something to bed a trap in year round.

I’ll usually just raid pocket gopher mounds in the summer. Coal shale in the winter.

Can’t remember the last time I was able to plop the trap bed dirt back in the hole. Pretty rare this year.