I know you can go out and collect and sift your own dirt but would it be OK to purchase top soil and use this for the dirt mixture? Also what is the ratio of flake wax to dirt I have heard 5 pounds of flake wax to 10 gallons of dirtt? Please provide info. On both questions. Thank You!

You might want to check out the achives. There is a ton of great information there.

I use wax sand. Buy tube sand from TSC or a place like that. Get a roaster pan from a thrift store or buy a new one. Get a hot plate from Walmart and put it on 4 to heat the sand and then pour a couple cups of flake wax on top and stir it in and mix it up. The hot plate on 4 will keep you from burning the wax. It should look wet when it's good. Add more as needed. Then, pour it out on cardboard and keep stirring it around until it cools to keep it from clumping up. I store it in 5 gal buckets and put it in ziplock bags to haul out for sets.

I use a piece of rebar to stir it as its cooking.

I think top soil would be just fine, 1 pound flake wax will treat 2 pounds of dirt.
You can also buy pre-waxed dirt.

https://mntrapline.com/products/waxed-dirt-20-pound-bag

I don't know if I would buy top soil. Unless it matches your soil you trap in. When you dig your dirt holes or trap bed I would try to get to as close as I could to that. IMO.

I agree with Flipper. Also, sand seems to process a little quicker than dirt. If you want a little more color in your wax sand, add a little dry dark dirt.

Everyone has their own methods. Here's how we do it....... We dump two 5 gallon buckets of sand on a sheet of plywood that we've used for the past ten years,.... add a half bucket of dry dirt,.... stir in 10 lbs of flake wax,..... one of us mans a weed burner the other a rake and we heat and stir it until it's all nice and damp looking. ..... We let it cool for a few minutes, then run it through a large sifter I built and into a wash tub....... From there we put it in 5 gallon buckets for storage. It does roughly 15 gallons a batch. We can do 5 batches in a morning. 75 gallons will last us a trapping season. Tried doing it with the sun and black plastic. This way seems as effective and a lot less time involved.

They don't care if it matches, they don't seem to reason things out like people. Flip some duff on it with a whisk broom if you want it to blend better. I don't need huge quantities because when it gets super cold, snares take over. Burning your wax will cause way more issues than being off in color, they are color blind remember.

Set a#3 long in coal shale yesterday and had a female yote this morning 5 degrees.

I originally tried to use native dirt for this issue. It doesn't matter, if your dirt is waxed right it won't get wet and then it won't match the surrounding dirt that is wet or frozen, even if you dug it out of the trap bed and waxed it. You have a spot of dry dirt where your trap is that stands out. Best to blend with a little duff over top, or a smattering of natural native dirt, not enough to freeze and cause problems, but enough to blend your waxed dirt/sand. Collecting some anthill duff in the summer and scattering it over not just your trap bed but the surrounding area works well for blending flat sets in a forest setting, and that stuff doesn't freeze easily, as long as you don't put it thick enough to interfere with your traps operation if it does freeze, you should be good.

I've found I prefer sand over dirt, but back to the original question, yes you could buy topsoil (or sand) rather than dig and sift your own, but it would get expensive if you are using a lot.