I have 6 coyote sets out. Or soil is very sandy. It rained last night.

Tomorrow the low is 31, 22 on Sunday, and 25 on Monday. After that we pretty much stay above freezing till the 20th or so.

I did get some coal shale from No-BS but the traps aren't bedded in it. Should I just leave them alone? Dig 'em up and re-bed in the coal shale?

First time dealing with likely a hard freeze.

Thanks

You can always use salt

Don't know what that means.

Mike the salt in what your bedding your traps in

Mr Hunter8282 if you are at times trapping farmland sod you can pinch-bed the set trap by digging a deep bed no bigger then the actual set trap
and on either side of the bed make two divets to acomadate the levers and place the trap in the bed to rest on the levers
when done the set trap should sit flat about 3/4 of an inch below top of ground then take your hammer and tap all around the perimeter of the trap pinching the dirt to the trap
now the trap should be solid and have no wobble then place a wire screen over the pan and camophlage the trap area with cut up pieces of grass this set is incredibly durable
and 4 coils are designed to bust thru in frozen ground

Any future sets I would bed in freezeproof dirt. But if you are only going to have two nights below freezing (low of 31 means it'll probably only be below freezing for an hour or two and won't freeze hard enough to affect anything) I would maybe think about just leaving them alone and figure on them thawing out and being in working order again without disturbance. That might be a tough call, I wouldn't say remaking them with freezeproof dirt would be a bad move, but the less disturbance the better usually, up to you. Any future sets or remakes from this point on in the year I would definitely make with some type of freezeproofing though. And when it gets back down to freezing regularly you'll have to redo anything you haven't yet. You're in Michigan, you'll be dealing with freezing conditions most of the rest of the winter, once it gets well below freezing and stays there it will actually be much better, freeze/thaw is the worst.

Hey bearcat2,
This is where I am at too. Just gonna let 'em ride for now, but going forward I'll use the coal shale.

Waxed dirt.

i use peat moss whether it's 60 or 20, and i never worry about my traps

our whether is probably close to yours, one day it's 60 that night 18 and hard frost two days later we get 2" of rain

peat moss is cheap, works great for freezing ground, rain or 60 degree days

Waxed dirt for us as well.

i like waxed sand

he says he sets in sand all the time. might as well use wax sand, plus it beds better than wax dirt in my mind.

Wax sand or dirt if u absolutely have to. Around here it will cost u some catches. I use just salt if I can get by with it.

Salt works if its just moisture in the dirt. If its regular perspiration salt does work very long.