I run a few dozen bridger #3s with pit pans from about December 1st till the end of February trapping desert cats in cold freezing weather and on a normal year quite a bit of snow. Wax dirt doesn’t work for me. To much melt and freeze and it ends up coming out in a huge brick around the trap. So I use a ton of salt and it works great but usually after the first month or the first catch dying and waxing wears off and I’m always changing out traps because they start rusting so bad. Does anyone have an opinion or want to share what paint they use. Something that dries super hard. Also do you wax them after the paint? Thanks for any help

I have been using oil base Rustoleum primer and/or paint cut with about 60% acetone for probably close to 20 years. I want it runny, and acetone flashes off pretty fast. The paint must be totally cured before waxing. TOTALLY, or the hot wax will crinkle the paint and have poor adhesion. I get good life span on the wax, and several years on the paint.
I don't wax conibear type traps, and still, paint is good for years.

50/50 rustoleum/acetone dip has been working for me

Do it early and let them air out and cure a few months (not sure they even need that)

Did a lot of treatments over the years including paint.
I’ve gone back to just boiling in walnut hulls then waxing. New traps I just use a season then wax for next season.
Salt is a no no for me. Doesn’t work below zero anyway here and it destroys metal.
Waxed dirt works well maybe load more wax when making its haven’t had any issues with it but I add more wax than most of the “recipes” call for I found on here and it works well in my freeze thaw.
I put waxed dirt in bed, then a crumpled wax paper over the bedded trap and a light layer of waxed dirt on top. Nothing else. Traps waxed too. It’s best combo I found yet for late winter predator work here with our rock solid frozen ground and freeze thaw conditions.
And my traps aren’t rusted either.
Jim

I do 1 quart oil base paint and 3 acetone and it works for me, but I won’t argue with what jabNE posted. Just don’t over complicate the process and you will be fine

I'm a salt user and will be for the rest of my days. In my opinion it's better than waxed dirt and much easier to use
I trap from mid-December until late February also.
It's fairly easy to stop the rusting by cleaning the trap and then give it a bath in a strong baking soda water
Yes it does start to rust the trap and chain after a catch, but it works for me and I'm not going back to lugging buckets of wax dirt again. And salt is cheap, $12 for 80 pounds of mixing salt at the feedmill
If I happen to catch a coon I will replace that trap because they are tough on a trap
Otherwise I remake the set and don't worry about it
Just my 2 cents

Not paint, but as mentioned a few days ago concerning freezing conditions, grocery store produce bags for the trap. Super thin and all traps seem to break through no problem.

I paint my cat and water traps.

2.5-3 parts acetone to one part paint.

Cats don’t “work” a trap over to bad. So it lasts pretty well year to year or until I catch a coon.

The water traps have to get treated annually.




I’m giving serious thought to splitting my canine trap collection in half and painting/waxing them as well. Do half every six months or so so they have time to air out and cure sufficiently.

I don't know how suitable this is for traps, but if you want something hard... for years I've gotten the 2-part DTM (direct to metal) epoxy primer from summit racing. Its my goto primer for metal projects. Epoxy is not UV stable. So if you don't topcoat it and leave it exposed do direct sunlight, it will get chaulky in a year or so. But on traps I expect that doesn't matter. They'll rarely see sunlight and some chaulky discoloration is irrelevant. I mix it, thin it, then spray it. If you thinned it more, you could probably dip the traps. But it dries hard so be careful about glueing them shut.

Ya I agree with all this, not saying wax dirt doesn’t work for some people, just not for me. I trap a lot of rim rocks and steep stuff so I walk to all my traps and salt is a lot less to carry. I have all my sets set up with ribbon so when the ribbon is down I know I have something other wise I only walk to my sets every two weeks to rebait.

Thanks everyone

I’ve started painting my water line traps. I had some leftover Rustoleum rusty metal primer and some gloss black from a trailer build. A half gallon of each. I mixed them together and added a gallon of mineral spirits. It came out a nice mud brown with a slight satin sheen. I like the way it looks and will transition all my water traps to it.