I’ve been watching a lot of video on solid trap bedding… and I see everyone just lightly poking the jaws? How hard should you really be pushing to check for trap shifting? I just thought a 20 pound animal would shift the trap a lot easier than a poke of a finger? Is there such a thing as bedding a trap to tight? Sometimes I think I bed my traps and got it cemented in!

Everyone says "you want that trap rock solid" but the majority of guys don't bed them truly rock solid, just "solid enough"

Watch a Ray Milligan tape to see how he beds traps. He puts a foot on each lever and twists using his full body weight to bed traps.

If you pay attention you will know when they aren't solid enough

An adult coyote sil.pur at least 8# of pressure on thr jaws so...

THIS^^
Also if a person learns how & why to guide, you won’t have to pound the pee out of your set like I see many on Utube are inclined to do. You do not want the canines stepping on your jaws & levers at the set. Many trappers appear to favor the step=down dirt-hole set for that very reason- “only give them one spot to step!” Is heard often.

Regardless of the set, step down or standard, I like them rock solid. I haven't tried standing on the trap like Ray Milligan but I started doing the cone like Paul Antzak, digging out just enough to set the trap into with solid, undisturbed ground supporting the contact points. It sped up my setting time and I spend way less time trying to repack the dirt I took out. And I have been covering a little deeper than I used to. I noticed a couple years ago a couple times where a coyote stepped on the jaw and it only had a 1/4" of dirt over it. The trap was solid but I could see the jaw edge in the print. I think he felt the cold edge of the jaw and left the set.

Im right there with u on all your points

What I do I was taught to do. I stake the trap, bed it and will on occasion use part of my chain to shore up the loose jaw…and taking my whisk broom,tamping with the end of it, all around the trap jaws. The various lengths of broom bristles lend themselves to poking dirt where it needs to go…. Leave the area of my pan cover alone and proceed with the sifting and blending of the dirt pattern.

The whisk broom will find any flaws in my bedding program. Don’t spend all day there.

After you dig out your hole for the trap on the snowmobile trail, add some crumbled/crystalized snow that you just dug out. Place the trap on some wax paper or a super thin produce bag with a few knife slices to be sure it rips, push down and wiggle the thing into place. Then dress the set however you want and before you give it the final touch (about 30-60 seconds later), give the trap a wiggle to break it loose. Now that thing is sitting in a cast bed. Works best at -10 or colder, colder the better.
Do all this as fast as you can without breaking a sweat, don’t fool around there, get in and out quick. If you can’t do it out of a sleigh with someone on the snowmobile, do it in front of the snowmobile and drive over the set, that’s the final touch. Have your traps ready to go behind you. Toss the chain, drag & trap out in front of the machine, step on the ski and in front of the machine. Then you can fart around making the set, as you’ll be driving over your tracks when you leave.
This is for wolf, but I use the same precautions for fox & coyote, I just don’t really target them much…….over kill, but a good habit to get into. Then all your sets are for smarter dogs.
This is why I like snareing…….lol

All this is redundant information if you’re not talking winter trapping…….lol

Snow trapping is a different game.