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.

I bed them solid but when I hammer out a trap bed in frozen ground that makes it a little harder. I use waxed dirt and have found out that stuff doesn't pack tight.

If wondering just how hard to poke just reach over to undisturbed dirt near the trap and poke that. That's how hard you want it to be when you poke the trap. It ain't got to be cement hard but it cant just flip out of the trap bed either. The main thing is it shouldn't move.

Not really about bedding, but Boon Laine just put out a short vid of blending in tough conditions. Make the area around the trap “feel” and look the same……if that makes sense.

I put a finger on the jaw but that finger has quiet a bit of my weight behind it

I definitely don't "cement them in" though.

Like stated, I believe in striving to get them to step on the pan rather than the jaws

Ill be the first to admit, my traps are often not bedded like the rock of Gibraltar.

Bedding a trap on soft, moist ground is easy. You can mash it in there, or fill the bed back up with that soft, moist dirt and smoosh it down into that. Easy peasy.

Bedding a trap on hard, or frozen ground is a different story and very difficult to do so "rock solid". One of the key components of being able to pack soil is moisture, and moisture is the enemy of the cold weather trapper, which is why we all pack dry and/or treated stuff around to put a trap in.

One of the key factors to bedding a trap firmly, and easily in those tough conditions, IMO, is getting the trap bed made right to begin with. If you're familiar with Mark Zaggers pipe dream set construction, the way he constructs his trap bed is very similar to my own. I dont want the trap to touch the bottom of the bed first and foremost, this allows for a sump and moisture to sit under the trap thus not impeding its function (and a handy place for that annoying D-ring to dangle and not high center everything). And the sides of the bed must be angled so the trap finds its own level. I use square jaw traps, and my beds typically look like an upside down pyramid. The only contact the trap has with the native soil is the levers, the ends of the cross frame, and a few points along the outside of the jaws. Minimal contact with the native soil is the goal. At this point, if everything's gone according to plan, merely placing the trap in the bed is enough to accomplish what we want, the trap is more or less bedded and only needs covering.

I think a point that is as important as making sure that trap is a firm as we can make it, is firming up the soil covering the trap. I think a lot of digging issues stem from the soil OVER the trap being loose, not the trap itself being loose. Which is why I use a rib bone to firm up the soil over the trap as well.

And on some sets, ill even break up the ground around the set too. Blending out isnt just about appearance, its about feel too.

One final thing I think really helps with any shortfalls in any of this, is burying that trap deeper. This just helps with so many issues. Wind, birds, and rodents can all uncover a trap, especially if its not buried very deep. Skunks and coon can easily uncover a portion of a trap if it only has a 1/4-1/2 inch of dirt over it, and once they find something, it encourages them to continue. Id say my traps have on average 1-1.5 inches of soil over them, and sometimes maybe more.

I think most trappers dig their bed way too wide & deep.
Most will strike the ground at too shallow of an angle.
Those three things can cause a lot of problems & cost you coyotes.

This method helps me get a solid foundation that doesn't move.
It also guards against digs, swipes, and pawing.
Using a masonry hammer allows you to cut a more precise bed.
I welcome Wile E. to step all over my traps.

TRAP BED CONSTRUCTION

Depends on the type of set. Snow sets I do like Shakey, if I have those conditions, fressh fluffy snow, I don't dig anything out, in fact oftentimes I have to pack more snow in, simply to get a solid base for the trap without it sinking out of sight. I usually dig my trap beds similar to what Boone describes if I'm not dealing with a lot of freezing, but most of the time I am dealing with freezing or bad freeze/thaw. So then they may be shaped similar (I like the center of the trap to be suspended, so I'm not fighting it rocking, also why I remove the big wolf swivels from the D rings on any wolf traps that come equipped with them and replace them with something smaller) but they are dug bigger, so I can fill them in with waxed sand and have the trap completely incased in waxed sand. Unlike waxed dirt, waxed sand is a dream to bed in, give the trap a twist back and forth, and it is solid, much easier than bedding in native dirt, even. But if you are setting blind sets or similar, where they are just walking through, rather than working the set where a lot of foot movement is the goal, well bedding rock solid isn't as important, they are ethier going to hit the pan or not. If they step on the pan, you have them, if they step on the jaws or levers, it doesn't matter if they rock or not, because they aren't going to step near there again regardless. Either putting the pan EXACTLY where they are going to put their foot, or guiding, becomes key here, not bedding.

I'll admit I often don't cover my traps as deeply as I should, they are often covered just enough to hide the trap. This is because I am so often dealing with freeze/thaw and want as little as possible to freeze into a crust over the trap. Even when I'm not, habit causes me to bed them shallow and cover shallow. Something I need to work on.