Securing traps?

I have a bunch of small pad locks as it is. Was thinking of using them rather than pounding in stakes. Much faster and easier to remove. These would be around small diameter trees for raccoon sets. What ya think?

If your going to do something like that why not just use quick links I suppose you are using chain or cable. It works fine just make sure that your furrulles are closed really well. I've had some super Coons run off with a trap before.

Anchoring coon traps near any thing that Coon can grab risks giving them leverage to pull out… Even the dog proof.

If your using them to deter "Johnny sneakum" use s hooks, j hooks or something like that combined with earth anchores. It'll be easier than a bunch of keys. Thieves don't like to work hard at anything

There have been plenty of articles on trap theft and it really boils down to where you’re setting to begin with. If you think you need to padlock your traps to something, why not just use a more secure location?

As a kid, I started by setting below bridges. There definitely was fur there but the bridges were used by lots of walkers. Those locations turned out to be trap exchanges— from me to the guys stealing from me. The next time I set it was around a bend, near but not at the bridges. Trap thieves rarely wanted to go more than a few feet from the bridge and the thefts went to almost zero.

The coon will chew off those small diameter trees and be gone with your trap and lock. Not a good thing for trapper image.

Been using brass marine locks for years with no troubles, especially for cages. Don't use saplings,, use a decent sized tree, like 8-10" dia min.

What kind of beaver mix of coon y’all got up there? Or what’s your definition of small diameter? I’ve staked off DP’s to trees no larger than 4” diameter without issue.

In my opinion it would be faster to just drive a stake where the coon are Instead of looking for trees that are close to the coons location. Seems to me you would be passing up a lot of good locations where there aren't any trees.
Then of coarse your going to need more chain on your traps and if you lose the keys your going to have to cut off the lock. And the coons going to have something to use o power out of the trap.

But If you have made up your mind don't let me influence your decision to use locks.

I almost always cable off to a big live root or a sapling - never have had a problem. Also, around here there is always something like that to cable off to along the creeks. As long as a sapling is around wrist thick the coon down here aren't chewing it off. They may munch on anything else they can reach but I find they rarely chew on the tree they are cabled off to. The coon here aren't huge though, maybe 12 lb average, a 20 pounder is a rarity.