What do you use: pan covers, polyfill, etc.

[Missourian]

What do you use to keep dirt from getting under your pan and why? I've used wax paper as pan covers, and wasn't real impressed. Last year, I simply tore off a large piece of wax paper and folded it up 'til it was "pan sized" and stuck it under the pan. This worked okay, but dirt still occassionally got under the pan. So this year I'm thinking about trying screen pan covers or polyfill. What method works well for you guys? Thanks, Adam

[dj88ryr]

#2s and smaller traps, get polyfil under the pan, #3 and bigger, get screen.

[CoonDuke]

When using buckwheat hulls or sifted peat moss, I don't bother using a pan cover. My traps are night-latched and that coupled with the property of peat or hulls to compress easily, I feel a pan cover is not needed.

I used to use polyfill, and like it, but it made a mess in the kill circle. Not that I think it would cause avoidance or anything...it just looked "sloppy."

[17kiss]

Dont use anything on my fox sets and most of my coyote sets , with the exception of flat and post sets. they get steel screen. All my cat sets from now on are either steel screen or the exposed shingle

[fishadict]

Wax paper. Over the pan and under loose jaw.

fa

[lynxcat]

Pretty much on with DJ...but some of the 3's require both depending on soil/sand conditions...I prefer the wire on larger traps..but sometime find myself needing the underfill as well.
lynx

[trappnman]

polyfil seems to be the best option if using something under the pan. Far superior to everything else I've tried.

[conibear1]

I love the fiberglass screen type. They work great for me. I have used other types, but these are the ones I now use. I clean them along with my traps, then I put them in a mud filled pail for a couple weeks, rinse and set out to dry. My waxed dirt is used with these. It is a great combo!!

[NattyBumpo]

Wax paper cut to fit just inside the jaws. With a slit where the dog is.

[timwilcox]

Poly Fill for me !! Easy & cheap to use. I forgot to mention that I buy a big bag & then store the remaining poly in big zip locks to keep oder free.

[Rob220swift]

I put my polyfill in with my peat that's stored in a plastic garbage can. My screens go there also, so if they acquire an odor it's one I don't need to worry about.

[uptrapper]

Maybe I am missing something but I do not use anything under or over the panunless its in snow and as far as I know I never have a problem.I think its just one more thing I can do without.I set alot in fine sand.I feel that by using a nightlatch the pan has to move such a small distance any soil that washes under will compress enough to let the trap fire.Am I missimg something?Why do you use pan covers or or polyfill?

[Iowa Badger]

Dyed and waxed black aluminium screen with all of my threes.

fiberglass screens with my 1.75s

[Steve Gappa]

uptrapper- its a case of having things too good-

here, the soil is good loam farmland, turned over regualrly and is perfect for setting and bedding traps. It has one main disadvantage- when it gets wet, it turns to a thick mud- and this flows down under the pan. After the rain, this mud gets rock hard- and you can literally hammer on the pan and the trap will not fire, even with nightlatch. You would think that a coyote would compress the mud just enough to fire the trap- but not so. I've shook my head more than one morning at all the tracks on the pans of traps that didn't fire.

Polyfil works the best for me on the smaller traps where I do not want to increase the kill area of the trap (the pan). I find it to be odorless, is fairly moisture proof and over a short term doesn't seem to collect odors.

On my #2 and #3- I just started seriously using screens with them and love them. Quick, simple and givens me a bigger kill area and adds, I believe, a few coyotes to the total take.

[coydog]

I use #3's with screen. Wouldnt have it any other way for my conditions.

[HappyPlumber]

I have tried them all. The one that works the best for me is Bob Wendts "patent". Cut a role of wax paper to the correct length. (using a roll that is only half full). Put it in a bench vise over night so it accumulates a "memory" of being squashed. I stick this in my hind pocket and it is always there for remakes and it doesn't pick up any human oder and it works better than any other trap pan I have used. The hind pocket is my idea because it has saved me MANY trips back to the truck and my legs are getting old. HP

[mt]

I also use waxed paper. Only I pre cut them all to fit inside the jaws, also wrinkle them up first ( in the preseason) and they are good to go. Mostly trap fox and coons so they are for the 1.5 and 2's. Do have some 3's for this year and I will use the waxed paper for them too.

Mark

[Missourian]

Thanks for all the info! For you guys that use screen pan covers, do you have alot of toecatches? With the increased "kill area" that the screen makes, it has me wondering about those canines that step on the outside edge of the screen. Any comments? Thanks, Adam

[17kiss]

Only comment I can make on that is I would rather have him by a couple of toes than a pattern miss inside the jaws.

[HappyPlumber]

The cutting of the length of wax paper on the roll is that length so it fits inside the jaws. One whole wrap is long enough to go over the top of dog with the corners going under the jaw on that side. On the opposite side the wax paper is long enough to go under the other jaw entirely. I wrinkle it up by rolling into a ball and then straightening it out before putting it on the trap. I don't have a problem with any animal stepping on the pan because I set the trap where his foot will be put. I use the modified stepdown pattern where the pan is the lowest point of the pattern. The trap bed gets dug before the hole gets dug. Bob's video shows how to make it. Steve has demoed it at NTA rondies. It's easy and quick and it works great, no misses.