Hello, today you will learn(hopefully) how to prepare your trap for the wild.

I do not mean how to de-scent OR set your trap. (those will be coming in the future)

What I do mean how to prepare the trap.

My definition for "prepared trap" is one that has at least one swivel and one spring added to the chain.
The point of the spring and swivel is to prevent the animal from breaking its leg. With a regular chain the animal can run and the jerk would break its leg(this is prevented by the spring) or the animal could twist and have the skin worn off of its leg and possibly break its leg(this is prevented by the swivel).
I will also be adding a stake.

Step 1: Tools.

Tools:

Step 2: Materials.

Materials you will need.
Except for the trap and stake, I think you can figure those out on your own.
But just in case, the stake should be about the same length as your fingertip to your elbow and thick enough to safely drill a hole in. And it needs to be pointy on one end.

Step 3: Connecting the Swivel to the Trap Chain.

In this step you will connect one end of the swivel to the end of the trap chain.

Grab your swivel, wire, wire cutters, pliers and trap.

My trap chain had this convenient piece of metal with a hole dirlled at the end attached so the swivel will go to this. but you can attach the swivel to a link in the chain.

This is probably the easiest step, with ~one foot of wire run it through the swivel and the LAST hole on the chain.(the last hole on my chain was the small hole in the piece of metal, but your last hole will most likely be the last link on the chain)

Then do whatever you need to do to keep the swivel from coming off. I just bent the wire in a tight "U" and twisted it.
Trim accordingly.

and you are done with this step!

Step 4: Attaching the Spring to the Swivel.

Ok, this is where it gets sorta tricky. Well, more tedious than tricky.

Grab your pliers(1 light duty needlenose plier and a slightly heavier duty needlenose plier helps a bunch in this step), spring, solder and soldering iron.

With the pliers bend the outer ring(on the spring) so that the end of the spring is exposed and you can slip the swivel on.

Slip the swivel on and then clamp the spring ring.

Once the spring ring is clamped there should only be a small(~2mm is good) amount of space the swivel can slide off.

To prevent the swivel sliding off we are gong to solder the gap shut, with your trusty soldering iron of course!

Step 5: Attaching the Spring to the Stake.

Don't worry, this is the last step!

In this step you will be soldering the spring ring shut and attaching the spring to the stake via lots of wire. And a previously drilled hole of course.

First of all, you need to repeat the steps needed to seal the ring on the end. Don't worry, you wont have to slide anything on so you can seal the gap before you attach the stake.

Cut a length of wire close to 4 feet and run about 1 foot of it through the hole in the stake.
Wrap the 1 foot of wire around the stake until there is ~ an index fingers length left.
Twist the finger length around the 3 foot of wire.

Then run the end of the wire(the long end) through the sealed hole on the spring.

Wrap the wire around and stake and then back through the hole on the spring several times, just make it "un-unwrappable" to your standards.

You can either solder the tag end to another piece of wrapped wire or just tuck it in somewhere.

Step 6: Congrats! You Are Now Done!!

Now your trap is a lot less painful for the animal and the animal will not escape (escaping is bad for the animals because due to design of trap they are most likely injured.)

All you need to do now is de-scent(I would only advise de-scenting it if the area is under pressure from hunters or trappers targeting the animal your trying to trap. I have not de-scented my traps and I have caught 2 raccoons and one possum.)

Don't worry, lots more instructables on this topic will soon follow depending on feedback.

I imagine you are wondering why i would post this instructable before posting one about the general techniques and methods.
I posted this instructable first because this one proves that trapping is not a senselessly cruel sport. In cases of cruelty its generally not the trap or the sport but the individual who sets the traps that is the cruel one.
If you feel the need to debate about the cruelty of this sport please watch this video.

Thank you for reading and all constructive criticism is appreciated.