This is something you want when you are trapping predators on land and the traps are buried under the grounds for weeks at a time. The wax is very good to have on the traps then. Water leg-hold traps that are waxed pose two problems. The first is, the wax makes the jaws of the traps slippery and a large powerful coon can pull his foot out. Two, on bright moon-lit nights, the wax is shiny and sometimes a coon will grab the jaw of the trap, setting off the trap without getting caught.
Raccoons are very curious animals and they just love to grab shiny things in the water.
One of the oldest methods of trapping coons is to wrap the pan of a leg-hold with tin foil. The coon will see the shiny foil and grab the pan setting the trap off on his paw. But, if they grab the outside jaw of the trap, the trap will fire without the coon getting caught. The biggest reason you don t want to wax conibears is, they become so touchy that sometimes while you are setting them, and they will fire off spraying you with water. Or, if you are unlucky, firing off and whacking your hand.