I've never seen a deer break 3/32 and I've never had a failure with smashed on nuts, especially the tiny 6-32 or 8-32 nuts used as deer stops, but I guess anything is possible.

Can the OP post a picture of the broken cable?

If you've ever seen one get an antler in one,you will either see a broken cable or you will own a souvenir antler.

Yep ! On that caribou I couldn't get very close. It was like a whirling dervish ! I had to wait until he stopped dancing around and I shot the antler in two, and he ran off.

I'll try to post a pic tomorrow. I'm only missing about 4" of cable. Yes standard snare swivel on end.

i'm usually swearing at the deer when i find everything disassembled on the ground but using break aways does make it easier than the project of releasing them. even with break aways, expect to hold a few deer. i'd suggest always carrying a tarp to throw over them and a pair of cutters because sooner or later you are going to need it

I have a theory. (Could be wrong, but it’s still a shot)

Nuts that haven’t been annealed are harder. It takes a heavier hammer blow to crimp them than if they were annealed. When the standard deer stop (nut) in this case was crimped, the hammer blow may have caused the nut to pinch the cable, thus creating the point of failure under stress.


Had the deer stop (nut) been annealed, perhaps the cable wouldn’t have been pinched, because of the softer nature and less force required to mash it, and it is possible that the cable would have held.




Thoughts?

Anyone agree? Everyone disagree? Anything? Learning why cable fails benefits all of us...