I don’t like leaving them but I don’t like carrying a heavy tool to remove them either. For coon in a dogproof trap, what’s the minimum depth you go assuming there is no chance for entanglement? Am looking at pogos and standard Berkshire stake ends.

Now, before anyone suggests 24–inches of t-bar or cross staking with 18-inch metal, I have heavy clay soil and I’ll be digging some out but pulling straight up for most. We’ve tried t-bars and 24-inch rebar and coon sometimes can work them out

I've ran POGOs exclusively.

Cable restraints and footholds. From coon to big eastern coyote.


I haven't had one moved to my knowledge.


I run POGOs due to the price....cheap enough to leave if they won't pull.


You can vary the washer size and length of cable for different soil conditions.

I find 1 1/2" to typical work well and in my ground, 12-18" is the normal depth before hitting shale and it's enough to hold. I run 12" or so of cable fastened to 6" or so of chain below my 3rd swivel on footholds.

A lot depends on your ground. I've found them to work fine in most places...if not I carry premade cable extensions to cable off to something.


I'd recommend the HD driver. I tried buying cheaper versions and they broke fairly quickly. I've had the red handled one for a while now and the tip is still doing fine.

12 in should suffice

If you pull those cheap berkshires plan on trying to bend them back into some shape to reuse them. They fold VERY easy.

Thanks everyone. Jamie, I’ve folded a couple berks over the years. And left disposables in the ground too many times too. We may just have to go to 30 inch rebar and hope for the best

just use wolffang and eliminate the issue. You don't need the puller with you at all times, just at the end

For DP's I use 24" long 3/8 rebar with a nut welded on the top so the coons can swivel around the stake without the stake spinning and getting looser in the ground. I move traps often and cable stakes were WAY too much work to pull and move every few days. T-Tops spin and get very loose in the hole on dry land. They are OK in water though.

I still use pogos for coon, 1 1/2” washer and 8” of cable will hold any coon we have. Caught a 24#4 oz. coon this year with no worries but I make sure they have nothing to pull against. My homemade wooden puller pops them right out .

That's why I went to the HD Berks AND I drive a stake on 2 or 3 sides about 1/2 way down, to loosen the soil prior to pulling.

I use heavy duty berks for coyotes and on drowning cables. Both work well. But with the HD berks in tight soils, the tips bend about half the time and may break when being bent back.

Skydancer, when I am trapping coon, I’m moving traps every 8-10 days. At 100 plus and moving often, I gotta get ‘em out and keep moving. It looks like it’s going to be a lot of work whether pogos or stakes. But if the coon market comes back one of these years, I want to have the bestest, fastest system possible.

That's what I like about them. You can even get them pulled out of my soil with a couple inches of frozen ground. I can pull almost all of them easily without problems. Once in a while for whatever reason you can't get them to budge so I just cut and go.

They aren't hard to bend back into shape. Just use a pair of pliers to bend back to somewhat of the original shape and it'll be good to use again. After you bend them back make sure you don't see any cracking around the loop that holds the cable. If so, don't use. You will only be able to drive and reuse about 3 times. After the 3rd time of pulling the stake end will bust away from cable.

Understood. Let's hope coons come back!

I agree - I just buy more anchors and reattach them to the cable.
Gotta admit - I like 'em, but to each his own...

Bill, I use 15" of cable and the Berkshire heavy duty disposables which are 7/8" x 3". I also drill a cable size hole in the other end between the "V" and attach another 15" cable. When it comes time to pull I push a t-bar through the loop of the added cable, pull up by hand which straightens out the disposable and they pop right out unless I hit a root or some immovable object. When I originally started doing this, I thought an animal might grab the cable and pull it but I've never once had this happen. I do this now on all my disposables on water or land.but run longer cables on the water sets.

I have pretty much switched everything thing over to this. Chain lays flat last forever and does not kink like cable.
The chain retrieval cable makes em pull with little fuss.
Your not dependent on a typical soil type to ensure they hold.
They drive as easy as anything.

If you cut the head off of a Harbor Frieght Jimmy bar you have a heat treated driver for 8.00 bucks

God bless,

Dustin

Dustin, that is what I’m switching over to.
How do you keep the chain on the retrieval end from falling down the hole? Do you attach it to the chain that is attached to the trap? Or use something else?

I have not done it yet but I was going to put a small pogo on the end of the retrieval chain to keep it from falling in the hole. It honestly has not cause that many issues without the pogo.
You will love the system Rob. In frozen soil just use your driver to make a pilot hole. Makes driving them in a lot easier.

God bless
Dustin