I've been building more Wolf snares tonight and was wondering if it was really necessary to use two stops on the cable at the lock. I have been putting two at the lock and two on the adjustable loop at the other end. Is that overkill and a waste of time and money?

I think a lot of it has to do with piece of mind knowing that the end stops won't fail. I have only ever had one fail, that was using a hammer to crimp it and it cracked, never saw it and it slipped. With a swagger I have no worries. You could always use a double ferrule and loop the end tight instead of end stops.

I do use a bench swagger. I guess it will work with just one stop. I would think the less mass hanging there would be less noticeable to a wary wolf.

I do like HFT said for wolf snares.

I don't use a swagger myself and just hammer ferrules. But for extra security I cross punch each ferrule with a standard screwdriver or ^ ridge which I have welded on my steel hamming block. I have not caught a bunch of wolves though. This cross scoring would also work on swaged ferrules IMO.

bstomcat has "IT" Double ferrule

After having one single stop fail last year on a wolf (popped off behind the pigtail) I now use two. I don't have a lot of data to support it is working better, but we are 2 for 2 so far with double stops, and the S hook moose breakaway broke away before the end stops popped off on a non target, so that is saying something right there.

Losing a wolf is learning the hard way. I lost a wolf one time because I only made one wrap around a tree with 9 wire and it worked it loose. I read that I should wrap it twice around but thought it was overkill. I was wrong. I will just keep on using double stops just in case.

I have a tutorial on constructing wolf snares. Thought I posted it here but can not find it. I never use end stops, only double ferrules like Boco shows above only with a swager. They will never fail unless hammered too hard and they split.





My snares are 11 feet long, 63 inches of 5/64th 1 x 19 for loop, and 7 feet of 3/32nd 7 x 7 for tie end. Also I am now using an adjustable loop at tie end.

How about using annealed steel stops? No cracking worries then. Haven’t tested on wolf snares but have used on yote, fox and cat snares for years. Anybody have experience with wolf snares?

I much preferred the old stops on the old Thompson snares. They were lead and a guy could get them off an old snare and reuse them. Soft enough to reshape without cracking