I’m new to snaring coon. Will actually start this coming fall. Please assume I will have scouted trails in advance. The trails here tend to be open country with some stream banks and small plots of woodland. That being said, I’m not going to remember everything I will have seen.

How often do you put extensions on snares? I see Road Runner snares are in the neighborhood of 40-inches, and in his videos, he just stakes them down. Dakotaline snares are longer. Snareone’s usually come with an extension added.

For coon, is a 40+ inch snare the norm? In your situations, do you add an extension for entanglement? Do you add extensions in the field, as a general rule or make them/buy them longer in the first place? Do you carry a variety of extensions with you in the field?

Using extensions is too slow if you're not using an all-in-one system. Entanglement doesn't do much for coon overall.

Make yourself a bunch of kill poles for your snares. They work great in open country.

If you plan on being able to reset same spot after a catch I would use an extension .. It gets the critter away from the set site and reduces disturbance .. couple it with a kill pole and you are good to go .

For raccoons I like a 6' snare with a aggressive lock and kill spring so a extension isn't necessary if you feel the need for a kill pole I'd set two in a cross stake pattern with smooth stakes they can really wrap up in the entanglement at times, so pulling out the kill poles may speed things up so you can go to the next set location in other words time management.

Do you have to have deer stops on your snares? If not, a 40-48" snare (no need to waste extra cable on raccoons) on a killpole (1/2" rebar 36-40" long) will work just fine for raccoons. Being from the northern states you have a larger coon than many other states, thus it will be much easier to neck snare them and they will be dispatched by the snare. I'd use a fast loaded snare and very aggressive lock like a mini camlock. Set your snare loop to a 6-7" size but more importantly is to make certain the bottom of your loop is AT LEAST 6" off the surface of the trail and supported VERY rigidly by heavy #9 support wire. Be sure your lock is at the 1-2 o'clock position so its takes some effort to start the lock closing but then it fires shut super fast, just like adding pan tension to a foot hold trap, you are ensuring they are fully committed. This will ensure nearly all the coons you snare will be neck caught. If the snare is knocked down reset the same loop size but 2" HIGHER than before. Its very common for big raccoons (and fox) to climb over a loop set 6" off the ground. I never reset the same locations. I start with my snares closest to the food and farthest from the dens, then just move closer to the den side after each catch. This allows the coons to find the new snare before its thrown off track snooping around a catch circle.

coon, 30- 32 in cable. In line swivel and 4 to 6 feet of attached extension so I can anchor off the trail and keep it off the trail.

I run short snares to begin with
my extensions are 3' or 8'..when needed,
3 footers for small trees close to the set AND to run down a DROWNING ROD. (how many do that?)
8 footers for the huge trees near a set or if I gota reach a ways to ANY tree.
Pulling stakes is hard on my back, ESPECIALLY after recent back surgery.
but, I recently started t-staking them down some.