I know I just asked about earth anchors. Now I wondering about drags. Are the good to for about everything or they better in certain situations. I trying to limit the use of rebar stakes i use . The stakes work but we have so many coyotes i have to double everything or maybe I not staking them right. Thanks

It depends,what are you trying to do ? You want the critter basics anchors down within a few yards of the set,want him to go a little distance and leave alot of sign for easy trailing ,or go a good way and leave little trailing so it's hardest for others to track. You wanna be able to bury your drag under your trap or are you in hard /soft ground.yu in heavy brush timber or pasture land ?

I'm asking all this because different drags will achieve different goals.
For instance if your trapping timber off of a logging two track that sees alot of hunters you may not want to use a sabertooth because that animal is gonna be anchored in or right off the road for Billy Bob to see and blast with his .308 .In this case somthing like the J.C comer tracker drag might be best because it will let the critter get a little further awayfro the raid buts is still aggressive enough to anchor him down in soil and leave a ton of sign.

Do you have access to a welder ? Oh can save a ton make your own and I'd be more than happy to give you a good design

Mostly trapping in pasture, farm land crop and creek bottoms. And don't have much hunting pressure just want to get away from stakes. And i would love to see your design. Thanks for your help

Drags don't work every where. Where they do work is brush. They need small diameter stuff to hang up on. Open grass pasture and crop ground is no place for drags. You need chain on them. About 10 feet or so. A long chain means the drag stays on the ground better. Drags ought to weigh 2-3 pounds for coyotes. if your going to buy them do it at a trapping convention. Call a dealer ahead of time and have them bring your drags with them. Shipping on them is awful. Picking them up at a convention will save you money.



Cross staking rebar is the best way to use rebar. Yes two stakes. You can single stake but you need a long stake and a long trap chain. Cross stake and you wont lose any coyotes to pumped out stakes.


A guy named rich kasper made these for me. Its a real common design and if you copy it you wont be infringing on anybody.

I cross stake now really wanting to get away from double staking. I had a couple coyote pump a 30 inch stake and leave. They don't leave with double that for sure

cable stakes work. nothing is perfect though. more weight and more pounding with rebar but they pull easy. with cable you have more expense. they don't last as long. chain stakes will hold up but you need a jack to get them back. when earth anchors first came out they sold as disposable. between a constant need for a new driver, stakes that wont set, and the pain of pulling them, im just sticking with crossed staked rebar and drags when they are usable.

You don't need 30 inches to cross stake. except in real soft mud or real dry sand 18 inches will work. I have a few 30 inchers for those rare bad spots. I drive the long stake in straight down. then lock it with an 18 incher cross staked

I have thought about using a single stake and a cable or chain 2 or 3 foot long. Just think not sure it would work or not

Danny said it well.
Your creek bottoms would be the best place in your boots
BUT, you only need a lil mini drag IF YOU'LL PRE-HOOK so a sapling or log.
I mostly use a 1 lb drag hung so the critter is no further than chains length.
I don't have time to look for a catch.
WHEN a cat or coon climbs, if it's 10 ft up, dispatch can be tricky, so I run 6' of chain, then its no more than head hi for easy dispatch.
The drags on my site are just over 2 lbs but i'll try to find a pic of the mini drags I use and they are only 8" hi and 6" wide, and weight isn't needed since I pre-hook

...and in pasture/crops I use 1 Heavy Duty Berkshire stake since I don't have time to drive 2 stakes/set

In your creek bottoms try cabeling off to large rocks or large piece of hardwood,one they can't drag very far.They used to call them clogs,and they work very well.

you would be surprise how well a concrete block will hold a yote using long chains of course. I place a few in fence rows for that purpose. If it frosts hard a lot of times they freeze down and don't budge them.

if you single stake you need about 3 feet of chain so coyote cant pull up on it. About 6 inches up from the bottom put a little bend in the stake. Cable will cause problems after the first catch. it kinks up and gets weak spots. IMO if your using rebar its best to cross stake. A cheap way to cut rebar is a composite blade in a skil saw. Read the label when buying them some are only for masonry. They work but don't last long. Keep an eye out at yard sales and auctions for the saw. Cutting metal wears them out fast because of the metal sawdust. Goggles while cutting are more than just a good idea.

If you single stake you better plan on using more trap than you would have to with cross staking.

X2 every thing Danny said. Although I do use a lot of clogs in timber as Buck says and I do use light grapples pre-hooked as traprjohn describes.
A drag/anchor that will hold in open grass will also weigh a lot more than two 18"-24" rebar and will be harder to carry than rebar.
imo, earth anchors are one time use and disposable.

I will probably stick to double staking and a few drags. What size rebar do ya'll use. Mine is mostly 3/8 30 inches long.

1/2" x 24" works for me

3/8"x24" stakes here

3 ft chain on a single 24" stake rebar on pretty solid soil like pasture or in the woods ,rock soil, but river rock and sand mixed ground go longer stake and chain.
All this worked in the past for me. Now disposable stakes are it and drags.
The more open the ground the longer the chain needs to be on a good drag. Imo

X staking I use 2-3/8"x 24" or 2-1/2"x18-20" (I'm not sure that a couple inches are important. but I won't use shorter than 18" x1/2" ) I have a lot of ~20" stakes because that worked well with 10' stock. You can use 5/8" nuts and hammer swage them on if you don't weld, i had some 9/16 nuts that I ran on with an impact gun too.

I use 3/8 24 inch . But when I use drags I will always prehook it around a small tree before covering chain and drag.