We have CLAY - Loam soil. Cable staking coon means 8 to 12-inches of cable in the ground. And it really doesn’t make much difference as to the type or configuration of the stake at the end of the cable.

I get frustrated, however, with cable sticking out of the trap bed when using them for coyotes. Most of what you buy is 15 inches (or more) and I want to shorten what I pound into the ground. From your experiences, with the soils you work with, how long/short are your cable stakes?

Note: I suppose could go in at an angle, like Randy Smith purportedly does.

And lastly, I use a lot of cross staking and prefer to do that, but if I have to walk any distance, cable lightens my load.

I make my own disposables and I don't have that formed cable attachment. Mine just have a hole cut In the stake head. That way I can adjust my cable length by just pulling the cable through the hole. If It were me I'd cut off the loop at the stake head and then just run the cable through the stake head and crush on a cable stop. Know you have some adjustment.

I make my own, and use 1 foot of cable and 6 inches of chain, so if I don't put them in all the way I have chain left out of the ground. They are a little more expensive to make, so I spend more time getting them out in the spring if they freeze in during season.

That is a great idea.

I like having 18's so I have enough stake for soft, wet ground. These are often are too much in hard pack or frozen ground and I end up carrying multiple lengths. I would think they could be cut below the chain if needed. How do you connect your trap swivel to the short chain? I usually use 3/16" quick links to connect stake loop to trap swivel. Thanks.

I use a crunch proof swivel to connect to the end of the chain. When I am building them I loop the cable through the other end of the chain and secure it with a double ferrule. I have them attached to the traps when I boil traps at the start of the season. If I have to leave the stake in the ground I open the last j hook.

I make mine 18 inches with a wolf fang. I trap in the Rochester area as well as up North and havent had any problem getting them in the ground to where they are not a problem

If you have 8" of cable left just pound it down too, flat, not vertical w/ the driver... 8" to hold with, 8" just pounded flat into the bed to get it out of the way.

I use 12” super stakes and sometimes that seems too long, lol. If soft I’ll pound it all the way in. If it’s tough about 8” and beat the rest on the trap bed. I use a drill with auger to pull (tip off this site) and this saved my butt this past Summer!! There were still a few I had to wait until after a good rain to finish pulling though.

I got ten inches of 1/8 cable and 6 inches of chain.

I use to use 15in of cable with Wolfgang's. Switched this year to superstakes on chain. Still use 15in.

I still pound a little rebar if I’m trapping coons, but pretty much everything else has a chain stake on it now for the reasons you mentioned.
Now when I was switching over from cables to chains I did not consider putting a couple 4-6” of chain on top of a disposable. If I’d have thought of that back then I might still be using the Berkshire HD.

I just started using cable anchors this year and that was one of my first issues also, my remedy was take my dirt hole auger and drill hole straight down under trap bed. I then drive anchor down said hole and fold over excess cable and shove i down hole also. Has worked for me so far.

Hyper load or kink the attachment end of the cable so it forms a sort of pigtail.

That way if a little is sticking up it will lay flat in the bottom of the bed.

The problem I have had with chain stakes Is it's harder to drive chain Into hard ground. And I like to leave my cable stakes behind when I pull.

Regardless, that's the best way to stabilize a bedded trap

That's how I pictured it also. I might play around with it some and see if there's a decent way to quick link instead of that last j hook. But you do have a pretty sweet set up as described. Thanks for the idea!

I don’t like leaving the stake end in the ground when I pull and end up cutting cables if I can’t drill them out. This is one reason I went back to rebar cross staking. But #1 it gets heavy unless I can drive into the sets and #2 crossed stakes are a pain to pull if you are doing deeper holes, as in using pipe dream sets and you wait till the ground freezes. Guess I’ll never be happy.

I bought 100 heavy duty berks ($0.48 each) and 200 double ferrules ($0.06 each) and 100 ft of 3/32 cable ($0.06 a ft). I have less than $0.75 into each cable stake so it isn’t going to break the bank. But I hate leaving stuff in the field when I leave.

The cable with chain on the end works good like 8117 said. Make the entire length only as long as needed for your type soil. If good, hard anchor material is 12" down you could put 4" of chain on top with a crunch proof to the trap chain. It's the anchor (whatever type) at the end of the cable that does the holding.

I also build my cable stakes in various lengths for soil conditions and always add 3 links of chain so I don't have the cable loop sticking up.

I really do like the idea of chaining the last couple inches. Thanks everyone. You’ve given me some ideas to play with