This is why I have long chains on anything I stake with rebar.

This may be far fetched, but do you have any Golden Eagles around that area?

Garry-

I can't believe I never followed up on this! After receiving about two inches of snow the following day I went out to investigate again in the daylight. Just a couple hundred yards from the original set I found coyote tracks with a very distinct dragging pattern in the snow. Ran back to town to get a 4wheeler and after about 3 hours of circling and crossing the same fenceline more times than I care to admit, I finally caught up to an old dog that had powered that steak up and out of the ground, this was about a mile and a half from the original set. I was able to catch up to him as I was on 4 wheels and he only had two good legs to run on and got a bullet in him. This amounts to my favorite coyote hunt I have ever been on, never have I ever successfully tracked an animal down in the snow but that trap dragging in the snow was easy to follow and just required a lot of patience. The old boy had already lost a foot from a previous instance and had almost no length left in his K9's, I'm sure he had a few stories to tell.. Anyway I skinned him up and got my trap and stake back too. Great ending to the story if you ask me! Pics for reference. Also just want to say you are a knowledgeable group of guys, pretty cool to hear a story and be able to determine exactly what happened!

Nice, glad ya found him!

I thought Colorado was a cage only state? Did I hear wrong or ?

Years ago I had a few traps with longer chains can't remember the exact length as I walked up over the knoll there was a coyote jacking the stake out of the ground as adc described but got a bullet in him before he could get it all the way out. Few years later I had one pull a stake out but this trap had standard length of chain on it.deer hunter ended up getting him and brought coyote and trap back to me. It was a huge male always cross staked after that.this was before earth anchors were around.

Nice follow up! Glad you got him and your equipment back. I have had a link of welded chain fail on an earth anchor and lost a yote and trap. Not a good feeling at all.

Never lost one double staked with rebar and I use 3/8" rebar 18" or 24" long.

I single stake DPs and have had the stake so loose in the hole you could pull it with your thumb and one finger. A big coon will really wallow it out. But I make sure there is enough clearance between the insider diameter of the single stake swivel and the rod so it would have to be pulled almost straight up to jack the stake upward.

Way to go and not give up.Congrats

Good Deal!!!

Maybe something got hungry and ate the steak . . .



Okay, all kidding aside.
Was this a steel stake or a cable stake ?
Are your traps set up with shock springs and how long is the chain ?

I've seen where coyotes can jack a stake out of the ground in wet conditions on a short chain.
If there's weakness, they will find it.
Coyotes are the ultimate trap tester.

short chain, short stake, no more problem with pulling stakes

3 links of #4 chain with the link on each end opened slightly to except 1/2" rebar also do the same thing
Attach trap to the middle link

Glad you found it and also got some tracking practice.
Myself I greatly enjoy tracking and do a lot of it for different critters and reasons.

Osky

What a great ending to a story that started in 2020!!
Thanks for the throw back and follow up.

Wow! So glad I came back and finished this story out, makes me feel cool to hear from some of the greats on this post!

Danny / Wet Dog - Love the idea of double staking, I need to make a few more stakes and at least double it up on my sandy ground. Danny where can I get my hands on some of those? The chain pressed open is also a great idea Wetdog!

Hippie - Trapping is still illegal here in the COLOfornia... I get exemption permits for damage control from my local parks and wildlife officer (he's a really cool guy) so I can run 30 days at a time. I run all offset footholds but would love to learn how to snare as well.

LT - He must have been hungry for that STEAK!! LOL! my stakes are all steel 1/2" rebar that I cut myself and weld a castle nut on top of. Most of mine are 30" long and I only have shock springs on 10/50 of my traps. I run a mixed bag of traps.. Those springs are handy but I've had several that got stretched beyond useful life when I've caught big males. My chains are all 18".

Osky - My dream is to track a big muley all the way to his bed and get an arrow in him. Tracking is a lost art that I definitely want to spend more time learning. It was a ton of fun and very rewarding!

I'm setting steel for the first time since 2020 and after a week on my line I can't believe I ever missed a season. Having a ton of fun catching yotes again! Short lining it and setting tight to keep expenses down since fur prices are pathetically low, thinking I might just tan all my dogs and enjoy them to myself for once!

I set mine up like this. When I want to hook to a drag or something I hook to the single swivel

You should see where the stake was pulled one way the rest of the way. No coyote is going to continually jump 30 "

Like button for Danny C post. I have cross staked 18" of rebar in questionable soil never had a pull out.

Good deal On Edge, glad ya get to set some regular traps.

When I wad hunting out there fairly regular, it was unreal how many coyotes would sound off in the evening.

The coyote probably got the cattle skull pushed up next to the stake and reared straight up from the top of the skull. Doing so would give a lot of upwards leverage.

I had a coon use a tree that way once and pull out a long rebar stake. I recovered the coon, trap and stake still attached, hung up in another tree, a few days later.

Keith