Hi Everyone.

I have just come into about 20' of 3/4" rebar and thought well might just as well make some coyote drags. I have some Sabertooth drags - that weigh in at 2.65 lbs but was wondering how much your homebrew drags weigh. I usually run them with 10' of #3 straight link chain.

I sent Wolfdog91 a PM but his box is full. I plan on running something like his design.

Thanks.

Brian

I have several home made drags of all different weights. Made one last year with some 3/4" rebar that I really like. Don't know the weight but it is heavy.

My homemade metal grapples are made with metal rings welded to the hooks for adding up to 3 auxiliary weights (up to 10 lbs each, 30 lbs. total). Here in this farm country it may be 1/2 mile to any " catching" cover in any direction. Adding auxiliary weight that you can clip on in a hurry makes a grapple useable where as even the best/heaviest manufactured ones leave much to be desired in stopping a coyote here. Totally different in your timber country. You won't set 50 of these in a day but having the option to add weight to 10 or so traps with grapples works for me. The rest can be wooden fence posts/logs, earth anchors, rebar stakes, cable slides or whatever you are comfortable with .............. my take.................. the mike

In my opinion It's more about how much chain you have between the trap and the drag.

You got that right.All the old time literature recommended 4' for fox and coon,6' for coyotes.Did I go on some adventures tracking coyotes down!Especially if they got into plantation pines,there was too much bounce so the grapple left very little sign.At 8'things got better,at 10' I stopped worrying.

If you will/can pre-hook, some can be 1 lb...6" wide x 9" long with 6 ft of chain, cuz WHEN you get a cat or coon, it will be no more than bout head high for easy dispatch NOT 10 ft up where ya must climb or log before dispatch.
since I trap old logging rds and trails pre-hook 95% of the time.

We just got a 20 ft piece of 3/4 rebar and some 1/2 rebar,haven't welded them up yet,cut the pieces tho,,12 inch main shaft,8inch t bar,2 spikes 6inch long.i tied the piece together, without the weld or the swivel welded to is was 3.4 lbs so welded up with a swivel end welded on will be 3.5 lb

Thanks everyone.

Hay sorry about that boss lol, cleaned out my pm s. Anyhow I don't have a scale to weight mine lol but just feeling I recokwn my coyote ones are in the 2.5 -3 pond range. That being said I feel to a degree the weight of the drag and be some whay if a mute point if you don't have a good Desigh. And the design is gonna depend in what you want the drag to do .
But that's a whole lot of typing so I'm just going to assume you want a good drag that will dig and plow in about everything and not be too heavy or bulky . O and I've actually had a friend of mine test a dozen of these in Midwest and he loves em ! Said coyotes don't go far at all .
Drag body is doubled 5/8ts rebar which I feel better stabilizes the drag than a single beam. Prongs are 3/8's cold roll ,originally used 3/8's spikes but in my testing haven't had many problems with the 3/8s bending . The eyes is a 3/4" lock washer ( can't remember if that's the exact size though. Prongs are welded on straight then bent at about a 30 degree angle and spend inwards two are the main shank. If you want digging and hooking action a can no stress how important bending your prong inward is. I'm not sure the technical terminology but basically it creates a better hooking and almost a cork screwing action and performs much better than a drag with it points orientated outwards. Any how here's some pics

I like the looks of those drags. I have never used any, yet, but have passed up some spots because of that reason. I do have a welder and enough iron and chain to make some like those that Wolfdog did. Thanks for the tip on the inward bent prongs.

Thanks Wolfdog. I should be good to go once this quarantine ends and I can get to a welder.

Nice looking drags Wolfdog!
And Beav and Buck hit it on the head chain length and I'll throw this in a heavy chain is better.
Like John mentioned pre-hook that drag if you are iffy territory...or you are using a light weight short chained drag.

Those look awesome! Will they work in timber as well as open ground? Looking for something that will work on yotes and cats.

Depends , generally I think yes but you may have to blunt the points a little

They should work in timber.Generally you don't need them to go too far in timber unless you are trapping on woods roads,traveled by people.

If you can pre-hook a drag, why not attach the trap to whatever you are pre-hooking onto?
Also, unless impossibly rocky, why mot use a stake?

If you can get the animal out of the set, it doesn't take as long to reset. Could be a double edge sword though, if you have to spend an hour untangling a bobcat in amongst a bunch of briers, with possible pelt damage.

I got access to up to 3 inch rebar. I got some 1 inch rebar to use as base. Then make points out of 3/8. Then weld a d ring on end to hook chain too. I live in ozarks. Rocks everywhere cant get a stake in 95% of the time. I pre hook most of mine. I get to reset the set because animal dont mess trap bed up on 10 ft of chain.

Made lots of drags like bobcat trappers mainly cause I had access to lots of scrap iron some are 10 lbs maybe more before I got on here and learned the error of my ways I used 4-5 ft of chain or cable coons didn't move and coyotes were close by even if they weren't hung up I believe towing that weight around tired them out in a hurry
Buck I also witnessed coyotes going a long ways in plantation pines and gravel roads with light drags and long chains
Wolfdog I like your style

What's everyone's experience using double-loop chain with drags? I have 100' or so I was thinking of using but...?

BTW, my homebrew drags are around 2-1/2 pounds.