Has anyone, on a 24 hour check, actually had a coyote straighten and open a heavy duty J hook? My system now is all disposable anchors on 1/8" cable and pinch the J hook at the set.
Im tossing around the idea of welding all my j hooks to the chain on the stake. My issue is, we alot of times have a foot of frost so retrieving right away is kinda out of the question without breaking the chain.

Following.

I have not but only have 19 yotes under my belt so not much of a sample size.

I have never had one fail. I have went to all crunch proof. nice heavy rivet. I dont weld them.

Some of my old traps had a smaller rivet on the swivels. I have had them open up. Never lost a critter because of it. It was bound to happen though. Instead of just pinching them closed I replaced the rivet's when it happened. Have not had any crunch proof swivel with the big rivets do that.

If I was using cable stakes I would weld them. Just to much pressure on them when you pull that stake out by pulling up on the chain.

Got wolves in your area ? If so I would weld them , or possibly lose your trap .

I think welding them closed is a good idea, but I wouldn’t weld them attached to the stake. I prefer to use a quick link between the trap and stake so its easy to change out a bloody trap or leave the stake to pull later.

Yes. Other animals bigger than coyotes can get in your traps and you don’t want them wandering around with your trap and tag.

Osky

Same here. https://youtu.be/LQH-bVuuE4k Everything held and the bear pulled free. MB Super Stakes.

Never had one open.

Never had one straighten out and don't weld. Don't have much of anything bigger than a yote here though

I have not, it could happen.
I also use add a links

I've had them open when pulling on the chain to pull the trap, not completely but enough the chain can fall out. If I had not noticed and reset the traps, they sure would of let a caught critter get away with the trap. It's a good idea to weld them. They also get weaker the more times you open and close them.

I had it happen. Weld all yote jhooks since then. No more problems.

I pull my cabel stake and re-use them for the season I wield them I've not had them pull apart .

Yes every year i have to go through my traps and tighten down a few j hooks. Had one come open last year and the coyote run off with the trap. Had a few more that could have been close. You can weld them and thats fine but if you run quick links like i do you will have to take bolt cutters and cut the j hook off to replace the quick link which will eventually bind up.

Never had one open but I weld them anyway and use quick links. When the quick links start to bind I replace them.

I never weld mine and after dozens and dozens of coyotes on 3-4 day checks I can safely say that a coyote can’t physically open a heavy duty j-hook. Long chains, short chains, doesn’t matter, they don’t have the power to do it. The only time I’ve seen one open is if I use all the leverage I can muster trying to pull a super stake with the puller mtp sells, they’ll open then but it’ll probably throw out your back

I’ve had two opened by coyotes. One was opened just far enough for the chain to fall off during remaking, the other was gone gone.

Had a third opened and lost the rig to something bigger, I’m guessing a lion.

Those three hooks all came from the same bulk bag, were brand new and had never been stressed by yanking on with a puller or anything. Did I get a bad bag? I don’t know. But the potential is there.

I weld em all now.

Here is my story. I believe what happened to me was that I opened a J-hook by pulling, on the next farm I didn't look my trap over good enough. 2 days later I lost a coyote and a trap, all I had left was the stake and open j-hook. I have not caught a coyote on this location since, and I have no one to blame but myself. I have thrown everything at these coyotes, and I cannot connect. I will not quit, I will persevere, but it may take a while. I heard war stories about educated coyotes, but those stories don't do it justice like facing one yourself, especially one you created. It sucks.

So after my experience and reading so many others, my advice would be to weld every one, I dang sure do. It can happen, and it is NOT worth the risk. Hope this helps.

P.S. Had the 1/8th cable fail me on several stakes this year, converted to all chain. Might mull that over too

every once in a while while installing swivels and shutting j hooks I find maybe one or two per maybe 30 traps that are softer than others they take very little effort to close them. I get rid of them I would guess if they are j hooks that were installed at the factory you got some bummers with them.

Ditto,



Bull. You will find, if you trap long enough, that saying things in terms like, "it'll never", will come back to bite you. The j hooks usually get opened up from the swivels getting fouled by grass. The chain will flip around in the hook, and put pressure on the very end of it,causing it to open. It can happen, and does.

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