I trap in the Texas panhandle every winter. It is some insanely tight dirt. It is a true beating to get a stake drove and like you said, an even worse beating to get them out. The first several years I used disposable stakes and just cut them off. This year I got lazy and didn’t make the order so I ran super stakes with chain and s-hook welded shut. I’ve got a homemade puller and got all of my stakes up but 1. From here on out I will be using disposable or several feet of chain wired to an old mesquite limb which I have done a little bit of in the past and it works just fine.

Btw, I slightly pulled a pectoral muscle and really aggravated a shoulder that I have previously already had surgery on in the process of pulling those stakes lolol

You’re lucky than.

Our ground is not the same! Drivers never last me a year, even pre-drilling.

Same here. Usually have a spare or two along just for that reason.

I do have a couple ladiesfoot prybars as backup drivers for my bullet stakes which are shorter and a bit lighter than the standard driver, i just dont use them unless I forgot the old one and I am not trapping along the river because they cant get the stake in deep enough in the sand.

Do you want to make another one of those pullers? I have a slightly bent super stake puller for trade. Ha!

Switching to chains would help. Hopefully we get some rain to soften the dirt some before my next trip. The first trip has me hooked! This is my first time posting in this forum and it’s been a lot of help. Really appreciate it.

One advantage of the chained bullet type stakes is if all your jhooks are welded, it can be really tough for someone else to pull it up! If you have issues with tampering/theft, those buried stakes can help with the theft part. If that is an issue then the deeper you drive them the better. But you’re going to pay in time/effort pulling them too! Seems like there’s trade offs for everything?

Im new to the bullets but thinking just go by hammer resistance rather than actual depth. Give a good pull up should tell if deep enough. Hate to get rebar 1/2 way in and need to drive rest of the way through asphalt to hide for set, not to mention pulling.

Till the thief your dealing with has bolt cutters delt with that before out on the line on public game lands.

I use a T-post puller and a short piece of chain to pull them, couple pumps and there out. For real deep ones I drill down a ways with a 2 inch auger then pull them.

Yep. I had a 750 I had to do some serious work to in order to reset after someone bent the jaws all up trying to pull it with a fourwheeler. There were four big holes where they had spun all four tires down trying to pull it up, but the trap was still there. I did have somebody steal two one time that were driven through a shot rock landing. No idea how they got them out, I was planning on bringing bolt cutters come pull day. There were just some drifts of snow going in there, no snow around the sets, but I had one set of boot prints going in, no vehicle tracks or multiple tracks like they made multiple trips, just two catch circles about thirty feet apart with trap and all missing.

Most of my traps have earth anchors on the end of the chain, with all connections welded, but I mostly use drags or chain off to a tree any more. Earth anchors are great though for dealing with your normal opportunistic thief. You know the kind that just grab it because they see it, not the kind who comes prepared and looking for your traps.

Oh, I've broke multiple "mighty hook" S hooks pulling with my homemade puller. My welds held, but if you have enough leverage and it is in solid enough you can snap those S hooks in half. I went to using "cold shuts" welded closed instead of S hooks, but don't know if that is a good idea, if I have to pull hard enough to snap the S hook I might prefer that to having to pull even harder. If I have any sets that are anchored now I try to remember bolt cutters on pull day. I didnt have anything once on a snowmachine and even with a 12 long six inch diameter log I cut and used as a "cheater pipe" I couldn't pull one and had to come back another day to get the trap.

…. 6” wouldn’t have worked on this dude



…. Here’s my puller