Opinions? Wondering what kind of pullout rate I'd have.

Gonna rig up a few with longer chains (9ft) and drags.

I have only Ztrap DPs.

I know I have lost a few from pull outs. All because they got wrapped around a tree or tree limb, log jams. etc.

Yessir...that's what I'm concerned about. The entire working mechanism of drag utilization is entanglement.

Never if they get wrapped they’re gone

I agree, I try to keep mine in the open and staked so they cannot reach anything.

what surface are you trapping on that there isn't a way to anchor that a drag would work better on?

I have done wood barn floors , and busted up cement

I found some concrete anchors that I have a 1/2 inch impact with a 1/2 inch square drive to hex driver adapter that lets me use the impact as the drill with a masonry drill , then change to a socket and drive the concrete anchor

South Ga coons ain't gonna pull out, but they may be dangling 50' in the air. lol

I have NEVER had a pullout in a DP and mine have been so wrapped up I considered cutting the cable rather than unwrapping it. I’ve used old truck rotors with cable and they moved one about 2ft maybe. They were heavy!! So heavy I quit hauling them around. I’ve thought about my using my coyote drags, but they probably end up 20ft in the air with them. My luck I’d be able to shoot the coon out, but my trap a drag would be stuck up the tree.

I’d really want to see the pics of a pull out on a DP. And lots of pics, I’d have to analyze the entire situation to see how it’s possible. Mine take two hands to set, so I can’t even see with leverage against the springs a coon pulling out. Maybe something could get caught preventing a full close and they wiggle out but that paw is in deep when they fire.

So none of y’all cable off to a tree, log, roots, limb, etc?? Y’all earth anchor in the open?

I have many times anchored DPs where coon have leverage. And I have lost more than a few doing so. In my experience, most of the time they'll still be there... but not always. These were big IA/IL coon, not MS dinks.

All my DP's get rebar staked out of reach of anything they could grab/pull on.

Or hooked to one way drowner slides.

You have very small coon.
I haven’t had many, but when I have it’s when they had leverage.

We hardly have a choice here. A single 24" long 3/8" rebar stake is all I ever use for DPs. The only coons that ever escaped my DP traps were because they twist out when the traps loose their swiveling like when they get the trap hung up on a stake that pulled from the ground a little, or a trap that froze down,,,, or when I had one set at the edge of a culvert where the trap's spring compressed on the edge of the culvert at the end of the chain. Very rare to ever lose one, probably less than 10 out of thousands caught.

All I ever used were those cheap Berkshire earth anchors, I don't know it could be easier than that...

If you can access them with vehicle a concrete block is perfect.

I used them before too. They are easy to set if the ground is soft enough (they don't do well to heavy pounding with a hammer), but when it comes time to pull them and move they fold like a taco and can only be bent back so many times. I like to move all my DP sets after maybe 3-4 days of days when coons will be running. If the weather is so that they don't run much I'll leave them a bit longer. That's why I don't use pogo's or wolf fangs or any of those that are so hard to pull. Moving 100+ traps a day it's too hard on me. lol

18" rebar in the open.

If they an get the trap chain or cable wrapped around a tree with the spring between the trap tube and the tree, even a 15 pound coon can pull hard enough to compress the spring enough to pull out. I will occasionally cable to something but prefer to stake where they can not get leverage. I personally think a raccoon on a typical grapple or drag is a recipe for an undesirable outcome. A heavy clog like a block or brake rotor would work better than a drag.

GCP,
It's loamy sand in logging roads and food plot. I'm just getting too lazy to drive a 20" rebar stake as I've always done....lol

3 Swivels... You should be fine

I usually set too many DPs to consider using blocks or rotars. I have 10 dozen Ztraps, but past few years typically have only 24 to 36 out at any given time.

I usually stake in the open with 20" rebar, but do occasionally half-hitch to a tree along a creek bank with a 3/32" x 6ft cable extention. Never had a pullout using the cables and many coon were wrapped up pretty tight on nearby shrubs and small trees.

I'm gonna rig up a dozen with the 9' chains I have on hand with Sabertooth Junior 1.25lb drags.

For sure.

I have a pile of dbl swivels on hand so I'll add more than needed up closer to the trap

I see that swivels won't prevent the compression of the spring lever during a wrapped up binding.

Most likely this ^^^^ is correct. Our coon run on the small size...with 3x being about max.

But, like our buck deer, there is an occasional big one that shows up....4x..5x....

I always stake solid. I don't want to spend time looking for anything on a drag.

In the late 80s I trapped coon almost exclusively on drags with footholds in thick creek bottoms. My chains were too short (about 5 feet) and I used those cheap smooth rod "coyote" drags that are still sold today. Always prehung the drags on small trees nearby. I don't remember any pullouts, but had one tree climber and that big boar got 20' up a 10" bay tree. I cut the tree down to get that $24 silverback coon...lol

Living and trapping down here at the stateline for past 30 years (where we have many bears) I have been reluctant to use drags on any footholds. But, the DPs are mostly bear-catch proof if they'll hang on to a dragged and tangled coon.

I dont worry too much about time constraints now that I've entered my retirement years...lol. Many days I have to ask the wife what day of the week it is.

I have drugem with Leg holds but not DPs.You shouldn’t have an issue I was using homemade 1/2 rebar drags that I acquired.In my teenage years I didn’t know what a drag was. We would wire to a tree but mainly used a fence staple and nailed it to the base of a tree.Never any issues.

I used the once. Same drags as above. 1st coon went down a creek and climbed a tree. When he fell out of the tree, the force pulled him out of the trap. I liked to have never found the trap. No drag mark in the creek, and it was hanging up about 7ft above the ground.

How long were your chains?

Y’all must have some 30# coons where y’all trap. Not only have I not had a pullout, I’ve never had one pull up an anchor that I could push in by hand and pull out with one hand. Found several tracks leading through a wet area and set 3 DP’s. After a catch I’d just pull it up and move it to a “cleaner” spot. Clean out the super stake and push it back down in the muck. My coons are stupid, they run around in circles and don’t pull straight up.

Yep, this one tipped the scale right at 30#. In a DP. 18" rebar stake.

You'd be missing traps for sure around here. Push/pull by hand not gonna cut it!
They're not all pigs like k snow's but they are hefty coons.

Too much entanglment and i hope your good at climbing tree's.

Drug most of mine with a mink saber tooth style deal , never had much of a problem. Tip , add a snap link to all you set up by the drag , that wah if you really wanna you can just wrap the drag aing a sapling or something and clip it back in and anchor to that and if they come off then we'll you got him on a drag too... Imo we can get away with a lot more down her because we don't have 30+ pound corn fed coon

So that’s the norm or the odd ball? I catch a grown one or two every year, but not average. Caught coons bigger than Grays, of course Grays ain’t too big either.

Kyle I still say you shoulda made that one into a rug

Definitely an outlier. Most of the big males I catch are 18 to 25 pounds.

Wanna be i had two freedom brands side by side staked down in the open, game camera on them, both caught a coon, one pulled out. One trap was brown the other white, noticed spring on the white one half as strong as the brown one. Not sure if they got a bad batch of springs or what but quit using the white one's after that.

Ain't got no coons down here that hefty!



Good idea on the clip/link to pre-anchor.

I have Dukes and not ashamed to say it took me a while to build up hand strength to set them, lol. I understand the premise of entanglement possibly to compress the springs, but I have to put a lot of body weight even when using my foot to compress for a live catch. Guess it’s possible with different traps. All I know is I don’t ever want to catch my finger in one again. Heck, I was more worried about it cutting a leg off vs a pull out.
Now I did set WAY to close to a log once and the springs couldn’t open all the way, but I don’t actually consider that a pullout, that was just stupidity on my part.

10 ft

Yep, I've had some over 30# and a bunch in the 22-28# range.

If you think they can't pull hard grab one by the tail and try and pull him out of a hole. lol

Y’all should know better than to argue coon trapping with them iowa boys. Bunch of guys up there that catch more coon in a week than most catch in their coon trapping career lol.