Drags

Ok, gonna have to go to drags next Summer. Went to put some sets in a new area and can’t get below the top soil. Even getting some other traps up is like drilling through cement.
I have never used drags, have no clue how to hook them up, or even what size and length chain…assuming chain vs 1/8” cable? Got a roll of that.
Prefer to buy from someone on here if any sells any. Wolfdog? I realize shipping will be steep. Looking for just a dozen for now and a dozen later. And if someone could tell me what all I need, that would help too.
We’ve been getting rain, but I guess this heat is evaporating it up before it has time to soak in. Twice this afternoon I swore I hit solid steel or a huge petrified rock. Started to just cable off to a tree.

Dont mess with cable. Just gets to be a pain and doesnt help keep the drag down. #3 machine chain preferably but #2 machine chain will work as well. 10ft chain is as short as you want to go unless you're trapping in heavy brush so you can prewrap.

If you want the animals to get well away from the set, the round rod type drags are the way to go. If you're in sod and you dont want animals to get far, youll want to get aggressive type drags like the sabertooth or jc connor style drags.

Went to drags this summer. You can get
1dz sabot tooth ( not the juniors) drags from F&T for under $100. I put 10ft of #3 machine chain on mine but #2 machine chain will work fine. Longer is better. If I had it to do over Id put 15ft of chain on them. It tangles and drags close to the ground and let’s the teeth dig in better.

Up front, never used drags but want to for the same reason. Unable to due to urban location but have done a good bit of research into them.

IF I were to set up some this is how I would go.

Minimum 8' chain. Heavy to offer drag not strength. I would choose 2/0 passing link chain as the links are wide to avoid kinking or twisting up. Swiveled each end, one at the drag and one from chain to trap chain. The trap chain would be set up for swapping ground stake chain to drag chain with a quick link.

A would use the sabertooth drag based on good reviews. Though if wolfdog is making and shipping at comparable prices I have no doubt in his product.

I'm currently using PIT swiveled springs on my trap chain and would consider adding a spring on the drag chain on the front end. But I'm not totally sold on the need for it other than nice to have for PR/feel good.

I have a handful of the saber tooths on 9-10’ of #3 chain. I prefer to prehook them if I can. I’m trying to pick up a dozen or two drags and am hoping to find some at the Georgia convention next month. I like them a lot and can see them being extremely useful in a bunch of situations. Not to mention very easy on pull day.

Drags are nice to use. I use them about 75% of the time. I have a couple dz of the FB drags that work. I really would like to get a dozen from Strained Chains out of Montana. They look really well built.

I use drags a lot, but more often I use “clogs”. For either you do not want cable. It is light, so it don’t slow a critter down much, plus it gets kinked up and is a pain to deal with.

My traps have a minimum of 10 feet of #3 chain, some as much as 15 feet.

For clogs most of the time I just attach the chain to a 30 or 40 pound rock or a green tree branch a minimum of 2” in diameter and 6’ long, using mechanics wire that I triple up and twist tightly by tying the three wires to a solid object in the shop and putting the other end in the chuck of my drill. I do 15 feet at a time or so, cut into 5’ sections and then just cut off what I need at the set. When I use a rock I take my hammer and pound notches around it for the wire to sit in and twist it tight with fencing pliers. When I use branches I just twist tighten it with the pliers till it bites into the bark good’n’deep.

Sabre tooth drag, sleep ez spring hook to swivel, 5' #3 or #5 chain, box swivel, 5' chain connected to swivel at end of trap chain with another sleep ez spring hook.

I'd be curious to know how many drags you've actually run in your career ?

Wanna Be,

The Georgia Trappers Convention is coming up in September in Dublin, GA. Not a far drive 4 u. Contact Brian McKee at Southern Snares and have him bring you what you need. Save that shipping. He makes and sells a good coyote size drag (like the one in the FT catalog...sharp points) and the bulk chain. I'd use #3 chain and at least 10' per trap. Add another swivel within a few inches of the trap.

I wish I could use them here, but bears tend to take em for a ride......or a climb.

Ignore the deer, but these cameras are in areas with the brush I’ll be setting the drags in.




Just incase they do take off, I would think I could see some sort of trail?

And I’d assume they ain’t getting out of the creek.

I wouldn't think they would get to far in that but I've learned to never say never.

Anyone use the Ausable rotating drags? They look pretty slick and light but I wonder if they are better in brush than sod.

I looked at his drags, but they’re only 2.65#. I’d rather go too heavy than too light. During the Summer months I can check during daylight before work so hoping for not much chasing. My boss knows I trap and could retire if I wanted so I don’t think there’d be much issue if one does make it off a good ways and I was a few minutes late.

I would be curious to know why you ask condescending questions?

If one thinks an idea or theory is off, one can find a decent way to share ones own personal experience.
Just a thought. Not everyone has 50 years of experience and several instructors under their belt.


Mac

Last I seen they are 120$ Plus shipping.

I like my drags to be on the heavier side 3 to 4 lbs plus 12’ of number 3 or even number 5 chain I have on a few. This set up is for working close to trapping rig don’t want to try and pack a couple of these set ups to far lol.

I'll take 140 w chain, can we hear 160?
Kidding, shipping would beat you up.

Is it yet time for the you are going to be climbing trees comments?

I trap out of a truck so weight isn’t an issue. As far as climbing trees, most properties have plantation style pines, if they get high enough to reach limbs I’m gonna need a scoped rifle, lol.
No bears over this way, just coyotes, cats, and fox. Coons can’t even move a truck rotor I have on a few DP’s.
I’m mainly wanting to use them for summer trapping when the clay cements up, but I can think of some applications during the winter where these would work well. Even some places that are too wet to hold anchor, I’m sure a drag even hooked or just stomped in the muck would work.

Running a chain or cable around a tree works well, but often there isn't a tree where you want it. I use heavy drags I make myself, never weighed one but they are heavier and larger than most commercial drags, 5 feet of 5/8 rebar in each one. I run a minimum of 8 ft. of #5 chain. Smaller chain would be fine for you, the weight of heavier chain can be an andvantage, but I use the heavy chain because I have wolves, bears and cougars, whereas you are dealing with strictly smaller animals. If I am in particularly open country I may hook an extra 8' section of chain on the drag so that I have 16-20'. I have about a dozen traps that are set up with 8' of chain on them, and my older drags don't have chain attached permanently, I often just hook one of those on the end of the 8' chain off the trap. The rest of my traps have various lengths of chain with an earth anchor on the end, a few of the coyote traps have only 6-8" plus 18" of chained super stake, but most have 3'-4' between trap and earth anchor. I will generally use a quick connect and attach the 8' of chain on the drag to the trap chain in the first link above the earth anchor, giving me 10-12' between trap and drag. Occasionally when I want to stake but am not confident in the stake holding a large animal, I will go ahead and drive the stake, then attach a drag and chain to the link closest to the ground I can reach on the chain stake.

Warrior is correct. Never say Never. Just the other day. Had coyote. 10 ft of chain. Saber Tooth drag. Went 15 ft into cutover. Made circle. Came out went 300 yards down the road went in on opposite side. They ant spose to do that !!! LOL!!

One on the left is THE drag to have !!

Tell us why, please?

That’s my biggest nightmare lol! We have huge thorn patches. Me following a drag trail on my hands and knees through a tunnel of thorns in the dead of summer does not sound like fun.

I wrap mine around anything I can find. The drag is for worse case scenario lol!

Go to JC. Conner’s drags...his heavy 3 and 4 pounders are great....be sure to use long heavy chain when hooking them up.

You aren’t the first that’s mentioned those drags.

Ok now chain…is chain listed as #3, 5, or 7? Is that how you look it up? Do you buy it in 10ft sections, or buy a 100+ feet and cut as needed?

Wannabe if you don't mind them but looking super sexy with crazy clean welds I'll be trying to make some fox and coyote ones soon. I'll send you two of each for you just to feel out. Metal cost have been pretty stable but they do fluctuate.

Question though.
Do you want them to be able to get away from the set some or do you want them achored right there ?

5/8s cold roll the best #s. 1 piece drag with welda that will NOT break. These are the 1s Livestock Protection Traps sell

Wimberly's ??

Dint you make if few based off that video I did ? Curious to know if you've gotten chance to use them?

I buy -# 3 in 100 ft roll give me 12 chains around 8 ft 2 inch each

Maybe. Livestock Protection Traps. Website has them. Not 100% sure who makes them. ?

Anyone here happed to mess with the OLD stabler tooths ? Back when they where being made by hand ?

Forgot. Also weights a tad over 4 lbs

I may have some up in the barn. Cotton spendals and flatter bar than Saber Tooth ?

No the T was Flat bar but the prongs there a one piece bent deal with kickers. I'll ask on fb but they really seemed like a different animal

30 bucks apiece

I prefer them within sight. I’m on all private land so no need to hide the critter. Hoping to not have to chase far if at all. Let me add, not hoping to have to climb either, lol.

Yes, I had a wolf caught on the edge of a road, go across the road, up the hill, get hung up and tear the place up, then get loose go back down the hill, hit the road, take it a couple hundred yards, down a hard pan clay road, then it rained AFTER, she went through there, went up across an open another couple hundred yards and finally hung up when she hit the timber. I was trapping just off the edges of fairly well traveled logging road and wanted them to get out of sight, but not that far out of sight! Next trap fifty feet down there was one two inch pine that was growing in about a thirty foot wide meadow just off the edge of the road. That wolf was wrapped around that little pine not more than five feet off the road in the wide open.

That is the only difficult tracking job I have had with my drags, but never say never is right. And if they head down a hard packed road it isn't going to hang up until they leave it. A gravel road a good grapple will leave furrows that you can track at 20 miles an hour... unless there is a bunch of traffic and the drag marks are all ran over. Pretty rare for them to head down a road when they get pinched though, they usually head for the nearest cover. The other issue here is that if it snows 8" after you catch the animal it can be a pain to track, especially a pack animal like wolves or possibly coyotes, because there will be more old snowed in tracks and trails than just those made by the critter with a trap on his foot.

Haha, snow is something I don’t think I’d almost never have to worry about. Rain maybe washing out marks, but I’m thinking our brush would hold anything I could catch down here.
I was talking to the manager of one of my properties earlier and he mentioned that when he was at another property that they had a trapper out of Minnesota that came down here and all he used was drags and never had an issue.

They are quick and easy to set usually. And quick to pull also. If you don't have to worry about people prehooking whenever brush or a tree is handy is good way to go also.

I have three of them out now. No coyotes yet but did have a
Big raccoon. He didn’t even move it lol !

I found a place that has 1 inch rebar. Think I’m going to make a few out of that. Cut down on some of the cutting and welding by going with a single piece.

Wanna Be, I bet once you start using drags they will be your go to set up. I trap in pine plantations that look a lot like your pics and run drags about 80% of the time. I will likely get all my traps set up with drags in the next couple of years. Cats are nearly always within sight of the set, coyotes take it farther sometimes but are usually jumping around so much when you pull up you can hear the chain rattling.

I am learning a lot from this thread.

When using drags for cats in timbered country be prepared to look up, unless the drag is quite heavy.

My questions on drags is what happens when you catch a deer in the trap? I know they will pull out of staked traps, had it happen. Obviously They will pull out when the drag catches but when and where will it catch. And a big gobbler steps in a trap on a rd. and takes flight what happens. I live market and I too run my traps in the dark sometimes . I really do not want to go in a briar patch after coyote in the dark. If I was fur trapping or Adc i would be running them for sure they are much easier than staking.

I’m lucky enough to be able to check in the daylight the last year or two. Before that it was all well before daylight catches.
Like I stated, some properties I don’t have an issue driving stakes or pulling them. Pulled three dozen off one property in less than an hour with a drill and auger. Here recently I got a total of 6 pulled in almost 1.5hrs, lol. This particular property will have drags, especially during the summer months. Water doesn’t evaporated much during the winter and the ground is much softer, in fact it’s actually enjoyable trapping, lol.

Ok, I can get a dozen 10ft #5 with associated hardware for $170, includes shipping. Now that’s doesn’t include drags yet, lol. I’m guessing this will last a good long while, like my lifetime I’m hoping.

Thats WAY to much. 5 is good chain. But # 3 foreign is like 500 lbs rated. And at 59 a 100 ft. FNT or MB will have to be cheaper on # 5. IF you insist on # 5 chain

Slipknot. Drags would help the feet on coyotes for live market But like you said. Look for them in briars and at dark will be a problem. Deer in traps on drags??? They will just pop right out. Their will be lots of people tell you = On no. You might catch a champion high dollar in the fence deer !!! BUT they are the ones that dont know drags of have little experience with drags. Used drags on and off for 35 plus years now. NEVER caught a deer yet. BUT never say never is true. I caught a doe in 2020 on a high fence in South Texas in a MB 550. So anything is possible. But I am will to bet. You want hold a mature deer

Man I don’t have a clue what I need, hence this post. You’re probably more familiar with our size coyotes and terrain than most, so if you say 3 will work I’ll go with 3. Heck I thought all the coyotes I’d been catching were “pups” or young if the year until I actually caught a pup, lol. I can think of 3 coyotes that were sho’nuff what I’d consider a good size and they were all males. I catch coons that weigh more than the coyotes and bobcats I catch…on average.
Glad I didn’t hit “order” yet! Guess if the #3 doesn’t work I can always upgrade to #5. It’s only money, lol.

No doubt. The one I caught was in a 550os was a small yearling was able to release it with no issues.

My largest coyote to date was a 37lb female.

I trap in areas with 40-50 deer per square mile and have yet to hold a deer in an MB550. Seen a few that struggled a bit to get out, but have yet to catch one, and that includes trapping during and after fawning season.

Just checked. # 5 chain is = 79.99 for 100 ft at FNT. # 3 foreign is 53 dollars a 100 ft. I knew 170 sounded BAD high ! LoL

I run #5 for the larger animals here, although some of my coyote traps have #3 from trap to earth anchor. #5 will give you more weight but #3 will be fine for coyotes, I know a guy in Montana who catches a lot of wolves and he uses #3 American made and has never had a problem. MTP #5 is $79.95 so a whole $.04 cheaper than FNT $69.95 for American made #3 and $52.95 for the foreign stuff. So not sure where you were ordering from but I don't want to order from them! I think MTP is $24.90 shipping, not sure what FNT is, but looks like their prices before shipping are identical.

Bearcat2. Its about the same on shipping. 25 dollars. After you get over 100 dollars its 25 dollars shipping. No matter how much you order. I once spent = 1600 dollars at MB. They had to ship in 2 separate orders. Still charged me 25 dollars

Yeah the more you order the better the shipping is. Order a couple jars of lure and the shipping hammers you. But I ordered 500' of #5 chain plus other stuff one time and still only $25 shipping. Sure glad they weren't charging shipping by weight!

Do you guys treat or prep your chains?

Yes. I like to keep all my chain waxed. It's usually the first thing to rust and I don't want a big wad of rusty chain rolling around. I'm running long (8-10') on all my wolf traps regardless, so all I do is hook the drag or connect to other anchor (tree, earth anchor, etc). I would still wax my chain/drag setups even if I was keeping them separate. I also keep the swivel and couple links of chain on the drag waxed as well.

Yes. I have some traps with the long chain on them like Jumper, and some with shorter, but they are all either dyed and waxed with the trap or painted with the trap. My drags with chain attached will get tossed in the dye pot after I am done boiling my traps. I don't specifically want to wax the chain and drag, but there will be some leftover wax on top of the water in the dye pot from waxing my traps, and so they will get waxed also. Just extra protection, and if I run thin on the wax before I pull the last drags out, I won't bother to add more.

Thank you for the replies. I’m going to a lot of drags this year. Our soil is mountain with a lot of rock. Tree planting and staking has shown there are areas we can’t drive a stake for fencing or tree shelters.

Yes.

Dang Hern, my boat anchor ain’t as big as some of those drags! Might just be the picture though.

Hern knows how to roll. If he gets hold of you, you won't get far...........

Size matters.

Lookin good! When you’re following a drag trail drags can’t be to big lol!!

Naw, above & below picture is JC Conner drags and maybe a homemade or two.

Another thing I do to Drags-
I tie surveyor tape with long tails to drags. I learned this from Renny28.
This help locates animal faster and help to recover equipment is animal pulls out.

Thick grass held this Grey-


Surveyor tape helped me find what was hiding in down tree-


I thought Bobcat, until I looked under root ball-


Renny28's Bobcat got hung up on creek rocks-


Surveyor tape saves time.

That marker tape is a great idea !! I’ll be Adding that to a couple of drags this evening for sure.

Thanks for posting this question Wanna Be. I too have never used drags and due to a bit of theft I'm looking to put some into action this year. Some good info here -- thanks guys!


Robert

Thing about drags and theft is, it works both ways. Sure drags can let a catch get out of sight to prevent theft. But If they find your trap without a catch, or if a catch gets tangled up within sight, well with a drag all they have to do is pick it up and walk off, no effort involved. I had one stolen this year, no way to stake the trap, barely enough dirt to dig a trap bed, so I ran the chain through a crack in a rock and wedged a grapple on the other side. I had been the only person in there yet this year. Had all the air let out of my tires on my Toyota and driving over 3-4' deep snow drifts. Came back first check to side by side tracks to within 15' of my set and trap and all gone. They just picked it up and walked off with it. grr!

Bearcat2 I’d be following me some SxS tracks till Hades froze over ! I had somebody try to steal two of my traps this year. But 20” of #3 chain on a super stake with welded connections proved to be a little much for them.

I had to do some repair work on a wolf trap that was superstaked. Someone tried to pull it with a fourwheeler. Dug six inch holes in the road with the tires and yanked on it enough to bend the jaws, but it was still there. What really irritates me about that one this year is I know it was a horn hunter, only people in that country that time of year, and I know they walked up on the knob where I had the trap to glass for bulls. Thing is all those horn hunters want every predator and especially every wolf dead, yet they act like a trap left in the woods is free for the taking.

Coyote at 11 am in picture. Saber Tooth. 10 ft of # 3 foreign chain. You can see where trap was. LOL!

New spot would be muddy at some point so ^^^^^^ thats the white Lowes sand. In trap bed you see. Working well. Trap sat 12 days in Lots od rain

Boy he popped it right out of its bed didn’t he! On average how far do you have to track drags ?

So the drag was buried as well?

Didn't go far. That's the kind of results I'd like to have. But my area I'm just as likely to have it hook up on a school playground a quarter mile down the road.

I’d imagine front foot catches wouldn’t get as far as a back foot catch. I’ll definitely be try some out this coming year. I’m pretty much done for this year. May have a week or so in December to put in a few and maybe set for something being caught on camera until then.

30 ft or 300 yards. Hard to say IF it dont tangle quickly. 98% of coyotes go right to brush. Its that 2 % that makea you spend time look for them after 2 or 3 inches of rain. OR ran down a gravel road

Drags are a great tool to use and something I have added to my line the last 3-4 years.

To answer your question, I like to use around 10' of #3 chain and JC Conner's 3 lb. Tracker Pro Pivot Drags for my coyote line. Locks 'em up in a pretty short distance.

The only thing you have to watch is throwing a drag down in sage grass or any type of brittle grass. If the animal gets a grass ball going around your drag he can go for quite a ways. In those cases I always just try to pre-hook around something and then you are fine. I have even wedged them down under tree roots, etc.

I’ve seen that grass/weed ball a time or two here on the stiff cover weed they plant on our strip pits. The drags like you have are great, I have a bunch. In the weedy type area I have better luck using the wider MB drags as far as balling up.

I started flagging my drag chains after I rolled up on a cat set on my four-wheeler to realize I was parked cross-wise over the long trap chain with an unhappy participant in the brush

Caught my first coyote on a drag yesterday. He went a whopping 20ft and tangled on some vines. 10ft #3 machine chain and another 3ft of chain on the trap so 13ft total with a saber tooth drag and mb550. It was actually a cat set and the trail cam shows the big cat I was after walking by 4 hrs after the yote got hammered.