Long vs short chains and coyotes

[CoonDuke]

I am going to try some long chains to see if I can get away with a single rebar in frozen ground. I can also see the benefit of keeping the "mess" to a minimum.

Most of my traps have 12" to 18" chains on them depending on the size of the trap and whether it is end swivelled or center swivelled. I like to bed the loose jaw on the mid chain swivel so on some end swivelled traps it takes more length of chain to get that swivel under the middle of the loose jaw.

I do not like the super short 6-8" chains due to mounding problems with some animals...skunks especially.

The benefits of a chain length around 15" for me is it is about the most amount of chain I want to bed. I can usually bed the chain fairly quickly without any extra digging. Where I trap in NC it is sandy and I have shock springs on the traps I use there and because of the easy digging I do not even notice them. But, when I use them at home I curse them because it takes more effort to get the spring and extra chain bedded.

Another benefit of shorter chains is that I set some fall planted grain fields and the smaller catch circle is not as hard on the crop.

The shorter chains also allow me to place my double sets close enough to where I feel it is beneficial to catching red fox.

[trappnman]

in frozen ground, single rebar works perfect with any length chain.

[CoonDuke]

Problem is here the weather is so unpredictable and we get a lot of freeze/thaw. I might set when the ground is frozen and 2 days later it is thawed for a few days.

I had a helluva time getting 1/4" bolts 6" long out of the ground on my hay set sliders last year when the ground was frozen.

[trappnman]

agreed- that freeze thaw is nothing but problems