After I used all of my purchased wolf fang cable anchors this winter I made a few more myself. I don't have a crimp tool so I used my 3lb hammer and after looping the cable through the aluminum ferrel I flattened against a heavy steel block. Is there a good reason NOT to attach the ferrel by pounding? Would it be better to loop the loose end through two ferrels if one isn't going to crimp to attach? I did catch one coyote with one that I made, did not see any problem with the loop. Thoughts.

Pounding to much will actually weaken the ferrel. I just bought a nice bench style swagger on eday for about 80 bucks. It has a built-in cable cutter and works great. Don't have to worry about holding the ferrel in place while hitting it with a hammer either. I purchased it so I could make all my own cable products. Besides, tools are cool....

I was going to start making my own also and was thinking about compressing them in my bench top vice. Any thoughts?

I pound my anchors and snares. Never had a problem on beaver or coyotes.

Sure you can pound them but I have a cool tool for it now. Lol. Just don't over pound them. Crimped not crushed. That is all I was saying.

Just make sure you don't over or under smash them for obvious reasons. Make them look as tight as factory then hit once more. I've made a mistake ONCE of not smashing enough.

Here's a good video

https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/5929448/Searchpage/1/Main/451072/Words/extension+cable/Search/true/Cable_Tie-Off_for_Legholds#Post5929448

I use a bench vise

I bought my swagger because I just wanted one. It is like any tool, when you first get it you can't believe you lived without it so long even though the old way was functional.

i already have plenty of hammers. never had one fail from being hammered so i will continue.

X2 I totally agree!!