Cable length for DP traps

early season ground was so hard i could only drive 18" stake in about 9". Lost some when they wrapped spring into washer of stake. You live and learn. The other day made 1/2 dozen cables out of 4' length. After making two loops about 3 foot length but seemed to short after wrapping around bigger trees. Was surprised how fast could set in places with fence and trees to loop around. Thinking of making couple dozen 6 or 8' length cables. Is there any down fall to making cable too long?

Been using cables for DPs about 10 years now. Most of my cables are 6'.

I have over 150 cables. I keep them seperated in 2 gallon buckets. I have 3,6,8 &10 foot lengths. The length I choose depends on what I'm anchoring to and what is around it. If there is a lot of tangles I go with the shortest I can use, if not, I use a long one.

I would say 70% of my traps, that includes legholds, are anchored with cables. I use anchors for my yote and cat sets, but when I'm dropping 50 blind and pockets sets in, with a bunch of DPs, the cables are the ticket.

I stake all my DP traps with 20-24" 3/8" rebar stakes, even in frozen ground. I believe the bigger northern coons can pull out if the get a long run and hit the end, I know they can if they jump off a bank. They can also release themselves if they wrap up the trap so the spring rests against something solid by compressing the spring as they pull on the trap.

I use berkshire anchors about 14'' long no problems.

Same for me. I also have a few with the soft ground Berkshires for those places where a regular one won't hold well enough.

I have the ultimate setup for DPs...Run 24" cables on finned super stakes. WIth a sleep eazy hook, you can use the retrieval end to cable off to a tree or just stake it normally

Y’all got a different breed of coons than we have, lol. In wet areas I can push in the earth anchor by hand and stand over it and pull it out by hand. I have never caught a coon that could. My coons run side to side and don’t jump or grab something and pull it up.

As far as cable, I use 6ft. Mine are set up with a loop big enough for the DP to pass through once around the tree. I use a quick link to attached DP to a small loop at the other end of the cable.

If I have a small tree, I’ll wrap the cable around it a time or two until I get the length I want.