Old steel logging cables

I worked for the Bureau of Land Management in southern Oregon for a summer about 4 years ago and I helped out the cadastral surveyors in the local woods. About once or twice a week, we would stumble across a large stack of old steel logging cable. Some of those stacks had probably a thousand feet or more in them. Has anyone ever retrieved anything like this from the woods? Does anyone know how much this stuff sells for at scrap prices? I still remember where about 10 of those spots are. By the way, I'm a brand new scrapper and I love this site. I'm going to have a lot of questions for you folks.

My scrap yard wont take heavy steel cables as they claim they "get tangled/caught in the shredder"
Other items they wont take are mattress springs and chain link fence for the same reason.

Cut it into three foot sections and you can get away with prepared heavy melt for it. The problem is there are three different types of cable. 1 regular cable easy to cut through 2 cable with a piece of rope or plastic running through it 3 cable that unwinds itself while you are cutting it. Which means that as you are cutting it pieces of the braid are coming undone. The third kind is the most dangerous and can whip your arms and legs just make sure you wear protective clothing. Cable in a pile when you are cutting is also very unpredictable in which way it may or may not fall once its cut it . It can unwind and slap you with a piece of it. Some yards will accept it and some won't just ask for an unprepared price and ask what you would have to do to have them accept it as prepared heavy melt three foot. You just have to gamble and find out if its worth your doing it or not. No one has ever made money wondering if they can do anything. Its always trial and error. I also have no idea where the cable is? how many pounds it is per foot? How easily accessible the area is? You also might want to ask permission to most people don't appreciate theft unless you are stealing garbage.

Thanks to both of you for your responses. If only there was a way to cut those cables into manageable sections and not be cost prohibitive. It seems like a shame to let all that steel just sit there.

This cable is actually on public property (federal land).

if they are cut 5 foot and are atleast a quarter inch thick i accept them as number 1 steel...if not cut them 3 foot and number 2 them lol

Originally Posted by Silverbus

My scrap yard wont take heavy steel cables as they claim they "get tangled/caught in the shredder"
Other items they wont take are mattress springs and chain link fence for the same reason.

ditto for me. I had some metal cable and they wouldnt take it, same with the chain link fence I had once.

I already did that. It's on federal BLM land and the local office said they didn't care if I took it. I told them I would pick up any other random trash I came across as well.

Wewillprevail:
Not so sure i agree with you there. The cable was left by a logging company, probably along with tractor oil changes, peanut butter jars, grease tubes, logger dumps, etc, as trash.
The BLM never asked for it, and most probably has never even officially recognized it's existence. They own the land it's on, but I highly doubt the loggers 'Gave' them the cable. I run into this type of situation often, and I just can't see any moral issues with it.
On an aside, we the citizenry own the BLM, their employees are our employees and are paid by our taxes.