Hey Wayn3w,
I saw the schematic youâ€™re talking about.. Oddly, this was one of the only 4017 cascading schematics I could find. I found that it was REALLY temperamental and more of a headache than it was worth at the time. First off I had to change some of the resistor values before it even worked. Then it was only looping ONE 4017 sequence at 12 volts. At 5 volts it worked better, but would skip some steps.. It was probably an error on my end, but I bread boarded it twice and it acted the same both times.

My original thought was that I would combine 2 4017s together to make a 16 step sequence. That way I could get 8 distinct output pulses. If youâ€™ve tried making a gate sequencer with the 4017 you probably know that you need to use every other step as an â€œOFFâ€Â step. So in an 8 step sequence, you only get 4 â€œONâ€Â pulses. 

Anyway, as I mentioned, the circuit you mentioned above was acting real bonkersâ€¦so I investigated some other options, hence the AND gate output stage.