# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Hunting & Trapping >  snaring

## hillbilly1987

hi i was just wonderin if anybody has any luck on snaring becouse i havnt and i was wonderin what am i doing wrong and ya i have to admit that im a newby at it thanks for your help brian

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## nell67

here is a thread on snares for ya


http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...ghlight=snares

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## Last Mohican

I used to make snares all the time when I was a kid.

I accidentally forgot where I put one once and ended up hanging upside down from a sapling. Good thing I had a knife on me to cut the rope.

I never made that mistake again.

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## Rick

Hey, coach. More duct tape here. Yeah, big roll.

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## Last Mohican

Jumbo roll. Heck, might as well get a whole case of d t.

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## hermitman

Are you making sure you study the animal to make sure that they use the trail with your snare on it / funnel them in ?

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## Smok

hillbilly here you go this place is what you want it has more then you need www.trapperman.com they have a forum and archives

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## Smok

I thought you trapped  :Big Grin:  just not snared riiight  :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):   :Big Grin:

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## hillbilly1987

> hillbilly here you go this place is what you want it has more then you need www.trapperman.com they have a forum and archives



thank you very much smoke that will help me out alot

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## Beo

Go the thread on trapping... duh...

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## Beaver

how do you snare

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## Rick

Welcome to the forum, Beaver. How about going to the Introduction section and telling us a bit about yourself? 

You can read up on snaring here on the web site: 

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/food-2.php

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## Beaver

anyone have some instruction on how to make one :Big Grin:  :Confused:

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## Rick

The link I gave you explains how to make several different kinds and how to set them.

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## marberry

wow iv gota try out that bow trap sometime , dangerous though. anyone here ever had any success with it?

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## oregonoutdoorsman

If you are after quail , grouse or other small animals 8 to 12 lbs fishing line works well,  Anchor one end of the line and tie a series of slip knots  connecting them in a clump.
You can either place this is a travel zone or place some type of food source under it.

It will tangler and tighten around feet and heads.

Light weight and compact.  You can carry several hundreds yards under 6 ounces.
Trip Line, fishing and many othe uses.

Get a book called Survival Poaching by Ragnar Benson

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## trax

Fishing line does make very good snares and is strong enough for birds and small animals. Make a good sized knot though, because it easily tangled. I'd recommend a roll of brass snare wire to anyone out there. Lightweight, easy to pack around

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## marberry

is brass beter the stainless steel ?, iv never used brass because i cant buy it in bulk locally. if you recommend it i might try out a roll though.

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## canid

brass is great because it holds a cinch well [creases and resists opening back up when slacked] and because it's a dirt cheap material.

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## Rick

Copper wire is another option. All three work well, won't rust and are soft enough to form.

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## coltin

Good advice.

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## Rick

Rocky is pretty good at it and Elvis. Now Elvis was really good at it. Oh, wait. This post in a snaring. I thought it said sneering. Never mind.

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## Ole WV Coot

Corn with mono tied around the kernel and a couple of feet lead works with most larger birds like your neighbor's chickens. It goes into their craw where they have all sorts of strange things. Will hold them if they haven't swallowed a knife or broken glass.

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## Jericho117

Twitch-up snares are more reliable. You just need an extra cordage supply. I have never caught anything with a simple snare but I have been successful with twitch up snares. Baited ones are especially good.

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## Beo

In the infamous words of Canid...
_i would do more trapping around here but i'm not fond of dog and there's only so many cat fur hats you can pawn off at the farmer's market before somebody recognizes mittens' markings..._

_Yeah that's about right._

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## Beo

Here's a re-post from one of my earlier ones and my blog.
Just got this from my bro Madicine Wolf as an email about updates on trapping, for those that don't know him Medicine Wolf is an old Army buddy of mine who works for the government as a Ranger up in Montana.

The human activity of animal trapping has two separate but related meanings. Firstly, it describes the hunting of animals to obtain their furs, which are then used for clothes and other articles, or sold / bartered (see fur trade). Secondly, trapping relates to the use of traps to catch animals for a variety of other purposes, most usually for food or pest contol.
Trapping requires more time and energy than most other hunting methods but can be very efficient. For this reason, trapping is safer and less expensive for the hunter, but in modern times it has become controversial for its alleged cruelty.
Trapping is regularly used for pest control most commonly beaver, coyote, raccoon, cougar, bobcat, opossum and fox in order to limit damage to farming, ranching, and property. Federal authorities in the United States use trapping as the primary means to control predators that prey on endangered species such as the San Joaquin kit fox, California least tern (a type of bird) and desert tortoise. It is used to reduce numbers of predators in order to increase the populations of quarry species for hunting. It can also be used to control over-population or control diseases such as rabies, mange, and tularemia. Trapping is also used for research and relocation of wildlife.
Many wildlife biologists support the use of regulated trapping for sustained harvest of some species of furbearers as an effective method of managing or studying furbearers, controlling damage caused by furbearers, and at times reducing the spread of harmful diseases, and for economic benefit, subsistence, and as a legitimate recreational activity. Biologists who study wildlife recognize that regulated trapping is a safe, efficient, and practical means of capturing individual animals without impairing the survival of furbearer populations or damaging the environment. They also support regulatory and educational programs, research to evaluate trap performance and the implementation of improvements in trapping technology in order to improve anmimal welfare.
*Snares* are anchored cable nooses set to catch wild animals such as foxes, rabbits and coyotes. They are also widely used by subsistence and commercial hunters for bushmeat consumption and trade in African forest regions.
Snares are one of the simplest and are claimed to be one of the most effective traps. Made of galvanized aircraft cable, they are cheap to produce and easy to set in large numbers. A snare traps an animal around the neck or the body and tightens around the animal, restraining it. They are widely criticised by animal welfare groups for their alleged cruelty. UK users of snares accept that over 40% of animals caught in some environments will be non-target animals. While in the USA non-target catches reported by users of snares in Michigan are just over 10%. Some scientists believe that in animals which are trapped, pressure necrosis may have caused hidden injury to the animal, and that trapped animals should be taken to a vet rather than released. However, modifications and regulations now provide working snares that have relaxing locks that do not cinch down, break-away locks that open up after 250 pounds of pressure are exacted (allowing large dogs, calves and deer to remain unharmed), deer stops which prevent the snare from closing down so far as to catch a deer's leg, and live-catch stops that prevent the snare from closing to a point that chokes an animal of a certain size. Powered snares use the option of a spring to deposit the snare on an animal's leg or neck through the triggering of a spring mechanism.
*Foothold traps or leghold traps*
Probably most commonly associated with trapping, the leghold/foothold trap is made up of two jaws, a spring of some sort, and a trigger in the middle. When the animal steps on the trigger the trap closes around the foot, preventing the animal from escaping. Usually some kind of lure is used to position the animal, or the trap is set on an animal trail. Leghold/Foothold traps set for beaver, mink, river otter, and muskrat are positioned in shallow water along the shores and banks of rivers, lakes and ponds. The trap is attached to a weight sunk in deeper water. The animal, when caught by the foot, tries to escape by diving into deep water and drowns. Traditionally, these traps had tightly closing jaws to make sure the animal stayed in place.
Modern trappers have found that steel traps with thick smooth jaws are as effective and most modern traps have a gap called an "offset jaw" or a padded jaw that reduces the chance of injury to the animal. The belief an animal will chew off their own foot to escape a trap is erroneous. Older traps came in a single size. This large size was designed for the large back feet of beaver. Since manufactured traps were limited, trappers used the same sized trap on raccoon as they would on beaver. These traps would restrict blood flow and numb the caught foot. This was part of the design as it reduced pain. However, on large jawed traps, smaller animals could fit their noses underneath, and while they bite at the trap on their foot, would unknowningly bite their foot as well, resulting in damage. Today's traps are specially designed with different sizes for different animals, preventing this type of damage from taking place. The traps are often criticized for being indiscriminate, and non-target animals are sometimes caught in these traps, occasionally including dogs, cats, and endangered species. These animals are usually able to be released unharmed. Also, research has shown that these traps are not indiscriminate as sizes have become more varied, and sets (how a trap is placed and lured or baited) are regulated, preventing injury or capture to most non-targets. As a result the foothold/leghold trap has been banned in some countries and in eight U.S. states (Washington, California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Arizona, New Jersey, Florida, and Rhode Island). Trappers respond that a trapper knowledgeable about his/her target animal can set them so as to reduce the chances of other animals getting caught. Due to the fact that the foothold/leghold trap is a type of "live catch" trap, often "non target" animals caught, that have not been injured by the trap, can be released. Humane organizations criticize leghold traps for breaking animals' legs and leaving them in pain often for prolonged periods of time, but these traps do not break animals' legs if used properly. It is for this reason it is the preferred trap used for capture and relocation of endangered and threatened species such as Wolf, Otter and Bobcat. In states that have banned the use of the foothold trap, a number of issues have arose. In Massachusetts, the beaver population exploded from 24,000 in 1996 to over 100,000 beaver in 2006. This increase has shown in a recent University of Massachusetts study that 83 percent of beaver are suffering from emaciation, injury or disease. Also, due to the increase in beaver populations, there has been an increase in wetlands. The increase of stagnant water in the warmer gulf-stream climate has given way to a variety of mosquito borne diseases including Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) and West Nile. Cases of illness and death of humans as a result of this has increased by more than 300% in the past 10 years since the foothold trap was banned (though bear in mind that even with this 300% increase, fewer than 40 cases have been reported among humans in Massachusetts in the last 42 years). In 2006, it was shown that half (50%) of the raccoon population tested positive for rabies, and one in three skunks carried the disease. In 2007, it was estimated that the coyote population in the state exceeded 10,000 animals. Due to the increasing numbers with no ability to effectively control them, diseases like mange, distemper and rabies have spread, and human/animal conflict has increased. Newer footholds on the market are known as dog-proof, and are designed to work only on raccoons. These traps are small, and rely on the raccoon's grasping nature to trigger the trap. They are sold as coon cuffs, bandit busters and egg traps just to name a few.

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## RobertRogers

Just remember that snares are illegal in many areas, and illegal out of trapping season.  Being caught by game wardens or other officials will lead to stiff fines and perhaps even loss of your hunting - fishing - trapping rights for years or even for life.

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## Rick

"Dude, we're like a thousand mile from anywhere. We're starving. Let's build a snare. We gotta eat."
"Can't. Banned for life."
"Oh. Bummer."

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## snakeman

Do pig stabber trip wires work good? I built a bow trap once and it shot over 30 feet but its hard to aim right. Ive never set one for real just in case someone trips it. I've set some bated twitch up snares but have never caught anything.

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## crashdive123

Please....Never leave your bow trap (if you ever do set it) unattended.

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## Jay

> Do pig stabber trip wires work good? I built a bow trap once and it shot over 30 feet but its hard to aim right. Ive never set one for real just in case someone trips it. I've set some bated twitch up snares but have never caught anything.


Pig stabbers work well. but it takes a lot of practice to make the trigger sensitive enough. The amount of power behind the swing to do significant damage to a pig can make the trigger very stiff.  "Long Pig" on the other hand has a much softer hide.
 One that swings vertically can be made more sensitive and fast by adding extra weight to the head of the arm.

If you have made the bow from just any springy pice of wood, do not expect it to be effective at more than 10-15ft.  Again trigger release can cause problems in accuracy too.  However there are several types of triggers that you can use.  A few days ago I posted a pic of a model made from a small coffie branch and piece of string. Check it out.

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