simple snare - advice / tips?

[yellowfin85]

I'm trying to get my feet wet in trapping, so have been using the simplest of snares. A wire loop attached to a length of paracord and the paracord tied to anchor point such as a tree. I try to set up on trail leading to where I think rabbits live and I try to setup a bottleneck to force the critter down that path. As of yet no luck was wondering if there is anything I can do to improve my chances?

 

[Hairyman]

It can be instructive to sit down at a distance and just watch the rabbits to get an idea of their behaviour. Dawn and dusk are good times.
See if you can find out where they bolt to when alarmed.

 

[pap11y]

I always used to check for tracks near their burrow entrances. I would target the ones with tracks or poop nearby.

I never caught any but had a few snares chewed through. I was young and they were made of a crappy rope...

My snares were also very short and I wonder if your snares could be getting too long to be effective. Could you attach them to a post in the ground?

 

[Templar]

Be aware, that snaring is illegal outside of a S######l situation in most states under the various animal cruelty acts... however, there are many factors that will effect your chances...

First, you need to set more than one... usually arount 10 - 15, even then there is now guarantee that you will catch something.
Second, human scent... it will take 24-48 hours for your scent to clear from the area and stop scaring the game away.
Third, location, just because the trail is there doesn't mean it is in use at this time, look for fresh sign of animals passing, such as scat or damaged vegetation.
Fourth, location (2), sets need to be made either outside the warren/den, between the warren/den and the food source, or between the warren/den and a water source, follow the game trail and find out what is at the end of it, you may find that your trail is actually leading to a bolt hole and is not a main trail at all.

Snaring is like realestate, its all about Location, Location, Location... and understanding that the disturbance you make setting it up will effect you chances to a degree also, for the first 24-48 hours that the set is in place... they dont tell you that in the books.

 

[pap11y]

Thanks Templar for clarifying that. I was very young when I used to do it..

My grandmother also made me be sure to get every last one of them before we left the farm..

 

[auscraft]

Rember spare snares because they aren't generally seen as multi use items

 

[SaxonPathfinder]

First n for most, Snares are not a high percentages means of trapping... you'd normally need to set a dozen snares all over the place to produce a feed. with that being said though i set my first snare up last week, 1 single snare and in 6 hrs over night a rabbit was caught and escaped before i got back... so was i lucky? you bet cha! but also location location location. try and find the best used little rabbit tracks..... for instance my setup was in long tussock grass where they had to crawl under a tussock to get though. So by setting up in in front of that meant if a rabbit came through i HAD to go through that hole n there for get caught.

So yeah study the trails and tracks, well used but skinny little trails are good as most of the "funneling" is done for you. Just take in some sticks and carve one as a peg to secure your hoochie cord (note use hoochie cord instead of paracord it lighter so it won't hinder the snare and it's thinner so it's invisible and if you should accidentally snare a possum it should be able to either break the cord or get out of a thin wire snare) Use the others to funnel them in tighter.
Well i hope you have success in future and remember that a snare won't always kill an animal for you, so be prepared to do it. Make it quick, say use the blunt end of your axe or bring along a weighty ended stick to dispatch it. Also this technique won't work well unless it's on a hard surface maybe bring a small piece of scrap timber.
Either way good luck

 

[yellowfin85]

thanks everyone for the replies lots of good information in there I will put it to use. next time will set up more snares and will stay overnight so they can be checked. I'm hoping just to get one to get familiar with the gutting, skinning and processing, getting a feed is a bonus. also will buy the hoochie chord your right about paracord being too heavy and hindering the snare. is it the same or similair to "bank line"? also any recommendation for wire? I've just been using a high quality fishing wire, but its a bit expensive.

<off topic rant>
regarding snaring being considered animal cruelty I think it's hippocritical as rabbits which are farmed for food are treated cruelly the entire time until death (http://www.freedomforfarmedrabbits.com/). kept in cages inside their entire lifes and a large amount die before they even make it slaughter. not to mention the way chickens are farmed (i've worked as a chicken catcher), and you hear about cattle and all other mass farmed animal being treated way more cruelly than a hunter or trapper ever would. hunters and trappers tend to dispatch as humanely as possible because they have respect for animals and nature whereas those who work in a slaughter house don't. because it's their 9-5 job they hate it then take it out on the animals, my opinion anyway. also if you really are in a survival situation it would be too late you have to learn before you're life depends on it. also I think laws like that are in place to discourage people to fend for themselves and becoming independant from civilization but they have no problems with homeless people forced to sleep in the city and collect bottles for a living. they would rather people do that to survive then to be able to survive independantly off natural resources. so IMO thats a hippocritical and corrupt law
<off topic rant/>

 

[Arron The Archer]

something i will say if you are going to use this method please CHECK !! the snares at least!! twice a day you maybe aiming for rabbits
(an i believe it's every aussies duty to rid our country of feral animals) but snares don't care what they catch native or feral it's all the same to a snare

anyway good luck


yellowfin85 well said (sits back an claps):_applauso:

 

[Templar]

You may feel the law hippocritical, however, it still remains the law...

Since you are new here I will give you the word... we like to abide by the rules of ploite conversation here... No Politics, No Religion, No Financial chatter. We are a Bushcraft forum not a Survivalist forum, similar skills granted, totally different mindset.

I say this not only as a moderator but as a bushcrafter and former survivalist/prepper.

 

[Quinkan]

yeah snaring is illegal as hell in most parts of aus, to the best of my knowledge.

Old timers round my area (southern qld) used to swear by looking for where hare would run under the bottom strand of a fence, then set a higher than average rabbit snare in their path. Then again, most of them seem to live off corned silverside and lamb chops so it's either not a very tasty, or a very convenient option.

Legality aside, apart from small animals that may hit a snare hard enough to choke quickly, or break their own necks, a well set snare can mess up any critter from a hare up to a bull. A lot of the more feral stock and native animals in my area show significant injury at times from being tangled in old discarded wire, let alone snares. We had an 800kg or so cow kill herself in our bottom fence a few months ago. Knocked off the top strand, panicked, bolted, she ended up with both frong legs cut to the bone and a metre or so tight around her neck. We weren't home at the time, but from the damage to the scrub around her it was not a particularly quick or easy way to die. And that's nearly a ton of animal, probably running full til against heavy gauge plain wire.

Even if you go the "funnel' approach, or under a fence, or whatever... you can still easily trap bandicoot, quoll, juvenile padymelon, large monitors etc. It's kind of a ****ty thing to do.

Fun to practice, like I was told set the bottom of your noose one fist high for rabbit, one fist and a thumb high for hare... it's nice to know. But just doing it all over the place is a bloody good way to just injure or torture a lot of animal life.

 

[Gundy]

All good information. If I were in a situation where I HAD to set rabbit snares, I would set them at the direct entrance to the rabbits burrow...this way you limit the chance of snaring something you did not want to.

Years ago as a kid when I use to help my uncle (his bread and butter), this approach worked for well over 90% of those that were set and more often than not, the rabbits were found and retrieved just inside their burrows, alive and well. I guess its a possibility that they remained more calm being somewhat inside their burrows while using this method.

Still, if your not relying on snaring for sustenance, its always fun to practice various snaring techniques without actually setting any to catch game.

Good luck and be sure to share your findings!

 

[Greatbloke]

My Dad's uncle had an old brown medicine bottle of scent that he made. After he set the traps and covered them with a square of newspaper and lightly sprinkled soil, he would sprinkle a few drops of the scent around. It didn't smell too good, but he wouldn't tell me what his secret formula was. He was quite successful. I imagine that a smoking stick wafted around would help kill the human scent. Maybe some water with fire ash/charcoal and rabbit poo mixed in would help.

 

[Hairyman]

I've been told by an old bloke rabbits find lucerne chaff irresistable.

 

[Bernoulli]

Snare DIY here:

http://wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/index.html

 

[Westie]

I have has the situation where the rabbit is gone before the next time I check them. Thought this might help with my chances. Anyone tried this? What's your thoughts?
Can also attach to a small hand line if camping near the bank of a river. They are ment to clip on to the end of your rod.

 

[AussiePreppers]

I'd say you'd want something bigger like multiple cans with something inside them, then you have to be camping within earshot I guess which may or may not affect your chance. Rabbits squeal extremely loud but they don't do it every time so I guess listening for that isn't reliable either. As someone said above, they don't always continually struggle too. Since I use soft jawed leg holds now almost exclusively (can be hard setting spring leg snares at a warren site with no trees or whatever around to put your ocky straps or whatever energy store) it wouldn't work for me. You must always be absolutely sure that a rabbit cannot overcome your trap anchor or cordage. After a feral cat got one of mine (along with the trap, found later near the remains), I made sure the anchor could take feral cat or fox interference in the future. On the property I go to, an animal running around with a leg hold of any description means no more hunting there. One example is, I made a dirt hole set with cat urine and a rooster head for some problem cats and foxes on the property. Instead I caught Ernie the Noisy Echidna (little bugger smashes around in the middle of the night making everyone think a boogeyman attack is imminent). What made that incident not serious was that first of all I was using an appropriate trap, with an appropriate anchor, and using an appropriate checking frequency. A little bit of a leg rub and mess around with him for a few minutes to make sure the leg was ok and he was off banging into everything again. Moral of the story... you may need to check your traps more frequently and make sure they have bombproof anchors.

Good luck with your next hunt

 

[AussiePreppers]

Also mate, maybe you could incorporate a "GE Personal Security Keychain Alarm" into your system... when you pull the pin on those it emits an extremely loud noise. Search for them on ebay...

 

[Westie]

That was one of the prob that I was having. It was well secured but the would get out and leave the trap as they aren't sprung traps.

 

[Thrud]

One thing that does not appear to have been mentioned(apologies if it has) is to set the snare at a place where the rabbits take a hop, in well worn tracks this can often be a little patch of grass.

We were also told to use hawthorn stakes and bury them for two weeks before using.

We did all this and the very first attempt got a decent rabbit, that was the one and only attempt! We only set three snares.