ok so youve snared an animal...

[oneraindog]

i always hear how important it is to begin cooling the meat ASAP by skinning and gutting. but if the animal died in a snare might it me some hours befor you get back to it? obviously this is not a problem since people are snaring animals and doing just fine. what are the limits involved? what are we talking about when we say that the animal must be skinned and gutted as soon as you can but dressing an animal that died in a snare is acceptable as well?
does this question make sense?

[crashdive123]

No maggots, no smell of decomp (meat smells good), I'm eating.

[Ole WV Coot]

I always checked snares & traps kinda regular and never had to worry. I used a lot of homemade(live) traps mainly for rabbits. Check often and you won't have to worry, I forgot a steel trap once and just had a leg so I did run them often.

[snakeman]

I still have trot lines and snares set from a year ago. I check them every day and have never caught a thing. If you have a good trap line, I have hearn that people will check them at morning and evening. But, I really wouldn't know.

[oneraindog]

I still have trot lines and snares set from a year ago. I check them every day and have never caught a thing. If you have a good trap line, I have hearn that people will check them at morning and evening. But, I really wouldn't know.

whoa what? in a year of have snares out you havnt caught anything? thats disheartening.

[crashdive123]

Might be time for a new location......just sayin.

[snakeman]

Yeah, I don't I have enough of the same kind, I have one squirrel snare, rabbit, and two trot lines( which I havent re baited). I guess if I really wanted to snare something, I would have to set 4 or 5.

[crashdive123]

....or put them where the game and fish are running.

[COWBOYSURVIVAL]

I still have trot lines and snares set from a year ago. I check them every day and have never caught a thing. If you have a good trap line, I have hearn that people will check them at morning and evening. But, I really wouldn't know.

I typed a response to this 6 times and I decided to go ahead and not say anything except - please study up on ethics and sportsmanship!

[SARKY]

The question should be.....you check your trap or snare the you have a critter in there, it is still alive and pissed. what do you do?

[Stairman]

The question should be.....you check your trap or snare the you have a critter in there, it is still alive and pissed. what do you do? shoot em with my 22. Ive caught skunks before in steel traps in Mississippi and just shoot em and let the buzzards eat em. In a week you can retrieve your trap. I found one of my steel traps with 2 bird legs in it and a pile of yellow feathers next to it. IMO if you check your sets every morning the meat will be fine. Avoid gut contamination with the meat and cook it or cool it soon. Ive seen guys shoot deer in the morning and parade em all over town in the Florida heat and finally clean it about noon or a little after with no problems. For the guy with the zero harvest with his traps, to me its not 4 or 5 set out but more like 15 or 20. If you can find a tree laying over a stream or gully they are one of the best places to set one at. We would chop a notch in the tree with a hawk and lay a leg hold in it. Then pile twigs on both sides so the coon would step over and right in it.

[Penokeemtn5]

I seldom have a dead animal in a snare,unless you rig em that way.Most coyote fox and coon will stop fighting long before they strangle themselves.

[Smok]

The Zero catch man needs help from someone that knows what they are doing . It's too hard to just talk him though , it he needs someone there with him to show him . I live in Calif. to far for me to go . Anyone closer ?