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Thread: wire snares

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    Default wire snares

    What gauge wire is best for wire snares? I'm working on my survival kit and I've never had anything in it for trapping. Since small game season is upon us I may try my hand a making a few snares to test my tracking and trapping skills. I have some 30 gauge wire and I was wondering it that will be strong enough for wire snares for rabbits and squirrels.


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    30 gauge is pretty small stuff. You probably need to be in the 18 - 24 gauge solid wire in brass, copper or stainless steel for small game like squirrels and rabbits. Large gauge, like Thompson snares, for bigger game.
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    I've never been a one to advise snares unless you are trapping for fur. Unless you are constantly checking them rigor sets in and rodents are deseased little critters to begin with. One thing I never see mentioned is if you do eat rabbits and such inspect liver and spline for solid color. Don't eat if spotted. You need 20 or 30 snares to make it worth while and there are better ways that expend less energy than checking trap line constantly. To me snares are just one step up from eating bugs.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Alaskan Survivalist View Post
    I've never been a one to advise snares unless you are trapping for fur. Unless you are constantly checking them rigor sets in and rodents are deseased little critters to begin with. One thing I never see mentioned is if you do eat rabbits and such inspect liver and spline for solid color. Don't eat if spotted. You need 20 or 30 snares to make it worth while and there are better ways that expend less energy than checking trap line constantly. To me snares are just one step up from eating bugs.
    I agree with Alaskan Survivalist on needing 20 - 30 snares, but my opinion of the value of snares is far different than his. It is pretty easy to set a good number of snares and monitor them once or twice a day. This is a very efficient means of gathering food and is far better than hunting when it come to getting food in an emergency situation.

    I suggest you Google R&P Outdoors and look at their snares. They are relatively inexpensive and work great. Get very few if any snares that are not rated for beaver size animals or bigger. One beaver provides a lot of protein.

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    I'd be hard pressed to HAVE to use them but the only way I'd use snares around here is as squirrel poles. Less distance to travel and squirrels are everywhere (unless I'm actually hunting them).
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    It would have much to do with game situation in your local area. It's not the end all to every survival situation and to most will be about as useful as thier fishing kits in the handle of thier knife. I would urge prior usage before commiting it to your kit but I always say that. The have thier use and purpose but you should know thier practical application in your area.

    For survival you can go without food quite awhile for the short term and for long term survival you need to put up larger quantities of food.

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    All true and well put. Know your abilities and your limitations.

    The only reason I say I wouldn't use them around here is I can walk a couple of miles in any direction and hit a road. Starving to death is not in my foreseeable future. There's a golden arch around every curve. Sort of like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but completely different.
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    I use .020 or .025 stainless steel safety wire. I get it at auto performance stores.
    I know what hunts you.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Nittany Lion View Post
    What gauge wire is best for wire snares? I'm working on my survival kit and I've never had anything in it for trapping. Since small game season is upon us I may try my hand a making a few snares to test my tracking and trapping skills. I have some 30 gauge wire and I was wondering it that will be strong enough for wire snares for rabbits and squirrels.
    Check your local game laws. In most states trapping requires an addidtional liscense and the type traps are specified. In some places snares are illigal.
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    I like traps and snares for survival purposes since they keep working on their own while go do other things, like make camp furniture, eating utensils, improve shelter, boil water, etc. It's easy to check them one or two times a day, and they are more productive than hunting on a game per hour basis. Same goes for fishing. One poster said they see squirrels ll the time except when hunting. I know I and many others have experienced that when hunting and fishing. I'll set traps and snares whenever I can in a survival situation.
    Sadly, for game snares are illegal in AZ, and traps are only allowed on private property with a special trapping license, and fish traps and weirs are illegal, too, except for crayfish. To practice skills I have to set up a snare or trap, test it, using a stuffed animal or just a representative stick, then tear it apart.
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  11. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by EdD270 View Post
    they are more productive than hunting on a game per hour basis. Same goes for fishing. apart.
    Just not so. A two hour soak of my subsitence long line will feed you all year. Your statement needs to be clarified by saying best way to hunt rabbit, left it at that and stayed away from fishing all together. Pound for pound big game hunting takes less time and effort as well. You just can't justify that statement.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Alaskan Survivalist View Post
    Just not so. A two hour soak of my subsitence long line will feed you all year. Your statement needs to be clarified by saying best way to hunt rabbit, left it at that and stayed away from fishing all together. Pound for pound big game hunting takes less time and effort as well. You just can't justify that statement.
    A long line is more like trapping than fishing, right? You run it out and come back to check it later...thats a lot like a snare.

    Big game in Maine really are two animals, moose and white tail deer. The deer herd is small and flighty in my part of the state and are a tough and challenging hunt. Moose are a different story and will provide plenty of food but there is quite a bit of work involved in processing one, especially in a survival situation when you will have very limited equipment.

    It would still seem more of a benefit in my area to build snares and try fishing then to hunt a large animal and then deal with it before it spoils. I am an opportunist though and if something edible wandered to close to me, it would be on the fire.

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    I don't know what you do with all the meat from a big animal in a survival situation. Seems a waste but then so does starving to death.
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  14. #14

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    I've done a little snaring. Even if it's not effecient it's fairly passive.

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    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    In vast parts of the lower 48 game is not plentiful, big or small. You do not just go out, sit down and 2 hours latter have your year of food on the ground. In my area you can hunt all day and not see a rabbit or squirrel, only the coyotes that ate them scooting along at 200 yards. I see more deer on the freeway than in the woods.

    You would have a better chance living on road kill than living off the land. Some of my favorite comedy writing is the work of people in the eastern U.S. talking about "living off the land". My state is not heavily populated but we still have 88 people per square mile.

    This is another of the environmental variations from one end of the nation to another.

    The first rule of survival is that one does not expend more energy obtaining food than the food provides.

    In one area you can fire one shot, hang the kill in a tree to freeze and live on it for 6 months. In another environment one can walk for miles and never see game. In some areas you can kill an animal at 9am and by 11 am it has maggots working in it. Sometimes we forget that the U.S. is not uniform after one leaves the urban areas. There are still vast differences in climate and game density.

    I have food preps stockpiled and little chance of "wilderness survival" in my future. What I do not have stockpiled is meat except in canned form and that gets boring quickly. I know that I will have snares set and will eat anything I catch in them, just to get a break from Spam. I will also have lines set for fishing. In my area a trout line will not feed me for a year in one set. One can not walk across the river on the backs of the fish in north KY. In fact, we have one river from which you can not eat the fish. People pull fish with three eyes and two heads out of that water!

    I can expect one or two fish a day in the lines and a rabbit, squirrel or chipmunk every two or three days on the snares. That is the norm in my area. Checking the snares in known locations is more productive than walking 10 miles hoping to see something that whatever weapon you happen to be carrying is suitable for shooting at the range involved.
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    Quote Originally Posted by KYRatShooter
    to get a break from Spam
    Blasphemer!
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  17. #17

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    I will start this off by saying that I LOVE snares. I have ran trap lines on and off in my life and with out a doubt, once learned there is nothing more effective and efficient for hunting mammals as is snaring.

    You can set snares to take what ever game you want while letting other game pass. You can snare weasels to bear and everything in between including dear and elk. I have even seen moose caught in snares.

    In a survival situation, everything should be done at the same time. What I mean is that while you are checking snares, you should be gather edibles, collecting fire wood and hunting at the same time. You should also be scouting new sources of wood, water and even a better location for camp.

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    Senior Member SARKY's Avatar
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    I ahem! seen deer taken with snares. Ive also seen them taken with Apache horse traps.
    I know what hunts you.

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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    I done a little snaring myself , mostly to remove "those wascally wabbits" out of the garden.

    When using wire, it helps to add a fishing line swivel some where on the tie wire.
    I have had whatever literally twist off a solid tied wire.

    I prefer soft wire, (still have some 10-17 iron wire about .020) as you can "preform" the loop and and will hold tight. (should have stolen more before our plant closed, LOL)
    Sold as "tie wire", or picture wire.
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  20. #20

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    Why does everyone in the survival "industry" suggest wire for snares? Why not use what professional trappers use, cable? You can get all different sized cable from your local hardware store. Buy a handful of washers and nuts and you can prefab a bunch of locking snares to throw in your pack. Down rigger cable is ideal for small game and 1/8" cable is suitable for bear and such.

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