Snare trap thoughts and questions...

Uncle Timbo

Uncle Timbo

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Joined
Nov 23, 2005
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Let me start by saying that I researched snare traps here before posting. Having said that, would it be safe to say that for squirrels or anything that size, fishing line would be ok? Due to it's small size. I have some 30 lb Power Pro line left over from filling a reel. (braided) Since I have it, would that be good to have on-hand if needed someday?

The next thing I'd like to ask is for medium sized critters like coons and such, what is the smallest sized wire you would use? Also, who has premade snares in this small size. When I see 3/64 7x7, it means nothing to me. I can't envision the size.

Maybe 1/2 dozen for small critters and 1/2 dozen for medium sized critters. Please give me the "skinny" on snare sizes and availability.

Thanks brothers. :)
 
Squirrels most likely not, I have a problem with them eating (more appropriately), tearing up my Pears just to eat the seeds within and spit the rest out. Fortunately in my rural township out in the county I can just shoot them and I eat them anyhow so nothing goes wasted. I first tried light metal wire snares I rigged up on poles leaning onto the trunk and many would be snared but they either snapped them from the struggle or chewed themselves out depending how they were snared. Maybe a heavy braided fishing line would work but if not snared around the neck and from the struggle strangle themselves I'd assume they will chew their way out relatively easily so might ultimately take some level of gauged wire for strength and the ability to maintain a proper loop unless you are placing the snare along a channel run or a drag snare of some sort.
 
22 gauge copper or brass wire is what they use up in Canada.
same size wire that's in that old cat 5 line cable / phone wire. may want to check your game laws, my guess is it ain't legal to snare squirrels where you're at in the United States because it ain't legal here.
 
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As others have said I would recommend some locking wire snares. They can be purchased for fairly cheap. Also check your local trapping laws, many states require a license even if your not planning on keeping any part of the animal.
 
Thanks everybody for the responses so far. These are just something I want to have and will prolly never use them.

I went to FNT Post and I saw 1/16 7x7 cable. Is that the thinnest they make or would anybody ever want to go thinner?

As I stated, these are prolly something I will NEVER use. I, like many here, just have this drive to have a fully equipped survival bag. Call me foolish and whatever.
 
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I like the idea of multi-puropse gear, but sometimes you just cant make a better mouse trap. If I were trapping squirrels, i would use a purpose-built trap; either a modded wire spring rat trap, or a small live trap. Both will work very well with almost no guess work.
 
I dont actively snare game persay. I do practice primitive trapping quite a bit. I have found deadfalls very efective on squirrels and other small rodents and snares better for rabbits and such... for snaring i usually twist up cord from natural fiber.. dogbane and nettle work well and are plenty strong. If I'm feeling lazy i twist up some cordage out of raffia from craft store. However as mentioned before. If its not a clean neck catch these are easily chewed through
 
Thank you RR. You made some valuable points. I hadn't considered that the snare may catch the critter around their torso or even a hind leg. The deadfall does seem more effective and humane.

I'd still like to know what the smallest snare type wire is available. When looking at places that have premade snares for sale, what size wire is the thinnest in diameter and the most flexible?
 
There is subtly in snaring that is often overlooked. In the case of the squirrel snare the length of pole, its angle and the length of wire are critical so that the squirrel is encouraged to try to jump away, then falls into empty space below the pole and quickly strangles without being able to get a hold on anything. This is not always mentioned or clear from illustrations. The snare is fixed to the underside of the pole and relies on the wire stiffness to loop around to its set position.

While braid line is very strong, it can be cut/bit through a lot more easily than wire. Also, it lacks the stiffness to reliably hold itself open as a noose. The very best stuff is the stainless steel wire used for wire locking, aka tie-wiring bolts in critical locations. Aerospace use it a fair bit. Very strong, flexible, comes in a range of sizes.

Remember the ANGLES. Tangle, Dangle, Strangle and Mangle. In the last case, the way I was told to judge the right size weight for a dead fall was to aim to turn the target into red jam! Chances are that if you don't think like that, you choose too light a weight.

If you can't figure out what 3/64 looks like, you need to go metric! :D Okay, sorry, joking ;) I am an aeroengineer in the UK so have to work in both metric and imperial. Telling you that 3/64 is 0.0469", or about 47thou, or about 1.2mm might not help. How about "three quarters of a sixteenth of an inch"? Most basic rulers should go down to 1/16th of an inch, imagine about 3/4 of that and that's your 3/64.

A spring snare that lifts the target out of four-paw drive and has some bounce to it can get away with lighter cord/wire than one that leaves the animal free to dash about a bit. Sorry, never tried snaring coons, but over here the law for fox snaring is that the wire shall not be less than 460lbs strength (2mm approx). Based on what most places selling aircraft cable state, 3/64 is a good bit lighter than that already.
http://www.wwewirerope.com/aircraftcable/

Best of luck. Hope it goes well.
 
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Thanks brother. Each post gets me that much further down the road. Yours has gotten me quite a bit down the road.
3/64 sounds pretty light and flexible to me. I loved your analogies and yea, even though we prolly need to go metric, it's hard for this ol carpenter who's read a tape measure most of his life.
 
heresthedeal said:
22 gauge copper or brass wire is what they use up in Canada.
same size wire that's in that old cat 5 line cable / phone wire. may want to check your game laws, my guess is it ain't legal to snare squirrels where you're at in the United States because it ain't legal here.
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Probably that gold coloured stuff that they sell in hardware stores etc. I have only used it for rabbits, works perfectly fine. Put your fist in the loop for size, you don't need much more than that. I have heard that some guys smoke their portable rabbit snare sets. I have never seen the need, rabbits don't play chess. Check daily as Ravens will eat them starting with the eyes.
 
Kootaga! Hi buddy, good thread. I don't have all the answers on snares, but I do have a good bit of experience with them. Rather than throwing walls of text, I'll try to throw out some thoughts and go from there. Hopefully some of it will prove useful to you.

-For me, modern wire snares would be an essential part of a longer term survival kit, they are deadly and effective.

-The target species I've got the most experience with are coyote and bobcat. I've learned a few things about other critters, too, in the attempt to catch these target species.

-7x7 snare wire vs 1x19 snare wire: 7x7 is composed of 7 strands of 7 twisted wire, so 49 individual wires, but in 7 bundles. 1x19 is 19 individual strands of twisted wire. So, if you're looking at 1/16" diameter wire, the individual wires of the 7x7 are much smaller than the individual strands of the 1x19. Therefore 1x19 is stiffer in the same diameter if compared to 7x7. 1x19 forms a round loop much better than 7x7, and also accepts loading better than 7x7. 7x7 grabs hair better than 1x19 (just run a piece of each along the hair of your arm, and it is readily evident :eek: :) ). One style is not necessarily better than the other, but each has properties that allow it to perform certain tasks better, depending on what you want to accomplish. Example: Coyotes, in my experience, will shy from a teardrop-shaped loop more often than a round loop. Since 1x19 is stiffer, it accepts being formed into a round loop better than 7x7 of the same diameter, and therefore 1x19 is my preferred loop wire for coyote snaring.

If there are some things I can answer, I will try. And if I can't answer it, I will say so, or give my best guess provided I have something to base it on. No snare man is going to have all the answers as it would take a lifetime to get good at many different species, since so much is involved in learning the animals habits, and that can really only be done in the field and with time.

Cheers
 
Hey Mr. HK....great insight! Thanks brother. I'm getting further down snare road!

My issue is that I don't think the snare or size of wire you would want to have on hand for a squirrel or a rabbit, would be the same as for a coyote or a bobcat. Are you possibly saying 7x7 1/16 for small critters and 1x19 for larger ones? If so, where would a coon or a possum fit into this scenario?
 
Kootaga13 said:
My issue is that I don't think the snare or size of wire you would want to have on hand for a squirrel or a rabbit, would be the same as for a coyote or a bobcat.
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Absolutely correct. For size reference, the three most popular sizes for coyote-sized critters are 1/16, 5/64, and 3/32. I really like 1/16 in 1x19 for my loops because I can make them nice and round, and it is very fast when it falls. I would adjust the size downward for rabbit-sized game.

Are you possibly saying 7x7 1/16 for small critters and 1x19 for larger ones?
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Nope. Forget about the style (7x7 vs 1x19) as far as what you want for small critter vs large critter. This is where you will adjust your cable's diameter size so that your snare loop is strong enough to hold your catch. For example, if you are targeting coyote where a large male might go 35 lbs. plus, you might want to use 3/32 cable. But if you are targeting bobcat where the majority of the animals will be 18-23 lbs., then 1/16 might be more appropriate. For rabbit, 1/16 is definitely plenty big and probably oversize for squirrels.

If so, where would a coon or a possum fit into this scenario?
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I would stay with 1/16 1x19 for coon and possum. This size cable is readily available, and not overkill for critters with big chompers like coon and possum have. We have a few coon get into our sets every year. We are not targeting them, but they are legal to catch, and the 1/16 1x19 handles them very well.
 
This is a good thread that i dont want to derail. Having said that, have you considered usin a conibear trap? 110's are deadly on squirrels and a number of other critters as well as being very versatile. The downside would be a little more weight but keep in mind they can be reused almost forever. A snare cable can be destroyed with one catch. Primitive traps are great and i have practiced them but i dont believe they can compare to a conibear if it came to needing to feed yourself. Also whatever route you go, you might reconsider putting them in a kit unused. You probably wouldnt do that with other gear. There is a learning curve. If you do some checking the guys at sigma survival (no affiliation) did a good video on youtube about using a few traps to stay fed. They were very succesful and its worth a watch. Best of luck.
 
My thanks to both of you. I'm going to work and don't have time to watch the video now, but I will.

Mr. HK, you my friend are a plethora of info. I'm pretty sure I have most of what I need, although, you can never learn enough. The video and more like it will certainly help. My last question is for those dang squirrels. What size/wire for the average, run of the oak tree, squirrel. I'm sure this would be the lightest I would have on hand. Although, if a guy used a spring type trap, wouldn't spider wire fishing line work?
 
I absolutely 100% agree with j_d. I didn't address conibears (body grips) because you had mentioned earlier in the thread about keeping the weight down and staying with snares. But one or two bodygrips in the 110 size are small and light, and absolutely the perfect small-game kill trap :thumbup:

Kootaga13 said:
My thanks to both of you. I'm going to work and don't have time to watch the video now, but I will.

Mr. HK, you my friend are a plethora of info. I'm pretty sure I have most of what I need, although, you can never learn enough. The video and more like it will certainly help. My last question is for those dang squirrels. What size/wire for the average, run of the oak tree, squirrel. I'm sure this would be the lightest I would have on hand. Although, if a guy used a spring type trap, wouldn't spider wire fishing line work?
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I've never snared a squirrel with a spring-type trap where the snare loop would be powered. Leaning on what I've learned, though, I can say that any snare under load like that should be able to take advantage of smaller cable, or in this case even braided line because it's going to put a lot harder set against the animal than the force an animal can generate on its own against the snare, and therefore give a quick kill. I'd use 3/64 cable for that application. It would be a lot less prone to being chewed than the fishing line. Of course if you're caught out with only the spider wire to work with, that's different. But I think what we're talking about here is trying to be prepared in the best way possible.

Also, I'll just mention to folks in general reading through this, check your laws if you're practicing this stuff. Obviously survival situations are a different scenario, but you want to stay legal and ethical, and the laws in my state may vary from the laws in your home state.
 
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Kootaga13 said:
........Also, who has premade snares in this small size. When I see 3/64 7x7, it means nothing to me. I can't envision the size.....I'd still like to know what the smallest snare type wire is available. When looking at places that have premade snares for sale, what size wire is the thinnest in diameter and the most flexible? .
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You're forcing me to brush up on my small snare knowledge :D

Looks like Dakotaline recommends 3/64 7x7 for mink and rabbit, and it is the smallest and most flexible that they carry. They'd be my go-to for prebuilt snares, especially in that small size. Not sure if I'm supposed to add a link, but their website is dakotalinesnares.com. Lots of good info in their catalog too.
 
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