PSK snare advice

[niftyflix]

Hi CharlesHarris, appreciate the response. I'll have a look at the Thompson snares. Main issue for snaring in the UK is that there's a Code of Practice by the government which has the subtext 'only professional keepers (gamewardens) need apply'. I'm very unlikely to be prosecuted for Doing It Wrong on my parents' land, but it does make people less willing to discuss the topic. (I note that you're in the US, where hunting is more mainstream than it is over here.)

I play guitar and have strings handy. I've had a few people recommend them as snarewires, but the recommendations tend to be of the 'I had this friend who...' variety. I'll give it a try after trying the 8-strand brass. For non-guitarists reading this: steel guitar strings have the advantage of having a brass eyelet wound in at one end to provide attachment at the body of the instrument. It's fixed strongly and should make it easier to form the main loop of the snare.

OTOH all guitar strings are not created equal:

i. They are available in a range of thicknesses from .008" to .072" -- so they come both much thinner and much thicker that the 20--24ga range usually recommended for snaring.. A .022 wound string would be roughly equivalent to a 24ga. rabbit wire, but the similarity of numbers is purely coincidental.
ii. There are different types of wraps. A 'flatwound' string, favoured by jazzers, gives less surface friction and hence presumably a freer-running snare.

Tunefully, N.