PSK snare advice

[niftyflix]

Hello guys, my first post here and I'm a n00b at snaring, so I hope not to embarrass myself.

I'm assembling a pocket survival kit and want to include snares. My parents' home has a small patch of land on which some wild rabbits have moved in, so I have an opportunity to get my chops together.

I've read nine or ten snaring guides and have taken on board the advice about positioning, height, size of loop.

Obvious issue is that 'proper' snares require tealers and swivels, neither of which I can carry easily in a pocket kit. I figured I would cut 24" lengths of 24ga (0.5mm) wire, form loops at both ends, coil it and stash it in the kit.

Then I can then cut wooden tealers to appropriate height, tie the end loops to lengths of paracord and anchor the paracords, which should give me some height and a swivel.

Does this make sense?

N.

[CharlesHarris]

From what I can remember that all sounds right. My experience with snares is limited to the US military issue Thompson snares which were packed in survival kits. Over-engineered for rabbits, but sturdy enough to hold coyote and small deer up to 50kg. Cadet company buddy used steel guitar strings to share rabbits and muskrat.

[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.

[CharlesHarris]

(20 December 2021, 18:19)niftyflix Wrote: 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...

https://thompsonsnares.com/products/thom...-snare-kit

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=...ljmlUg8ltb

[Mortblanc]

For somewhere around 2 million years humans snared bunnies on every continent of the globe using natural cordage.

Even Homo Erectus could do it and his brain was half the size of yours, I am assuming big time there.

Don't over think, over complicate, or over tech snare construction. Trapping is more about knowing the animal than how excellent your snare wire is.

The Thompson snares are hi-tech due to the likely hood that the user would be left with only one usable arm. They were issued complete and ready to use, just find a good set and tie them to a limb or stake them out.

My kits contain rolls of soft iron wire from the hardware store, around 20ga but not certain since the last roll I bought was 10 years back and the label is gone.

A guitar string will work, so will soft iron wire, military trip wire, strands removed from military com wire, heavy fishing line, steel leader wire, or cotton string from the pound store.

Study your ground, how the animals travel, where they den, and make plenty of sets. Snaring is a numbers game. You don't set just one and expect it to produce a bunny a day.

Now if this is a Monty Python bunny all bets are off! you will need grenades, lots of grenades!

[CharlesHarris]

Canoe paddles work if you are being charged by one of the famous Jimmy Carter combat swimming attack rabbits.

[Mortblanc]

I would not touch that one with a ten foot boat pole!

[Mortblanc]

(19 December 2021, 15:31)niftyflix Wrote: I'm assembling a pocket survival kit and want to include snares. My parents' home has a small patch of land on which some wild rabbits have moved in, so I have an opportunity to get my chops together.

Hey niftyflix if you are assembling a kit jump down to the KITS section and tell about the kit itself.

Might make a good discussion. We have not had a good kit thread in a while!

[niftyflix]

Hello guys, thanks for all the responses. I'll be delighted to share details of the kit but have decided that I will i. snare my first rabbit and ii. catch my first fish before I post about how cleverly I've planned out my PSK, so likely a couple of months off. (At time of writing I'm waiting for a tiny hobo fishing kit to arrive.) But I do know a bit about distillation on a home-made still and will post on the 'Distilling' forum after producing this year's batch of calvados in the next fortnight or so. Meanwhile, Happy Xmas! N.

[Mortblanc]

Like all new to the consideration of survival, you are prone to dealing with last things first.

Food is a small consideration in a SPK. Especially if it is a small "minikit" that you will have with you at all times. In fact, it is almost impossible to build an adequate pocket kit.

Your first consideration is shelter, and that is very difficult with a PSK unless it is knapsack sized.

Second is hydration.

A PSK should be built around the rule of three; 3 minutes without air, three hours without shelter, three days without water, 3 weeks without food.