Trapping

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Another great survival skill to have under your belt beyond hunting and average outdoorsman skills is the ability to set traps. Traps can easily be made by those who know what they are doing. Many times a weapon will not be accessible to you and even for those who have a weapon accessible they may not be efficient enough with it to hunt the type of game they need. By trapping wild game, you can obtain food without having to have a gun or other projectile weapon. In an essence, the food will come to you. Learning to set traps such as snare traps, box traps, and net traps will give you the added advantage of being able to obtain food. Not only will you be able to hunt food with these traps you can also set booby traps for people that are snooping around when they shouldn't be. Protecting the area in which you are surviving will be important. Just as important as making sure that you maintain the proper balance of food and water while you are surviving.

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During the times of disasters, catastrophes or situations where survival is called for weak people and strong people tend to stand out from one another. The strong individuals are the ones who are taking the time to plan for the future and have emergency measures in place. The weak ones are the individuals who thought this would never happen to me and are now helpless with no supplies, no plan and no idea of what they're doing. Knowing how to successfully set traps can provide food and safety during a time when both of these are pivotal aspects of life. Be prepared and have a plan in store for the future in case of an emergency. Take the time to learn a couple of trapping techniques so that should the situation call for it, you will know how to not only provide yourself with food but to give yourself an extra security net and peace of mind.

 

But a trap line is a really great place for the bad guy to get a feed and ambush someone to aquire there stuff!
Hunting is a one off thing but trapping is a return thing!

 

I like trapping, it is easy and efficient but if in hostile or not so secure territory a lot of caution will be needed!
I don't want to get trapped at my own trap!

 

Trapping small animals can be more efficient than targeting big ones with wooden traps. In Mediterranean islands hunters use wire loops to trap infesting rabbits. Basicaly it's a typical noose, trigger & bait trap, and all you need to do is to cover the bait from all other sides to guide the animal to put its head through the loose noose to get to the food. As soon as it fiddles with the bait the trigger is activated and the noose immediately closes and chokes the animal.
It's much easier to assemble if you're stranded or broke, as long as you can tie a noose.

 

I hear a lot about trapping and it seems easier than hunting in my opinion. I definitely need to look more into trapping.

 

I like traping, but sometimes it's just necessary to hunt rather than setting traps

 

Trapping has a learning curve. When I was young I learned how to make snare spring traps trapping the rats that were in the barn and the corn crib. Rats are SMART and learn so you have to keep changing your set up. Basically traditional rat traps were useless they knew what they were and ignored the bait in them. The snares were not always baited. You instead place them across their runs or trails and catch passer bys.

Trapping if you are on the move is the best because you are targeting meal sized animals. At the end of your day you set out a dozen or so traps and eat what you caught the night before.

 

In a survival situation I will save my bullets for self-defence and harvesting large game. Birds, bunnies and squirrels just don't offer enough meat to make the sacrifice of a bullet worthwhile. I will harvest them with snares, slingshots, BB guns and Air rifles.

 

Snares are good

 

A couple of very valid points made here, Arkane mentions security...I have already had to learn to conceal my traps because of tree huggers who don't agree with their use. This skill translates to make your traps less obvious, even to other hunters and trappers.
TomWilliams mentions smell, I like to weather my traps and snares by burying them for a couple of weeks, I handle them as little as possible to avoid transferring my scent onto them. Oil or grease are bad for two reasons, firstly they have a strong unnatural scent, secondly they can cause leaves, soil or sand to stick to the moving parts.
Boiling brass snare wire a couple of times along with some vegetation can also help reduce any scent and get rid of surface traces of oil.

 

Very true Keith, I have had snares interfered with or stolen in the past, possibly after they've been caught something that made them more obvious but to counter this I set my snares in the evening and check them after darkness has fallen (I find this is the most effective time) I then re set them, then check them again around dawn and collect them up as I go. Rabbit snares are pretty ineffective during daylight hours anyway so there is little point leaving them out on view.