Snare Wire Suggestions?

I like 22 gauge wire for small snares and prefer making them. You can buy the snare locks and such small parts as needed and make them specific to your needs. I have wire from stuff for squirrels and rabbits up to aircraft cables for hogs and deer.

 

I use unspun guitar strings. I don't get the prizier ones like Ernie Ball but the cheaper kinds. They don't have to stay in tune

 

1/16 air craft cable

 

I like the 1/16th for rabbits and such then move up to 1/8th for deer, hogs and such. A lot of people here snare and trap coyotes and they use 3/32nd and then 1/8th for wolves. The little single strand wire is for squirrels, rats and rabbits on a strangle type tension trap with a spring pole. Since you don't use cam locks on them the single strand wire is easier to make snares on the fly and set. We don't have bears but I read that they use even heavier cables for them. In most of my small kits I carry military steel trip wire, brass wire or 22 gauge floral wire. It is small and easy to carry a spool and will do for smaller game in the short term.

 

I have a roll of stranded stainless cable. I am not sure how many feet I have. It was used for marking pipes that are left out door. Use a lead piece and a brass tag. Problem is it must be braided to use. I have braided rope many times but never steel cable.

 

In the UK there is a ban on locking snares and twitch up snares mustn't lift the quarry from the ground or cause unnecessary suffering. I use 1/16 stranded brass wire for rabbits. You can double the wire simply by finding the middle of a length and twisting it into one piece, half the length, so you can massively increase its strength while only ever having to bulk buy one gauge of wire

 

i use brass single stand. for rabbits very thin. if something big gets in it can easily break it. I can legally snare rabbits but not biggers stuff without a permit.

 

When I speak of things in survival I have absolutely no interest in human laws. Those laws are in general made to decrease the effectiveness of your catch. Study those laws closely and you will learn some of the things that you will want to do if you are ever hunting, trapping or fishing for food that will mean the difference between starving and surviving. Poachers have always been a great source of knowledge and while I have no real respect for what they are doing the knowledge is priceless.

 

Stupidity is forgivable but willful ignorance is a sin that is unforgivable. This is a great example of willful ignorance.

 

We have gone crazy stupid about the place that animals have in this world. There is no way that poison is kinder than a trap and worst of all it is a waste of meat. Also poison kills indiscriminately while a trap correctly set is a very specific tool. People, especially GOOD people, don't seem to matter or have many rights anymore.

Most game laws are made by politicians that are mostly woefully ignorant and quite happy staying that way.

 

Its mainly down to a complete lack of understanding. Unfortunately the people who don't understand the problems of pest control are the uninformed majority and we live in a democracy. (Sometimes I think it's an idiocracy)
While it's difficult to get through to these people because they're so convinced that they're right and we're wrong, we must try to educate them...ecology is a big and complicated subject that goes well beyond fluffy bunnies and Bamby's mother.

 

Bureaucrats and professors are oft times those blessed by daemons, for they are inadequate to any real purpose in life. Left without make-work, they would have but to hide in the day, to come out at night only to howl at the moon.

 

I've used cable snares with locks, cable snares with relaxing locks, snares with locks and stops. For a home made snare, I've used brass wire, picture hanging wire, but I've settled on s.s. trolling line for homemade snare.