Making snare traps

by Kaylan Burns
(Cypress, Texas, US)

In a survival situation, making snare traps is one of the survival skills that can be useful. Snares can be very elaborate, but simplicity is best, and as always success requires practice.


Basic snare

If you have a wire or string, that will work. To make the snare, make a loop; stick the extra through the loop to make the basic part of the snare. Make a loop at the end that doesn't have one yet. Then get the string and tie it through the loop that you have just made. Now tie it to where you'll put your snare.


Spring Snare

Find a sapling that is near an animal trail. Get two forked branches and make one about two inches long and the other one about four inches long.

Drive the four inches one into the ground. Then tie your snare to the sapling. Get the two inches one and tie it to the snare. Then tie it to the sapling and bend it so the two forks are hooked to each other and keep the snare down on the ground. Then use two small sticks as supports and prop the snare up.

When an animal runs through it, it pulls the snare, which pulls the forks, and pulls the animal up in the sapling and strangles it so you don't have to kill it.


Squirrel Pole

Get a long stick and prop it up against a tree. Make a simple snare without the extra loop or string. Then lightly rap around the stick so it's easily capable of falling to the bottom of the branch. Then balance them on the top of the branch so when a squirrel runs through, it falls off the branch, but is held by the snare and gets strangled.