TRAPS AND SNARES IN SURVIVAL

If you are an unarmed survivor, your safest solution to hunt for food is to use traps and snares. Traps and snares can be even more effective than a man with a rifle, yet they require some knowlege and skill. To be effective you must:

  • Get familiar with species of animals you want to catch. You should know their habits and paths. Snares are set for a speciffic types of animals.
  • You have to be able to construct a proper trap for the animal you want to catch.
  • When setting the trap, you have to be careful not to leave any alarming sighs of your presence.

To determine what species are in your environment and what are their habits, you should look for the following:

  • Runs and trails
  • Track
  • Feeding and watering areas
  • Nesting or roosting sites
  • Chewed ar rubbed vegetation
  • Droppings

Placing and concealment of traps and snares

Animal paths are your best option

Traps and snares should be positioned in places where animals pass through. You have to determine if t is 'run' or a 'trial'. A run is a very delicate path and it will show signs of use by only one animal, whereas a trail will be wider and used by several species. Traps will never be successful if set in random places. Animals have feeding areas and waterholes and trails leading from one to another. Only by placing traps and snares around these areas, you can make them work for you.

Conceal traps and snares

You should take special care to conceal traps and snares so as not to create any disturbance that will alarm animals and cause them to avoid the trap. Therefore if you have to dig, remove all fresh dirt from the area. Various parts of a trap or snare should be prepared away from the site and carried in to be set up. This way you will avoid disturbing local vegetation and alerting the prey. Never use freshly cut vegetation for your traps or snares - it will 'bleed' sap that alerts animals with its odor. It is also good to know that most species instinctively avoid all types of pitfall traps.

Conceal human scent

Majority of mammals have highly developed sense of smell. They often depend on it more than on sight. Removing or masking human scent in around your traps is therefore crucial. Having smelled a human, prey will avoid the area and will not get caught. It is generally hard to remove human scent, but masking it is relatively easy. It is best done with fluid from urine baldders and the gall of previous kills (human urine does not work). Also mud can prove good, especially from areas with plenty of rotting vegetation. If you do not have any of the above, you can use smoke from burned vegetation. It is not as good, but in most parts of the world animals know its smell and do not become alarmed, unless they see a fire burning.

You should coat your hands with your masking substance when handling the trap and also coat the trap when setting it. If none of the above techniques are practical and you have enough time you should let the trap to weather for a few days before setting. During that time you should not handle the trap. When setting the trap, try to touch it as little as possible. Also do not linger in the spot where the trap is set. Leave as soon as possible and later try not to come too near when checking if you caught something.

Direct animals to your trap

To direct animals into your trap or snare, you should use channelization. Trails and runs may be too wide for the animal to walk directly into your trap. In order to build a channel leading directly into your trap, construct a funnel-shaped barrier extending from the sides of the trail toward the trap so that the part nearest the trap will be narrowest. The channel should be inconspicuous not to alert the game. When the animal walks into a channel, it cannot turn sideways and continues into a trap. Wild animals prefere to face the direction of their travel and very few will back up.

Channelization does not have to be an impassable barrier. It is enough to make it inconvinient for the animal to go through or over the barier. You will achieve the best effect if you reduce the width of the trail by the trap to just slightly wider than the targeted animal's body. This construction should be maintained at least as far back from the trap or snare as the animal's body length and it should begin to widen towards the mouth of the funnel.

Use of Bait

If you use bait your chances of catching animals will increase. If fishing, you have to bait nearly all devies. Not baited traps rely on their placement in a good location, whereas a baited trap can draw animals to it. You should use something the animal knows for a bait, yet it cannot be easily obtained in the nearby surrounding. For example, baiting a trap with corn in the middle of a corn field is unlikely to work. On the other hand, if you use something that is not found in the environment, like an orange in arctic conditions, it may arouse animal's curiosity, keep it alert, and in the end the animal may refrain itself from going for the bait. Another point is that a bait does not have to be natural - it can be made by man. Peanut butter for example is a perfect bait for small mammals. Also salt proves quite successful. When using such baits, it is a good practice to scatter bits of it around the trap, giving the prey time to sample it and develope a craving. Having tried it, the animal will overcome some of its natural caution before getting into a trap.

It may happen that you set the bait for an animal, but a different one takes it without being caught. On such occasion you should try to determine what that animal was and set a proper trap that will catch it using the same bait. Many animals come back to places where they found food before, and they are much more confident if they ate it safe before - thus are easier to be caught.

Remember, that the first prey is the most difficult to catch. After catching your first, you will be more confident in setting snares and traps, but what is more important - you will then have bait for many other traps.