Snaring Small Game For Survival

Snaring Small Game For Survival

(SurvivalDaily.com) – Being lost in the woods can be dangerous — but knowing how to trap animals for food is one way to help ensure your survival. Small game such as squirrels, rabbits, prairie dogs, quail, and even crows are on this list. But first, you need some simple traps that can be used in the capture of small game.

Small game snares can be made from a variety of things. Usually, these snares or traps consist of sticks, leaves, and some type of rope or string. Fishing line, twine, even the interior strands of parachute cord can be used. Larger game require stronger materials, such as the entire parachute cord rather than just the inside strands.

There are many different types of snares that can be used, ground snares and spring snares to name just a couple. These traps include but are not limited to:

  • Squirrel Pole Snare: This snare is used for trapping squirrels by using the squirrel’s love of short cuts. You’ll need a pole about 4 to 6 ft. long and wire about 12 ft. long. If it’s easier to find one that’s your height, as long as you’re between four and six feet tall it will work. Use the wire in 2 ft. lengths, making noose loops about 3 in. in diameter, zig-zagging the wire between the loop and pole to give yourself some slack. Fasten these snares to the pole. You should use about 11 or 12 snares per pole.
  • Pine Pitch Bird Cup Trap: While this trap is illegal to use in many places, it doesn’t kill the animal, but may save your life in an emergency situation. This simple trap uses a cup (about the size of a party cup) with the inside covered in pine sap and birdseed. The Native Americans used cones made from Birch tree bark for this.

    Place the cup or cone on its side, sprinkle some birdseed at the mouth of the cup, and a little inside the cup. When the bird is finished eating the outside seed it will venture into the cup and become trapped.

  • Drowning Snare: One of the simplest traps to set up, all you need for this is a rock and some snare line, such as a small rope or twine, and a steeply banked waterway. This trap uses the weight of the rock to drag the animal into the water and stop it from swimming away, drowning the creature.

To set this snare, tie the rope to the rock. Leave enough slack in the line to tie it to a float (usually a small stick or something light). Make a noose in the line running toward the water, then set the rock up so that it will fall if the noose is pulled on. The animal pulls on the line, causing the rock to fall into the water. The float is used to help you determine where the rock and animal are underwater.

Some of these snares can be quite crude or primitive, but in a survival situation, this is exactly what you need. Typically, the easier something is to make or recreate the better it is in these scenarios.

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