Academic question about snare materials

[Coote 5]

Snaring has been going on for thousands of years, but people haven't had ready access to wire cable until fairly recently. So how did they do it?

 

How did the old timers snare/trap big animals? What cordage did they use? If you didn't have wire, what would you use? If you had to use a cord weaker than wire, is there a special technique you would use to minimise stress on the cord? Any ideas?

 

Thanks.... Coote.

[pegandgun 52]

Before wire people would use plaited Horse hair snares for small game and wildfowl.Various barks and vines and strips of leather where used for larger game and when it came to big game it was arrows and spears.Various spring snares where used for 100s and maybe 1000s of years which amazes me....clever people them days

[snareman 3]

Snaring has been going on for thousands of years, but people haven't had ready access to wire cable until fairly recently. So how did they do it?

 

How did the old timers snare/trap big animals? What cordage did they use? If you didn't have wire, what would you use? If you had to use a cord weaker than wire, is there a special technique you would use to minimise stress on the cord? Any ideas?

 

Thanks.... Coote.

 

 

i see P&G has replied to keep the thin cord stiff they used to wax the cord with hard white wax for the noose to maintain its shape for snaring rabbits.

and in canada they used it in conjunction with a light drag pole for snaring Lynx.

 

 

G.W - snareman - scotland

[Coote 5]

Thanks for the replies.

 

That is interesting about the wax. I wonder whether they simply rubbed the wax into the cord like you would wax a bow string.... or whether they dipped the formed noose into molten wax... or just dipped a hank of snare cord into the molten wax.

 

It is worth a try.

[Albert Ladd 0]

canada they used it in conjunction with a light drag pole for snaring Lynx.

I may have posted this before, but the indians in our area used to spend summers along the coast. Winters they moved inland a lived off moose mainly. They used snares, probably from strips of other moose? attached to a drag. The drag would be a small tree. They then would finishes the moose off with spear and bow.

An old friend a Mic-mac indian told how his grandfather would use rope to snare moose in the same way. He then would snowshoe near the moose and finish him with an axe.

[Guest great white hunter]

didnt they use ginn traps?

[Kane 2]

An old friend a Mic-mac indian told how his grandfather would use

 

A mic-mac indian whats that an Irish Scotish apache

[Coote 5]

A drag is a good idea to ease the load on the restraining cord... but I guess if the drag catches on something solid as soon as the animal is caught (and still has plenty of energy) then there is the danger the cord will break. But chances are even if the drag does catch, there will still be some "give" in the system which would take some shock out of the sudden loading that the animal might apply.

 

I would be nervous about trying a drag.... I'm too scared I might lose the animal and condemn it to a slow death somewhere in a remote gully. I guess if I had a dog to track it... or if there was snow to show the marks I would give it a try.

 

Sometimes when I have caught a possum in a snare attached to a propped up pole, the possum has dragged the pole around a bit. One day a possum had climbed part way up a tree dragging the pole behind it. As I approached the snare site the next morning my set had totally disappeared !! I had seriously underestimated the strength and tenacity of these animals.

 

Dang... you would have to be fairly close to an animal to finish it off with an axe!! It would want to be well bogged down in the snow before I ventured that close.

 

I understand that drags are still used. Isn't there an English trapping video around somewhere where somebody talks about fastening the end of a hare snare to a brick?