Guest Post By Bruce Buckshot
One of earlier modern writers about being a survivalist, Mel Tappan came to the conclusion that trapping was far superior to hunting for gathering game. He broke it down into a calorie count where as the normal hunter uses more calories hunting for the food then he/she does in replacing the lost calories.
His thinking was as you check your traps you will hunt at the same time if the opportunity provides you a chance. Duncan Long in his book Survival Rifle said “Traps and a Garden will feed you better than a wealth of hunting rifles.” Living off the fat of land can be slim picking at times. As any hunter will tell you, you are not always successful in bringing the meat home.
Eleven years ago I wrote my first Book “Buckshot’s Modern Trapping Guide“. It is now out of print and selling on the used book market for anywhere in the range of $39.00 all the way up to $999.00. It has become a must have book for those people interested in Survival trapping.
Yes, you can bet I have kicked myself more than once for not stashing a case of books to sell. LOL I have written another book this one is more geared for the Survivalist “Buckshot’s Complete Survival Trapping Guide“.
The Survival community for years believed in the homemade single strand snare wire. As I proved in one of my videos don’t bet your life on that concept. The other was deadfalls. Many of you have watched the TV show Survivorman right? How many times did you see old Les make deadfall traps? Did you ever see him catch anything? I never did but I sure remember hearing him say they stole the bait. or nothing come by. Now Les is a great guy I am not knocking him at all just pointing the fact out that with someone as experienced as Les can’t catch anything with deadfall what chance does the average person have?
That is where I come in. I am a specialist in using modern traps and self locking snares. A properly trained trapper can out do any hunter alive. It is simple math really think about it. A hunter can only be in one spot and not every minute of every day. Now replace the hunter with 12 snares set on 12 different trails 2 miles apart working 24/7 who do you think is going to be eating good? Common sense when you break it down.
What happens to most folks is when they decide to start trapping they talk to hunters about it. They hear about 99% rumors, myths, and misinformation. They go out and try it and don’t catch anything and quit in frustration. Then tell everyone else it is a waste of time.
The first rule is don’t talk or listen to people who don’t trap. That is like asking a landscape guy how to build the new World trade center. Determine what your goal is to learn trapping. You want to learn it as a survival skill? Then take it serious buying a gun doesn’t make you hunter. There is a learning curve involved.
But what will quickly get your successful on trapping is understanding and using the new quick kill traps called the Conibear. Don’t just think you can buy the trap and “I’ll figure out how to set it. I can tell you right now you will not figure out how to set it or even if you do set it then next you have to figure out how to catch something with it.
The 110 conibear the best small game survival trap in the world.
The trap is designed for an animal such as a squirrel or rabbit to try and walk through the trap setting it off on their neck quickly killing them. The spring folds up and you can carry it in your coat pockets weighs 12 ozs. Available here How effective of a trap is it? Glad you asked. I set one at a rabbit den. I left it there and returned to my house and had a cup of coffee. I waited less then 1 hour later to check the trap and when I returned there was a dead rabbit waiting for me. Others that I have trained have set them for squirrels and normally take them on their very first try.
Quick kill 110 conibear is awesome rabbit trap.
I have written about is what I called the small deer concept before. No, this is not about trapping small deer but the concept of the over looked animals such as raccoon, beaver, possum, ground hog, etc. You can go up to the 220 conibear which is 7×7 double spring conibear that you need a setting tool for. You can order these right from Sportsman Guide. These traps are designed for the small deer sized animals like the raccoon, possum, ground hog.
I have a technique to use a bucket to take raccoons and have had 100′s of success stories from customers all across this land. A note of caution here please be careful with this trap cause it will kill dogs and cats. I show tricks how to set this off the ground to take raccoons to keep dogs out. Or set over the ground hog den hole or a possum den hole will quickly get you in success mode. I have helped many a chicken farmer out that had raccoons raiding their chicken coops with this method.
Another thing I have designed especially for the survivalist is an emergency snare kit. I have new camo bag that comes with this kit.
Emergency snare kit
I wanted to make a kit that would work for anything from rabbits to deer or feral hogs and everything in between. Something that was lightweight portable and doesn’t take much room but if your life depends on it you could take lots of food with this.
The kits come with 6 small game snares these are designed to handle the rabbits, muskrats, squirrel up to ground-hog size animals. 6 medium size snares this will handle animals in the mid range such as raccoons, beaver, coyotes, fox size animals and last 2 snares are for emergency only deer snares.
These snares are camlock snares designed to quickly kill a deer. The kit also has support wire to hold the snare at the correct height and instructions. It all fits in a small lightweight camo bag weighting in at just 3 1/2 pounds. Lighter than any deer rifle on the market. The lock on the small and medium snares is called a sure lock designed after the famous Thompson lock.
On all these snares they are designed to quickly and easily close down and once on the animal it locks so it can not back off out of the snare. Hence the term self locking. The animal is the trigger and the design of the lock prevents them from escaping.
For a bug out kit this is highly recommended. But with anything there is a learning cure to using snares. Learning to find the animal trails and setting the snare correctly. The first step with snares is to unwind them. Then single wrap them up. Boil some water in 3-4 qt pan remove from heat and slowly add baking soda about 1 cup.
Return to heat and adjust to keep at light boil for 5 minutes. Drain the water. Now here is very important tip. Do not remove the snares first. The cable and locks have factory grease and oils design to prevent rust. This will float to the top of the water. This smell will spook the animals.
That is why you drain the water first. Then rinse the snares in hot water. Place outside for 7-10 days and the snares will get a light dull gray color. That is all there is to treating them. A few other steps to work the burrs off and they are ready to go. Now again from past customer mistakes.
99% rumors, myths, and misinformation. A guy listened to a friend, who has a friend, who knew a friend that snared. He told this guy use vinegar to treat the snares with. Gives them a brown finish works like a champ he was told. What happened? Ah the fun part.
It works just like they said nice brown finish on the snares but he was not catching any animals. Why? The vinegar leaves a very strange odor that the animals pick up and they turn around on the trail and head the other way. The customer tossed out all those snares and went back to using baking soda and was soon catching animals again.
I have heard this hundreds of times folks I just don’t get it. I have 35 years experience trapping fur in 9 different states from Alaska to Texas to Michigan to Arkansas to North Dakota. At one time I was a professional trapper and my income depended on catching fur.
But folks sometimes ignore what I have to say and listen to some person with a few years experience and limited knowledge instead. Please save yourself the frustration and stay away from the myths, rumors and misinformation.
I think that is enough for now to give you an idea what trapping and snaring can do for you as a survivalist. Of course my web site is loaded with Pictures, articles, and tons more information for you to check out at www.snare-trap-survive.com Any questions feel free to email at prohuman@daktel.com
Bruce Buckshot
{ 17 comments }
That was a good topic, thanks Mr. Buckshot. This is the kind of information that could be vital in a survival situation.
It makes good sense that trapping could be a much more successful meat-gathering system than hunting. I believe setting traps will actually save a survivalist time, as well – set ‘em and then do something else for 12-24 hours before returning to check them. They must be checked at least once a day so that any game in them will not be consumed by a predator before the trapper can get to the game himself. Besides, checking them will prevent excessive suffering should the trap not kill immediately.
Since snares are not as effective, but are much lighter in weight and compact than a conibear, what’s the possibility of making conibears lighter for BOB’s? IOW, why carry a pack of snares when 3 lightweight conibears would be more effective? What about making them from unbreakable plastic? It won’t rust, so no pre-treatment needed, and it is lightweight. Perhaps the price would be prohibitive?
Thanks again, this is info we can really use.
I grew up in the rural south on a small farm in the 50′s. Hunting and trapping was a way of life for most boys from the age or 10 or so. Buckshots commentary on trapping brings back a lot of memories and his information seems accurate and reasonable to me.
I would like to offer one addition. When I was a boy, all of us (neighborhood kids) built and used rabbit boxes. A rabbit box is basically a homemade have a heart live trap. We built them from scraps of lumber and wire mesh, usually hardware cloth. They have a drop door that is held open by a string hooked to a trigger stick that is bated with a piece of apple, pear, carrot, or whatever was available. When properly made and deployed they work well and sometimes catch racoons, oppossums and critters other than the rabbits they are designed for.
I don’t know if the designs for these are still available or not. I’m pretty sure I could build one from memory but I’m having just a bit of trouble remembering exactly how to rig the cord from the trip stick to the door. It will come to me eventually. Hopefully Buckshot or someone else here knows.
I’m not saying this is a superior method to the traps and snares that Buckshot describes. I’m just saying it is a method that could be built by someone in a survival situation that is effective.
Charlie,
I cover box traps hear and here – you might also be interested in this and this.
Thanks M.D. The box trap you show in the first “here” link is exactly what I was talking about. I couldn’t remember exactly how we set up the pivot and trigger. The other links are very useful too. I had seen those before but somehow didn’t see the “box trap”. Maybe that was before I found your great site.
M.D. one further comment on the box trap.
The trigger we used was sharpened on the end and if we used something like an apple or pear for bait we simply impaled it on the end of the trigger. For a carrot, etc. it was tied to the trigger. We cut the notch in the trigger such that it was secure when set but the slightest bump on the bait would trip it.
Thanks for the reminders and the memories.
Nice post, those traps are pretty cheap, too. I’ve used a Havahart trap a few times (with varied success) to trap backyard critters. I wrote a post a while back suggesting they also have SHTF applications:
http://www.shtfblog.com/havahart-traps-deliver-good-eats-or-woodchuck-action-part-ii/
The big advantage to a havahart trap in survival situations is that the animal stays alive, so it remains …. fresh. You could capture one, move it to another cage of sorts, and set it again. Then you can harvest the critters when you need to – always fresh.
- Ranger Man
Good post!!!I have used his bucket set-up to catch alot of raccoons and one very confused muskrat,that were makeing a mess of my garden.
MD I can’t remember if you have “Buckshot Hemmings” in your links page but If you don’t please consider it.
I meet “Buckshot at a local Y2K preparedness show back in ’99′. He’s a stand up gentleman and he’s the real deal. He taught everything I learned in Ohio Hunters ED plus more!!!
You can’t meet a nicer guy and a better instructor on the subject.
Gents,
Perhaps it is just me? The links in the article above seem to not be active… I wanted to click through to perhaps order the book and some traps – but am for now, being stymied.
Links work fine for me – is anyone else having trouble?
Working now – must have been a temporary glitch.
Thanks for checking it out MDC!
I have done business with Buckshot in ’99 and again last year and can certify that he knows his stuff and his web business is legit. Be sure to use the new site http://www.snare-trap-survive.com and not the old bookmark you may have for him.
Good information and the traps will probably come in handy. Thanks for the most ideal traps on the market.
Great guy, great product, I would not buy from any other, His stuff is top of the line. Very well priced.
I taught survival a number of years in the military, as a Life Support Instructor, and retired after 26. I agree with your comment that folks need to read the directions or guides before using snares. Few folks read any directions, so maybe its our society. Most people think they can just make a knot in the end, secure it, and go home/camp. Placing the snare in the proper location is a must as well. Another misconception is to expect an animal in each snare the next morning, that never, but rarely happens.
I’ve not done any trapping since I lived up in Alaska outside of Fairbanks. I had to supplement my military pay to help feed my family. It was a hit and miss thing cause I was fresh into it and had to ask all the old timers for info. I was able to get snowshoes into my traps, so there was a lot of stew. Rough times back then. But Fun. I did kill a wolverine that had taken to tearing up my traps. The pelt was know good after I hit him with a double blast of buck shot from my 12ga 870. I could only afford one gun back then so I went with the 12ga 870. Good times back in the 70s.
What Skunk Cabbage said.
Surely with modern materials someone could do better, no? And wouldn’t a lightweight 160 using steel where needed, but titanium and carbon fiber where not be a superior bug out bag option to snares?
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