With most small game it is easier to trap than to stalk and kill, in a survival situation setting traps also leaves you with time to attend to other duties like foraging or shelter building. The title of this page represents the principals of trapping, your trap must effect to either tangle, dangle, strangle or mangle your quarry. Putting up several traps around your shelter/retreat gives you more than one opportunity at a time to catch a meal, check all traps regularly to prevent escape and undue suffering. Starting a routine of regularly doing the rounds of your traps will provide you with a positive activity, however BE PATIENT, you will need to study the habits of animals to site traps effectively more intelligent creatres will initially be wary of anything new but will quickly come to accept the presence of traps.....That's when they walk into them!

Disclaimer: Traps are presented for information purposes only, they are dangerous, some lethally so. Using them is also illegal in all likelyhood. Don't use them except in a survival situation. It's not big and it's not clever and I won't accept any responsibility for you getting your wrists smacked, or anything else.

SPRING SNARE:- Game running through the snare disengages the trigger bar,and the prey is flung off the ground. Use on game trails or in gaps through rocks or hedges. Cut a notch in triggerbar (a) to fit upright (b). Drive upright into ground. Attach snare to trigger bar, then trigger bar to sapling.

 

 

BAITED SNARE:- Construct as for spring snare but using the release mechanism shown. The bait support should be only lightly driven into the ground as it must fly away wity the snare.

 

 

 

 

LEG SNARE :- Push a natural fork or two sticks tied together into the ground. The line from a sapling is tied to a wooden toggle and the toggle passed under the fork. When the game takes the bait, attatched to a seperate stick, it falls away releasing the toggle which flies up taking the snare and the game with it. Large versions are amongst the best snares or heavy game.

 

 

 

PLATFORM TRAP:- Site over a small depression on the game trail. Snares on the platforms either side, when the platform is depressed the trigger is released and the game held firmly by the leg. For smaller, lighter game use the mechanism shown in (a), displacing either the bottom bar or the toggle will trigger the trap.

 

 

 

FIGURE 4 DEADFALL :- A simple and effective deadfall trap, can be made to any size. A horizontal bait bar is is balanced at right angles to an upright with a lock bar, which supports a rock or other heavy weight pivoting around the tip of the upright.

 

 

 

TRIPWIRE DEADFALL :- A heavy log is suspended over a busy game trail, trips the wire and pulls a retaining bar from under two short pegs secured in a tree trunk. Keep the pegs as short as possible so that the bar will disengage easily.

 

 

SPEAR DEADFALL :- Same as tripwire deadfall but utilising rocks to add weight and sharpened sticks to add trauma to the crushing blow.

 

 

 

 

SPRUNG SPEAR TRAP :- This is a VERY dangerous trap, it should always be constructed and approached from behind the spring of the trap, only attempt if you are confident that your cordage and other materials are strong enough. A springy shat with spear attached is suspended over a trail. A slip ring made of SMOOTH material is attached to a trip wire and acts as a release mechanism. A toggle (a) and short line to a fixed upright hold the sprung shaft in tension. A further rod through the ring is tensed between the nearside of the sprung shaft and the far face of the upright, securing until tripped.

BAITED HOLE NOOSE :- This trap is very useful for scavengers, drive 4 sharpened sticks into the pit, through the edges. Lay a noose across them attached to a peg outside the pit.

 

 

 

 

Let me reiterate that these traps can kill, the diagrams are ONLY for informational use, to be applied in a situation where your life is in peril. I will not be held responsible for any damage you do yourself or others if you insist on making the darn things.

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