How to Make a Trip Snare

Catching small game can be a big part of staying alive in the wilderness. While many methods exist, snares and similar traps are among the easiest to execute, requiring the fewest tools to get the job done. One example of these is the trip snare, which can be used to good effect in areas where rabbits and similar small animals are plentiful.

Things You'll Need

  • Knife
  • 3 to 5 feet of cord (Any sort will work, up to about 1/4-inch in diameter)
  • Sapling, about 5 feet tall
Show More

Instructions

    • 1

      Select a sapling about one inch in thickness, preferably located near a game trail. This will be the spring for your snare.

    • 2

      Cut the bushy top and any branches from the sapling, leaving a clean, rooted pole.

    • 3

      Select two of the thickest limbs from those trimmed from the sapling. Cut one down to six inches and the other to about a foot in length.

    • 4

      Use a rock or larger limb to tap the blade of your knife about a quarter inch into the two sticks, about an inch from one end. These notches should be as close to straight into the wood as you can make them.

    • 5

      Shave wood away from the longer end of the sticks, starting an inch from the notches and moving toward them. Be careful not to cut into the wood on the other side of the notch.

    • 6

      Tie your cord off to the sapling about two inches from the tip, and then tie the shorter of the two stakes onto the line about a foot down the line from the sapling. Make both of these knots as tight as you can.

    • 7

      Bend the sapling over carefully until the tip is about one foot from the ground. Mark the ground directly beneath the tip of the sapling.

    • 8

      Shave the un-notched tip of the longer stick to a point, then drive it into the ground at the spot you just marked, using a large tree limb or rock as a hammer if the ground is too hard to do so by hand. The notch should be facing the sapling.

    • 9

      Tie a loop into the unfastened end of the cord, about an inch in diameter. Pass the cord through this loop to create a noose, which should be between four and eight inches wide. You may have to trim your cord so that there are only four to six inches between the noose and the stake.

    • 10

      Set the snare by inserting the notched head of the stick tied to the cord into the notch on the stake in the ground. You may have to deepen one or both notches to make them hold together, but try not to make them so deep that they're difficult to separate.

    • 11

      Place the noose inside the arc of the bent sapling, elevating one side two to three inches by using a forked twig. The line between the noose and the stakes shouldn't have much slack, if any.