How to Make Homemade Snares & Traps

Making homemade snares and animal traps is an excellent wilderness skill to possess if you are procuring food in the wild. It might also help rid your home or garden of pesky animals. The key to capturing animals in snares or traps is location. Traps work best when placed outside an animal's den, or on a trail frequently used by small game. Many traps make use of natural underbrush to funnel an animal into the snare or trap.

Things You'll Need

  • Wire
  • Sticks
  • Flat rock
  • Knife
  • Bait food
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Instructions

  1. Simple snare

    • 1

      Make a loop from a 1-foot piece of wire; twist the tag-ends together. Twist the end of the loop once and fold it over; this results in a smaller circle within the larger loop. The loop must be large enough for the animal's head to fit through, though not so large that the animal can pass completely through.

    • 2

      Tie the other end of the wire to a small tree. Use a few small sticks to hold it up over the entrance to an animal's den, or across a trail.

    • 3

      Place sticks or branches along the trail to funnel any animals into the snare. This type of snare is usually non-lethal.

    Two-stick deadfall trap

    • 4

      Cut a small, U-shaped groove into the end of two small sticks. One stick must be about 8 inches long; the other has an optimal length of 3 or 4 inches. Both sticks must be roughly the diameter of your index finger.

    • 5

      Place a small, flat stone on the ground in the spot where you are building the trap. Balance the two sticks vertically on top of the stone, with the smaller stick on the bottom. Insert a third stick -- the trap trigger -- between the grooves of the two sticks.

    • 6

      Put a small amount of bait on the end of the trigger stick.

    • 7

      Balance a large, flat rock at an angle on top of the sticks; the upright sticks support the rock. The ends of the trigger stick must not touch anything, including the rock.