Is anyone here into hunting? If not, do you know how to trap or shoot game animals? In any wilderness survival situation, the taking of game animals is essential to survival.

I've never had any luck with figure 4 traps, or any snares. However, as long as I have ammunition, I'm good to go!

How about everyone else?

I hunt deer quite a bit, but I've only got a snare to work once (got a squirrel that was causing problems).

I have had no luck with snares. I know how to set them (at least I think I do) but I have never caught anything with one. I always have a firearm with me, so hunting is no problem. Another source of food, if there is a body of water around, is fishing. I normally keep a few hooks and some line in my gear, so I can make a pole with a large stick or small tree limb.

_________________
Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

NRA Certified Instructor for Basic Handgun and Personal protection in the Home.
V.F.W. Life Member
NRA Member
U.S. Army Veteran

I'm going to agree with dclaarjr here, the only time I'm in the wilderness, I have at least a pistol with me. The only likely scenario involving me + wilderness, without my pistol, would be an airplane crash- and let's face it, that isn't too likely. Short from alien abductions, I won't have to mess with traps. It's a good thing, too, because the times that I have played with snares and traps, they haven't worked.

I don not like hunting as a sport since I believe that animals too have a right to live here and its their home, Why should humans go there and destroy the animals and question their existence.

When I hunt I do not go to destroy animals and their existence. I hunt to supplement my food supply. With the price of food rising the way it is, it is hard to be able to afford fresh meat. Hunting does two things for me. One I get into the outdoors and get to practice my hunting skills for when I do need them. Two, I get to supplement my supply of fresh meat and stock my freezer. I respect the animals I hunt and I consume everything. To not do this would be an insult to the animal that gave his life so I may eat and survive.

_________________
Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

NRA Certified Instructor for Basic Handgun and Personal protection in the Home.
V.F.W. Life Member
NRA Member
U.S. Army Veteran

My grandad taught me to make several types of snares. Most of this advice is for rabbits and squirrels. I have caught a couple of foxes and one surprised groundhog.

First, you have to find a good spot. If it's a grassy area/meadow then you can look for depressions in the grass that show where animals run. Look for scat (feces), If you find some, this is a good thing to rub your hands with to mask your scent and rub your snare line too. Remember that your scent will keep them away. Some people hold their snares in the smoke of a fire then store them in a bag with some old rabbit scat.

If you've made a recent kill, when you press the urine out of the animal, let it flow into your bag of snares. Even just rubbing the snares and your hands in rotting vegetation or stinky mud will help.

I prefer simple double loop snares. you have to set them up vertically across the path and anchor them pretty well with a stick in the ground. I've found that just little twigs to keep it open are good. Floating fishing line (like is used for fly fishing) works well, black shostrings work, the string out of your windbreaker tail.

What makes a snare work is it's placement, it has to be somewhere the animal travels.

You can also attach snares to branches or trees for birds and squirrels. attaching several snares to a tree where you've seen squirrels play works quite well. If you use the floating line (which is very light) you can even stick them to spiderwebs attached to the tree, or hold it open with a bent piece of straw or a twig.

This isn't meant to be a tutorial, but I'm trying to get across that using snares is all about placement, scent, and persistence.

I never go hunting as i hate it. I just do fishing. But while hunting in a forest, one got to be careful as they may encounter any dangerous animal.

Hunting as often made me mad with the tensions and sounds that a hunter faces when he is on fro hunting, I love the overall experience as a hunter, and I do love animals, But I would never stop hunting for that reason.

I love to go for hunting and I love to be hunter but not the hunted. I feel at times when I'm too alone in the woods that something is coming for me, so i rarely cut off from groups.