CHAPTER X.

WIRE AND TWINE SNARE.

Various are the ways being studied for the capture of the fox and other shy animals, says J. H. Shufelt, of Canada. Most every trapper has a particular method of his own. Years ago trappers thought it was necessary to set in water in order to be successful in catching foxes, but after a closer acquaintance with the ways of the fox, it was found that they were easily caught in a steel trap on dry land in many ways. At the present time the trapper has found a less expensive way of catching them with the snare. This method has many advantages, and when properly set is a sure thing. It takes in most of those old sly ones that have been nipped by steel traps, etc.

The method shown here is only one of the many ways of the snare. Owing to the peculiar fastening of the snare, a powerful spring pole or weight can be used with a lighter wire. I use a copper or brass wire 1 gauge, with a foot or more slack between fastenings, which gives the spring pole a chance to instantly take advantage of the fox as soon as caught, when he will be caught up to the staple (which should be high enough from the ground so the fox will swing clear) and choked.

I set my snares in paths where weeds or grass grow each side to hide the snare. The loop should be seven inches in diameter, ten inches from the ground. It is as well before trapping to get the fox to traveling a path by leaving some good scent along the path. This can be done by boring a three-fourths hole downward in a tree near the path and pour the scent in, which will last a long time. If the same care is used in setting snares as is used in trapping, I think the snare will catch more. They work well in cold weather, and some fine catches can be made after a snowfall with the snare. Then the fur will be good and prime.

A--Spring pole.

B--Staple.

C--Two small nails driven in tree. (Three inch nail head, end down, with snare looped at each end with a foot of slack between. As soon as the D--three inch nail is pulled down, it will slip past the nail at top end, when spring pole will instantly take up the slack, also the fox, to staple and does its work.)

E--Slack line or wire.

F--Loop should be 7 inches in diameter and bottom of loop ten inches from the ground.

Remarks--The nails should be driven above staple so it will pull straight down to release the snare fastening.

* * *

I may state that I learned all the best ways of setting traps for fox long ago from an old trapper, says A. H. Sutherland, of Nova Scotia. But I never bothered setting a trap for a fox in my life, for the reason that I can catch them with snares on bare ground much easier and cheaper than with traps. But on snow if I could get fox to take bait, I would try poison on him. I may add that the snare is good for other animals besides the fox, such as coon, skunk and wild cat.

Go to a hardware store and get some rabbit wire and put about five strands of it together, and twist it just enough so that it will stay together nicely. Have a small loop on both ends and run one end through the other so as to make a noose of it. Next get some good twine, put a piece about 10 or 12 inches in length into the loop on the end of the snare, that is, the end that is going to be fastened.

Now find a path in an old clearing or in the woods, and select a place where you think best to set your snare. Cut a stake about 2 feet long and 1 1/2 inches through, have a limb on the butt end of it almost 3/4 inch in length. Sharpen the small end of the stake and drive it in the ground, leaving about 10 or 12 inches above ground; then cut a nice little pole about an inch and a half at the butt end and sharpen it, trim off at about an inch at the top end and fasten your snare, or at least take your pole in both hands and force the butt end into the ground till it will be good and firm.

Now bend down your pole and fasten your snare to it, and put the end of the pole under the catch on the stake. Be sure to drive your stake close enough to the path so as to have your snare light about the center of the path and the lower side of the snare about 8 inches from the ground. It is best to have them high enough so the fox cannot jump over them. Of course a man must use good judgment at setting snares just the same as he would in setting traps.

Another good place is a brush fence. Find holes under it where the fox will be going through, put your snare there, and if there are any going you will have some of them. Next find a good stream in the woods or anywhere frequented by foxes, and if you find good trees that fall across the stream have a good sharp axe and give a good slash or two of the axe about the middle of the tree, or at least above the middle of the brook. As I was going to say, give a good slash or two of the axe lengthwise of the tree and make a wedge shape stake and drive it into the tree, and then fasten your snare to a spring pole. If you prefer, you could bore an auger hole in the log and drive your pin in that way, and fasten the snare to the pin about 10 or 12 inches from the log so that the snare will hang downwards, it will do better. Be sure and have the lower side of snare 7 or 8 inches from the log.

Now there is another kind of brass or copper wire that one strand will be enough to hold a fox. If you find that they are cutting your snares put little rollers of wood in the snare boring a hole lengthwise with a 3/8 bit, and have the roller almost 5 inches long and say an inch in diameter. Put that on snare so it will run down to the side of his neck, and he will keep biting at it.

I get No. 14 brass wire (mind, you must temper the wire) that I find the hardest part of the game. Cut your wire about 34 or 36 inches long, make it into rings round, put in a good hot fire for three or four minutes, or until red. Be very careful and not let it lie on coal, handle very carefully; don't strike against anything while hot, as it will break like glass, but if you have it tempered you cannot break it. I have caught three foxes in the same snare, says Larry Burns, of Canada.

You must make your snare just the same as a rabbit snare, only make a loop about six inches around. Find when the fox passes under a fence or on a cow path, in winter, find where they make a habit of going. Set your snare in such places or around old carrion in bushes, cedar is best, use weeds rolled round your snare, don't use too many as they will notice. Use a green stick to hold your snare fast, You wire about a foot from large end. Always stand up the stick just the same as growing. The stick should be 1 1/2 inches thick. Be careful and make as few foot marks as possible and stand on one side of your snare. While setting don't spit tobacco juice near snare.

* * *

A great many foxes have been caught in this country by the plan of the drawing outlined, writes J. C. Hunter, of Canada. A--the snare, should be made of rabbit wire, four or five strands twisted together. Should be long enough to make a loop about seven inches in diameter when set. Bottom side of snare should be about six inches from the ground. E--is a little stick, sharp at one end and split at the other, to stick in the ground and slip bottom of snare in split end, to hold snare steady.

B--is catch to hold down spring pole. C--is stake. D--is spring pole. Some bend down a sapling for a spring pole, but we think the best way is to cut and trim up a small pole about ten feet long; fasten the big end under a root and bend it down over a crotch, stake or small tree. Snare should be set on a summer sheep path, where it goes through the bushes.

Stake might be driven down a foot or more back from the path, where a branch of an evergreen bush would hang over it so as to hide it and a string long enough from stake or trigger to snare to allow snare to rest over path.

Of course, in making this set you will have to use care and your own ingenuity to a great extent, to suit the requirements of the surroundings. Another way is to find a log, tree or pole that lies across a brook that is too wide for a fox to jump from one bank to the other. Set snare on log, but in this case, bottom side of snare should be only about four inches from log, as a fox will carry his nose lower while crossing a stream on a log. If the log is near the water, a spring pole should be used; if the log is high up from the water, fasten snare to log by driving in a wooden pin in the side of the log, and when the fox gets in snare he will tear around, fall off of log and hang all right.

* * *

The following is said to be the manner in which they snare foxes in New Brunswick: Early in the season they go into the woods in some favorable locality and build a fence. This place is similar to what would be constructed for partridge snaring, only of course with layer brush, leaving a narrow opening sufficiently wide for the passage of a fox, fixing everything just as they wish it to be later on when ready for business, and having a spring pole at such a distance that it can be utilized when wanted.

Take a dead hen or some kind of meat, place it in a jar, so that it gets well tainted; that when the right time comes place the noose in place at the opening made in the fence, fasten to the spring pole, sprinkle a little of this tainted bait about, and await results.

In going and coming, wooden shoes or clogs are worn, so that the fox will not get the scent of the party setting the trap.

An animal in coming down the path passes its body or neck through the loop made of stout insulated wire; in passing it steps on the trip stick which settles with the animal's weight, releasing the trigger, which in turn releases the stay-wire and jerks the loop around the animal; the spring pole onto which the stay-wire is attached lifts your game up into the air, choking it to death and placing it out of reach of other animals that would otherwise destroy your fur. A small notch cut in the stay crotch where the end of the trip stick rests will insure the trigger to be released. This will hold the trip stick firm at the end, making it move only at the end where the animal stops.

New and valuable methods are continually being published in the Hunter-Trader-Trapper, an illustrated monthly magazine, of Columbus, Ohio.