Trappers in northern Alberta use a light cable (1/8" or thinner) with a simple camming device crimped on the noose end to snare wolves, coyotes and the occasional deer (deer occasionally wander into the snare sets as they use the same trails as the wolves... or maybe it's vice versa). One trapper I know pulls the cable end to end against a young spruce to kill any smell. The noose end is fixed across a trail, about two feet diameter and maybe a foot or 18" above the ground, figure head height for a deer nosing through the dense spruce. The free end is tied to or wrapped around a sturdy pole, around 2" diameter and maybe six feet long. The snared animal feels the noose leaps, tightening the noose, but the pole on the end keeps it from getting too far. If the snare is fixed to a tree a powerful animal (such as a deer -- they're surprisingly resilient) can sometimes break even the steel cable, although it may not survive. Trappers also use a variety of instant-kill steel jaw traps for game such as weasels, mink, martens, fisher, wolverine, etc. As many as a dozen very fine piano wire snares -- simple nooses -- are tied to a long pole, 10 feet or so, to snare squirrels which get caught when they run up the pole, which is placed against a tree or along a squirrel run by the midden where it stores spruce cones. Similarly, several larger cable snares attached to a long pole are placed under the ice around the entrance to a beaver lodge. Sometimes several beavers will be caught. Deadfalls are rarely used any more, although they probably were used at one time. The usual mode of travel these days on traplines is quads or snowmobiles.
[This message has been edited by Alberta Ed (edited 01-06-2000).]
