Our Sacramento Tracker Group spent Saturday trotting "sock bunnies" and "sock squirrelis" into various snares and traps we built for practice. It was fun watching the imaginary critters hoisted aloft by bent pvc "saplings."

It is illegal to deploy such devices in earnest here in the Golden State. Anybody share any real world experience with how well such things work, assuming they are sited correctly?

Even if it's in an employee breakroom baited with a box of dounuts?

-Blast

You monster! Sock bunnies are on the endangered species list!

hop, hop, boing!

I am not sure if DFG regulates trapping and snaring employees.

I found spring poles pretty useless here because the poles take a set if they are green and don't straighten up again. If it is cold out they freeze into the shape you bent them to too.

Figure 4 triggers work OK for small deadfalls. They are nicest if they are cut ahead of time in the shop and carried to where you are setting. They are not hard to make in the field but when you are setting traps it pays to make them ahead of time so you don't waste more time out on the line than you need to. Time out on the trap line is better spent preparing the sets than whittling the triggers.

Sock Squirrels! Too early to be shooting pop out of my left nostril.. I thought that the squirrel pole from the old army survival book looked pretty easy and hard to get wrong. Haven't actually seen it in action though, anyone have any time with one?

Thanks, scafool!

This Saturday, during our foothill mushroom foray, we will be looking for signs of rabbit and squirrel activity that might suggest where snares and traps could profitable be deployed. We will also take a moment to compare notes on set up ideas.

I hope you have a good time shrooming. Let us know how it goes. I know next to nothing about shrooms where you are.

When you are looking at snare sets remember that they have to be where the animals go.
You might be able to lure some animals to snares off their trail with the right bait but it is much better if you can get the snare right on their trail. Sometimes it can even pay to make a trail for some animals like beaver and muskrats. In snow a lot of animals will follow in a man's footsteps. Deer are famous for that. They prefer not to break trail if they don't have to. In deep snow they get so they will starve in their yards before they will break new trails to food.

T_Co mentioned the squirrel pole. Yes they do work, but even with those you need to have the squirrels around and willing to use them. If you can lean one right into a tree with a drey (squirrel nest) in it the snares will stand a better chance of catching something than if you set it against a tree with no traffic.

This can be a fun and highly rewarding pastime. But you must be careful what you use for bait. In my experience in New York City the following bait options work well for specific prey.

Donuts - police officers
$5 bills - middle management
lazyboy reclining chair - union members
anything shiny - elected officials (on a good day, using a non-lethal snare, you can sometimes catch the same elected official two or three times)