No snares are legal in California, so trying to really learn to be successful with them will require me to go somewhere else. Any idea where that might be?
According to the regulations of the CA Dept. of Fish and Game, snaring is illegal for recreation or commerce. However, it's not clear to me that there's any problem if you're going eat what you catch. (Although it's also not clear to me that you'd know in advance what you'd snare is something you'd want to eat...)
Okay, I stand corrected: While there is no legal snaring in California for commercial or recreational purposes, I am told some snare for pest control purposes on their own land and I do not know whether that is legal or not.
However, becuase I do not own any land with a pest control problem I am not able to snare even pests, much less the range of critters (rabbit, squirrel, etcetera) that I would like to try.
It depends I suppose. You might be able to legally snare rabbits on land where they are damaging crops or landscaping with the permission of the land owner. A letter to your Dept. of Natural Resources or whatever they call it in California and a check with local officials about any animal control permits would clarify that.