A LIVING HISTORY BLOG.

18TH CENTURY LIVING HISTORY IN AUSTRALIA.

Sunday 28 February 2010

18th Century trapping methods.

Every country has deer or s substitute for deer. Here in Australia it is the Kangaroo, of which there are many types and hybrids all known as Macropodoidea.
The woodland Indians it is said snared deer on the many deer trails that criss crossed through the forests. Snaring, and trapping in general is still far the best and surest way of obtaining food for the time spent, and Kangaroos can be snared for survival purposes just as easy as deer can. If you are a woodsrunner, regardless of gender, then you should know how to make primitive traps, and you should have some knowledge of trapping.
Once the trap line is set up it will work for you day and night. You can hunt when checking the traps so no time is lost. 
This trail snare will catch any game animal if set at the correct height for that animal, and of sufficient size and strength, from rabbits to Buffalo. For anything larger than a hare, but smaller than a buffalo, I suggest using a sapling or small live tree as a spring to lessen the chance of breaking the snare. If the animal runs or fights the snare it will eventually break the snare unless it is of sufficient strength, but a spring will take out a lot of the strain. There is however always the chance that an animal will break the spring. Traps should be checked morning and night unless you are only setting them in the evening.
Small game snares with leather thongs for tying off.

POST SCRIPT.
I know there are a lot of people who dislike the idea of trapping, this is mainly because these people do not know enough about trapping. I dislike steel jawed traps/leg hold traps, but I can also see that there is a place for them in certain circumstaces. I only trap for food, or in the case of ferral animal damage, such as ferral cats and dogs. I use snares because they do no physical damage if used properly.
If someone is a meat eater, then I don't think that they have a right to criticise other people for hunting and trapping. You have to think about where your meat comes from, and what that animal has to go through before part of it finds its way to your table!
The reason animals are being poisoned and killed slowly with viral infections distributed by local coucils, is because people complained about the use of jaw traps and had them banned! Now you think about this, because we are all human animals. If you had a choice of being caught in a steel jawed leg hold trap and then when discovered dispatched quickly, or being poisoned to death, or dieing from a viral infection that makes your eyes bug out of your head until you go blind, then it slowly destroys your body and brain until you finally die, which would you choose?! I know which one I would choose.

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