How To Make A Simple
Survival Snare Trap

Part of the top 10 skills that you require to keep alive in a survival situation is having some knowledge on how to procure you food.
You can supplement you food supplies with foraged foods and edible plants and gain important nutrients, but when it comes to actual survival off the land, sooner or later you will have to look at the wild life around you, and think of them as a source of survival food.

There are various methods to procure food from wild animals, but in this article I want to focus specifically on the smaller game we have in abundance here in the UK, namely, the rabbit and show how to make a simple survival snare trap.  

One big question to ask yourself is: If I did manage to catch something in my trap, could I kill it, cook it and eat it?
That's quite a big question for some people to answer. But, if you are on the point of starvation, it's quite a simple decision to make really - trap an animal for your food, or die....

It takes a surprising amount of time, patience and skill to trap an animal, and one of the major factors for success starts even before you set your first trap.

Rabbits are hard-wired to live in groups in which they establish social hierarchies, so where there's one, there will be many..! 

Even observing what's in their skat will indicate the types of foods they are partial to, and then lead you to these areas where they may feed.

Always play the odds, if there are little signs of rabbits, yet plenty of indication of squirrels, then change your game plan and go after the squirrels.
It's a number game, so don't restrict yourself and pre-decide what you think you might catch, go for the species that is in abundance first.

So the odds against us actually catching one are quite low!

Of course there those who immediately shout, catch your rabbit by shooting with an air riffle - well I have a separate article on that here;
Hunting Food With A Rifle

For now though, trapping with a snare needs some forethought, and stopping you scent from contaminating the snare, and thus scaring off the rabbit, is something you must consider.

But at the very least, when setting snares, do not wear any type of deodorant, after shave, or any creams or ointments that might give the game away and alter the animal to the fact that your have been near the snare - it will not come close if it senses danger, and your unusual smell is exactly that.

Even when handling the snare itself, wear some gloves to stop any transfer of scent.

Create channelled runs towards the snare and incorporate these as part of the natural path the animal will be using.
The rabbit will not deviate of their usual pathway simply to checkout your snare!
It has to be naturally incorporated in their normal route to and fro.

Teeth are designed for chewing through things, and a rabbits teeth do this very well, so make sure you use a strong multi stand wire for the job, preferably a brass wire as steel tends to rust.
In order to have a free running noose It's best to use pre-made eyelets like the ones shown here:

This type of noose design will not jam up and runs quickly and very freely, simply twist the wire around the eyelet to secure, and then feed through to form the noose.
The other end can be wrapped around a tree branch or stack to secure it.

A typical snare wire kit (shown below), is available at around £10 from Amazon.

Snare Wire Kit + Storage Tin​

It is perfectly within the UK laws to use a snare to trap rabbits in the UK.
There are, of course, some specific codes of practice you must adhere to, but generally so long as you are trapping using correctly made snares, on privately owned land, and with the owners permission, you are free to use snare as you want.

The code of practice guidelines are laid down by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust

There are many variants showing how to make a simple survival snare trap, and this one is one of many, you may already have success with your own design, but whatever you choose, trapping animals will bring you in a supply of food when most needed.

Setting several snares will increase your odds of successfully putting food on the table in a SHTF situation, and by knowing this simple method your overall survival rate has increased.....

There is a very high chance of the rabbit simply being caught in the snare. In which case you will need to dispatch it quickly and as humanly as possible.
Essentially this involves braking the rabbits neck, causing instantaneous death.
This is the most humane method.

If you want to know more about humanly dispatching a wild rabbit, I suggest nipping over to YouTube here:
Three Methods To Dispatch A Wild Rabbit. 
This is a very good channel coving many aspects of hunting, trapping and shooting.

Prepping is all about survival, and survival in the wilds mean learning bushcraft skills to keep you alive.
* Although you cannot leave a trap like this unattended, or hunt animals using this type of trap here in the UK, you can still practice the making and setup of traps. 
* On private land where there is a vermin problem (normally farms) it may be possible to get a permission to rid vermin from certain areas.

Good positioning of snares and traps will greatly increase your chances of catching dinner, and by looking for animal highways and short cuts, you can build up an idea of the day to day route that animal takes whilst out looking for food.

Remember, most of an animals time is concentrated around looking for food, and generally they will take whatever opportunity to get some if it presents itself to them.

So your job is to find their most popular, active route and provide them with an incentive to check out the food (bait) you have conveniently left for them, and hopefully they will oblige and walk straight into your trap.

As with all types of animal hunting for food, we aim for a very quick, clean kill that's fast, instant and as humane as possible, and the windlass trap is one of those fast methods if the entry into the trap, and trap itself are set out correctly.

If an animal is not dispatched fast, it will struggle and panic. This panic reaction is similar to human response which cause a massive amount of adrenaline and hormones to be released into the animals body.
This goes straight to the muscle to aid escape - the muscle meat is exactly what we want as our food, and these huge amounts of adrenaline can easily taint the meat, giving a very unpleasant flavour.

Even a small windlass trap can impart tremendous energy and force at a high speed, directed to an exact kill point within the trap if set and tested properly.
Dispatching the animal by 'blunt force trauma', the mechanism will release a 'hammer' type blow killing the game instantly.

Once you have decided on a good area to set the trap you have two options:
1/ Use two flexible saplings and set the trap between them
or
2/ Set two posts deep in the ground 

From this point on the setting up principles are the same:

The windlass is completely able to be scaled up or down depending on the size of animal you are hunting. As the animal reaches forward with its mouth in order to eat the bait, it will be in the perfect position for a direct hit from the batton.

The bait should be set just above the animals head height to get the trigger to activate correctly.

2018 Preview of the eagerly awaited longbow from Survival Archery Systems.

Launch dates and availability are expected to be June this year with a very high interest in the bow already, and in order to really push this project along, the driving force behind the new Atmos bow is founder of Survival Archery Systems, Doug Shadwell.
Doug has launched a kickstarter programme to really speed things up and get this bow out to the public.

This is the current available colour options:

This longbow looks to be the ultimate bow for preppers and hunters alike, and is part of the overall development of the SAS bow family.

High performance, high quality and specifications, along with the ability to maintain compactness seems to be Doug's driving force behind the range of SAS bows. 

Take a look at the efforts made in the design and manufacturing process in this video here:

It would seem a lot of consideration has gone into every part of the Atmos design and build process, and that includes the final livery colouring.
Below are the four available colours, and I think you'll agree, all look every bit a profession quality finish:

I also want to include this excellent review video by David, from the American website Ultimate Survival Tips.
Here is David's review:

Having already written articles on the two previous SAS bows myself, with video reviews, and manufactured from Survival Archery Systems:
The SAS Recon Folding Bow:
The SAS Tactical Survival Bow:
I have been following the progress of the new Atmos longbow with interest. It certainly ticks all the boxes, and more for any prepper, or bow hunter.

Take a look at the current offers and packages available to backers on the Atmos kickstarter page right here..
Backing this project will help Doug make this the best bow ever made for us preppers.

Happy prepping folks, Steve

If  you have been working on your wilderness survival skills, and you are at the point where you feel you can obtain food in the wild, the next thing to master is how to prepare the two most common foods, namely, fish and wild game by using more survival skills

However, what do you do with that food once you have managed to trap, snare or have caught some fish.
Game and fish caught in the wild must be processed almost immediately in warm weather to prevent spoilage.

Bury the entrails immediately so you do not attract predators and insects.

• Leave the skin on until you are ready to process the meat for cooking.
• Cut the head and feet off and spread the cavity open and prop with a stick then wipe the cavity out.
• You want the meat to cool as quickly as possible so never leave the entrails in any longer than necessary.

The only way to become proficient at processing wild game is to have hands on experience.
Once back at camp start a fire and make a spit by pushing two forked sticks into the ground on either side of the fire.

Use a slender sapling to skewer the animal and lay across the fire supported in the forks.

Then construct a small platform out of green saplings close to the heat but not over the flames to use as a curing/drying rack for any meat you cannot eat right away.

Hang the animal up by the hind legs to make it easier to remove the skin:

Meat must be dried with heat to remove all of the moisture. Meat not cured properly will turn rancid because of the high moisture content.

Meat dried over the fire for eight to ten hours using the heat as it rises up past the meat, can prolong the shelp life of the meat considerably.
Meat that is dehydrated using this method will easily last for days out of refrigeration

Preparing Fish for the Fire

There are several ways of processing fish for the grill, some like to remove the head and others like leaving it on.
Before cooking however, you must remove the innards by slitting the belly and pushing a finger into the cavity and "pop" them out.
Rinse the inside well.
Do not cook and eat any fish until you have removed all entrails. Cooking fish with the entrails intact can ruin the meat and possibly make you ill.

For field expediency, you should cook the fish whole and then remove the skin after it is cooked. This means you do not have to scale the fish first. If you planned to fillet the fish into portions then you would have to scale the fish.

Remove the gills and fins before cooking after you have cleaned the fish.

Knowing how to prepare fish properly is an important wilderness survival skill and one that should be practiced often.

To keep the fish from falling apart as it cooks cook it on a flat rock near enough to the fire to maintain heat.

You can also lay several saplings over the fire and support with forked sticks and lay the fish on the saplings to cook.

You can also drape the fish over a single sapling over the fire but the flesh tends to fall off as it cooks. Having wilderness survival skills means you can eat well while in the wilderness and not become sick.

Things to make butchering and processing game and fish easier include a skinning knife with a gut hook and whetstone/sharpening stone. Small hack saw for cutting joints and latex/rubber gloves to reduce the spread of bacteria present in the animals.
Carry clean cloths and net bags to carry game in that allows airflow to cool the game.

Once you find yourself in a wilderness survival situation you will need to know how to do certain things to survive. There are things you can do now to prepare yourself, so practice what skills you can in a controlled environment before you need to depend on those skills to save your life.

Additional Basic Survival Articles		Essential reading for all outdoor survival Ray Mears - Outdoor Survival Handbook
What are the Top 5 Survival Skills and Why..?
How to build a survival shelter
How to start a fire using foraged materials
How to find water and distil it
How to hunt with snares and traps and fishing
How to butcher and prepare your food

Using a bow as a hunting tool, or as a self defence weapon, have been around for centuries,  In a SHTF situation, a bow is one of the most versatile tools to have in your pack.
However, there are a few drawbacks with a conventional bow, namely, the fixed physical length, strength and robust materials, as well as compact size which limits it to being transported outside your pack.

In this article and video test review I am testing out the latest hunting, compact  takedown bow from SAS - Survival Archery Systems.

The SAS Recon Folding Survival Bow is the big brother of the slightly smaller SAS Tactical Survival Bow which I reviewed last year.  See that full video review here: SAS Tactical Survival Bow

In my test I pay particular attention to the essential features and show why I think this is the best compact survival bow on the market today.

For some people, hunting with a catapult has been a lifelong process. But for quite a few people, actually knowing how to shoot and fire a hunting catapult properly, as well as accurately shoot the catapult is not quite as easy as it seems.! 

If you own several different catapults, you will, no doubt, find yourself making little changes in order to suit your personal firing needs - these are small refinements and changes needed to compensate for your personal style of hunting, your physical strengths and tweaking the catapult for your own ways of shooting your catapult.

You will, most definitely, find yourself experimenting with different types of ammo sizes and even shapes - as well as changing the power band strength to see what really works best for you.
Anyone who is serious about catapult hunting finds that a bit of experimentation is the only and best way to get the most consistent and accurate catapult for their needs.
You must experiment if you want to progress and get more accurate and proficient at catapult hunting. Therefore, this short article is aimed more specifically at the beginner and intermediate catapult user, rather than the experienced hunter.

All catapult hunting has to be divided into the two main groups -

• PRACTICE - this is generally referred to as "Plinking"
• HUNTING - the practice of actually stalking down and killing game.

 All these types of targets are designed to help with your target accuracy and well worth investing in.
If you use ball bearings for ammo, then I would suggest investing in a different style of target - one that collects the ball bearing at the back in a tray. 

But before you do anything:  THINK ABOUT SAFETY FIRST:
It is very important to think of a catapult just like any other weapon - any catapult, if used in an unsafe and irresponsible manner, will very easily injure, maim and even kill a human.

Always apply the same sensible rules to your catapult as you do with any weapon:

• Never use a catapult against another person, in the United Kingdom, it will be regarded as an offensive weapon and the law will treat it as such.
• Never point a loaded catapult at anyone
• Do not let anyone use your catapult unsupervised - especially children.
• Wear safety glasses.. a power band can snap and recoil - it will take your eye out.
• Wear a glove and if possible wrist protection against 'band slap' - this will start to hurt after a while..!

But please - always remember to be ethical about your hunting practices.
All hunters want a clean, fast kill - that's why it is so necessary to actually practice and get yourself proficient with your weapon well before you actually go out into the wild looking for game to hunt.
An average quality hunting catapult will very easily take down many of the smaller animals like rabbits, pigeons, squirrels, pheasants - AT CLOSE RANGE

But again, I cannot underestimate the need and importance of practice.
It is essential you are more than able to reproduce the firing action and technique you use when plinking at a target - regular practice will ensure you build up 'muscle memory' and use exactly the same action when your heart's pumping and you're all crouched up on the ground trying to aim at your prey for real.

Whether your left or right handed, makes no difference when it comes to how to shoot and fire a hunting catapult properly - what does make a difference is finding a firing position, stance and technique that suits you personally. 

You must be able to comfortably pull back to achieve maximum power without having to struggle - if you find you cannot hold the pouch 'fully cocked' without wobbling then you must extend the band length to suit you body size, strength and style.

It is far better to give away a bit of power than constantly struggle with the band force and subsequently miss your target.
As you get more confident and muscle memory kicks in, you will find it becomes easier to maintain a constant aim with less effort.

Successfully aiming, firing and hitting a target with you catapult is very much an instinctive action, that gets better the more you practice and develop that muscle memory that is so important for hitting a target repeatably. 

Know You Trajectory:

By keeping you aiming arm steady and in the same place fro every shot, pulling the bands back to the the same length and same position will increase your success rate to the point where it become second nature.

This is an area where some people prefer to use large ammo and others smaller - there's no definitive answer to ammo size or type.
As Preppers, it makes sense to practice with all types and sizes, but especially with FREE AMMO.. the type you find on the ground, namely stones.

Try to use the same power bands whenever possible, and, of course, always carry a spare set - again, a cheap item to buy, light weight to carry around and compact - so no reason to scrimp on extra bands.
They will snap, I can guarantee that, and there's nothing worse then having a good catapult, ammo and a target sitting right in front of you, only to have a band snap and no replacement.
This is a typical quality hunting catapult - with a spare set of power bands the whole set-up costs around £30, so not an expensive item considering the usefulness to us preppers. 

In this review article I will be showing you an age old method for food procurement that is a reliable means to put food on your table in any disaster or survival situation.

But what happens if that bugout becomes prolonged,
going for on longer than you thought?

If this were the case, you need to ask yourself a question - What have you taken with you to ensure you can hunt for food and actually feed yourself and your family?

Other than that, I highly recommend the air rifle as a very good small game hunting tool.
I have quite a few air rifle articles here.

Which brings me nicely onto the main point of this article:
What other hunting tools are available?

 But not only available, they need to be compact and light enough to fit in your bugout bag, yet man enough to do the job.​
They need to have very few moving parts that would cause failure AND be powerful enough to procure larger game if required.

This 'other' tool is the Survival Bow.  Used for centuries, it has proved its worth, but now, for a bow to reach the heights of ​a true hunting and survival bow it must meet with the 8 critical characteristics of design:

These 8 essential design elements are what makes a true survival bow.  When you achieve this, you have a  preppers dream that ticks every box for a survival tool that will ensure long life, and a means to procure food in a SHTF situation.

I have been very fortunate to get my hands on ​one such hunting tool that efficiently covers all the points above:
The SAS Tactical Survival Bow, with SAS standing for 'Survival Archery Systems' 
Designed in South Africa, manufactured in the USA , and sold worldwide, this compact bow offers us preppers a very good solution to bugout food procurement.

And weight? Well I'm very impressed with this bow as it comes in at a mere 1kg (2.2lb) - that's some impressive statistics eh..!

I though at first that the effort made to get that 1kg weight and under 21" would mean a compromise in other areas. ​Strength being my main concern.  Shedding weight and making something smaller than usual normally means giving up something along the way.
And that something is usually strength and performance.

It also comes with 1x 'Bear' arrow rest and 2x nylon retaining pin screws, but the bow is safe to use without the pins if necessary - but I would always lock them in place just for peace of mind.

As for the actual carry case, is very well made and stitched, and works well as a storage and carry pouch for the bow as well as an arrow quiver case.​

For the latest prices & availability click here: SAS Tactical Bow

Best Air Rifle Scope Review

Accessories include a gun-stock cover, lens cleaning cloths, and a tactical rail for attaching one's own accessories such as a flashlight. The scope also includes an integrated mount for attaching 20mm rails. Batteries for both the scope and reflex sight are included.

And Our Best Air Rifle Scope Winner Is......

As always when conducting firearm accessory reviews, we look at four things-quality/reliability, features, accessories, and price.
With the products here, all deliver good quality for their respective prices. So the question becomes:
How much experience do you have with scopes, and how much work do you want to put into one?

If you are a "grab and go" user, then UMsky's scope is for you. It is the priciest of our contenders, but on the other hand it does everything but focus and fire for you. A good scope for novices or those who aren't enamoured with the miniscule of scope use.

For more experienced users and those who enjoy both scope maintenance and a personally customized scope, BSA's scope provides a good combination of both. Remember that all scopes work best when practiced with before any practical use.
Look at it this way - you've just been given a legitimate excuse to go out and play with your air rifle's new toy.