Waxing snares

[Rod17]

In another recent post (Speeding Up Snares???) several of you mentioned that you wax your snares. About a year ago, I posted a thread about waxing snares (on another forum) and the overwhelming response was not to wax them, that it gummed the snares up and would slow them down.

I found it hard to beleive, that a light coat of wax could speed up a metal trap but slow down a metal snare. I had hoped to wax some snares this year inorder to test them myself, but just ran out of time.

For those of you that do wax snares, is there anything special about the wax or the method, which you do differently for snares vs. footholds? Why do think waxing snares has gotten bad reivews? Thanks

[Maineman]

I'll start out by stating there are far more experienced snares-men than me but I'll answer with what I know...

I do wax some of my snares (not all). I do not normally wax my smaller diameter 1/16 snares as I feel they are fine as is. I will wax some of my 1/32 and larger snares, and yes, if you dip them too quick they will retain to much wax possibly gum up. I let the cable heat up (in the wax) enough to take a (thin) film coat of wax then hang to dry. THEN, when setting my snares, I run the lock up and down the cable to remove any high spots or excess wax that my have dried on the cable.

My belief is that you can probably catch as many animals in unwaxed snares as waxed but "IF" I am waxing, this is how I do it...

I hope this answers your question...

Dave Z

[SteveCraig]

Many years ago, one HAD to wax your cable if you were using Thompsons IPS cable. If you didnt, it would rust.
After Galv. Aircraft Cable came on the scene, waxing was no longer needed.
Waxing and F1 does speed up your snare as long as you do not get too much wax on the cable,
My complaint with wax is ODOR........foreign odors getting on the waxed snare. When this happens, your goose is cooked if you are snareing coyote or fox. Avoidence becomes a huge problem.

[Rod17]

I have used Formula 1 (brown) and it worked very well on my snares. I diluted it about 20-30% more than the directions recommended for footholds. It gave the snares a nice thin coat and I believe it speeded up the 1 x 19 IPS cable.

The brown F-1 is almost a translucent brown which worked very nicely for snares.