7 DIY Survival Traps

When SHTF and your supplies run out, will you be able to feed your family? As I said in my previous article Top 10 Wild Edible Plants For Survival, there is a lot of food around you. If you know how to harvest all this free food, you will survive and thrive. In this article you will learn how to make survival traps using your resources.

Remember that in a survival situation, you must eat more calories than you expend. These traps may help you catch food and help you save time and energy that can be spent elsewhere. Some traps can also be used against intruders.

1. Tension Trap

This trip-wire set is effective for wild pigs, deer, or other game that regularly sticks to defined game trails. Make certain the horizontal thrust of the spear is at a level that will impale the body of the game sought. This is an extremely dangerous trap; use it with caution.

The last thing you need to do if you are in the woods and are depending on spearing an animal for dinner is to jab a spear into your upper thigh or worse (gulp). Again, the choice of wood here is going to be important because the trap has to impale the animal with enough force to kill it while not letting it escape. If the trap is sprung you want the animal to still be there when you return.

Source: Ready Nutrition

2. Paiute Deadfall

The Paiute deadfall uses a piece of cordage and a catch stick. Tie one end of a piece of cordage to the lower end of the diagonal stick. Tie the other end of the cordage to another stick about 5 centimeters long. This 5-centimeter stick is the catch stick. Bring the cord halfway around the vertical stick with the catch stick at a 90-degree angle. Place the bait stick with one end against the drop weight, or a peg driven into the ground, and the other against the catch stick. When a prey disturbs the bait stick, it falls free, releasing the catch stick. As the diagonal stick flies up, the weight falls, crushing the prey.

Source: Wilderness Survival

3. Apache Foot Trap

4. Fishing Spear

A very simple fishing spear. Check out full instructions from Reality Survival.

5. Fish Trap

Fish Traps
Fish swim next to banks at night or move from deep holes into shallow water to feed. They can often be directed into traps from which they are unlikely to escape.

Funnel Trap
Make the walls of the funnel trap with piled-up stones or tightly spaced sticks driven solidly into the river or lakebed. Close the entrance to the trap, roil the water, then either spear the fish or net them with a seine made by tying a shirt or other cloth between two stout poles.

Source: Field and Stream

6. Plastic Bottle Minnow Trap

Maybe the most simple trap you can do. Catch easily dozens of minnows with only a plastic bottle and some bread.

7. Bird Trap

Bird Traps 
Birds can be much easier to trap than mammals and should be among your first targets for a meal.

Ojibwa Bird Pole
Set this trap in a large clearing where birds will naturally seek it out as a landing place.
Step One Sharpen both ends of a 6-foot pole and drill a small hole near one end. Drive the other end into the ground until it is secure.
Step Two Cut a 6-inch-long stick that will loosely fit into the hole. Tie a rock to a thin cord and pass the cord through the hole in the pole, then make a slip noose that drapes over the perch.
Step Three Tie an overhand knot in the cord in back of the slip noose and place the stick against the hole. Tension should hold it in position. When a bird flies down and perches, it will displace the stick, the rock will fall, and its feet will be caught as the loop quickly slides through the hole.

Source: Field and Stream

Be careful when using this traps and snares. If you want to learn more, I really recomment you The Trapper’s Bible from Dale Martin. It’s an excellent book you can keep on hand. It’s very important to have printed copies of all your books, articles, etc because you can’t rely on internet and electricity. These printed copies can be also used to teach all the things you think are important to your children.