Very interesting,Airport Trapper.

As a minimum I want my snares to be a dull grey. Better with splotches of light and medium grey. I don't see bushes and vines growing in circular shapes. To me, breaking up the circle with multi colors is important.

Black and white pictures in this thread show green foliage as looking dark. A 3-part Michigan Predator Hunting article Coyote's Eyes discussed on this forum in 2011 says light green appears as white to a coyote and that darker shades of green appear as varying shades grey. "Man has three types of cone photopigments: blue, red, and green. Canine cells contain only red an blue."

Why not paint them RED ? Red is suppose to be a hard color for canines to see. I know in low light it's hard for me to see. Make checking and finding them easier. Just a thought!

Ttt

It should not make any difference because the background as seen from the animals perspective is generally against a forest/bush dark background rather than snow. Blending in is a matter of coloration of the snare to the background color of the bush as seen from the animal’s perspective. Many have recommended coloring the bottom of a snare loop white for snow conditions. It often looks great from a trapper standing position, but from the coyote lower position looking straight through the snare the white loop bottom will show up against a dark forest/bush background like a sore thumb.

At night It shouldn't make that much of a difference.

It used to not matter , now it does, due to untreated snares hung by uneducated trappers. Now I use snarline dip and break it up with spray paint in the spring so they air off real good. My catch ratio skyrocketed.. Sure wish we could use killing locks tho..

I wonder If snares also give off a magnetic field like cage traps do? Maybe that's why coyotes refuse to go through some of my snares.

It's still a sharp contrast with the background cover compared to a snare treated to accommodate that background cover.

Here's a guy that boils then spray paints.

Watch at the 10 minute mark...

Below 40 degrees it's a non issue, when its warm yep.. Buy Jay Lords book on that subject, very interesting read..

Stiring the pot i see lol

Great post. Lots of good comments for those willing to learn. I was under the impression that they do not see black and white like we see black and white. As far as hunting goes, I'm a firm believer that UV plays a much bigger role than camo patterns. Those old lucky hunting jackets or bibs are lucky because they're faded. I don't know how that applies to snaring, but maybe it does.

It's hard to beat dulled cable for simplicity. I never saw a difference between white snares and faded cable, but letting it age to be dull takes some time. I do not boil or see the need. I know lots of people do, but the concept of losing the microscopic oil between the strands sticks in my mind. I have soaked new snares in a bucket of water to dull slightly in my entryway for a few days and went and set. They caught on first checks.

Like some others have said checking line of sight at K9 level has really helped me. Its amazing how many locations pop out that way that are overlooked from above. On that note, I have hung plenty of snares I thought were perfect, crouched down 20 feet away, and realized that they will probably never catch. This tip seems to get overlooked by new trappers, but it is literally a snare life rule.

Agree with Beav on setting in a little ways from cover change. I don't want anything to distract the animal while it trots down the trail. Natural cover changes I think do that, also heavy blocking. I think it is a natural response to want to crowd blocking, but doing so is counterproductive in my opinion. Finding the tolerance of adding a little, but not too much was something I learned and benefited from.

I use flagging and check as much as humanly possible from the vehicle. Putting nice single tracks along cover edges has worked well for me. Keep the vehicle tracks neat, walk in them instead of making footprints, and approach perpendicular to hang in the snow. They will still exit my tire tracks and take their off ramps into cover. I think it helps to not dismount or exit right at the set.

These are things that helped me.

The snare I see the most photographed , isn't properly loaded, for starters.

I have, in certain situations, gone to a method where the lock isn't on the top, it's near the bottom ( 5 or 7 O'Clock).
I've shown this to only few students and a few friends.
The lock then, on most animals, will end up against the carotid artery , on a neck catch , resulting in a quicker death.
It takes the right lock on the right cable, with the right manipulation of the cable, but it can be done an is extremely fast.

This is, of course, is the perfect scenario.

As far as boiling cable, I stopped that long ago when I noticed rusting on snares kept from one year to the next.
If you use it the same season you boiled it, you seldom see a problem.
I always make up more than I can use, often keeping them until the next year or beyond.

I now 'stain' my snares using tannic acid from wet oak leaves in the fall.
It stains the cable to color of an oak leaf, which is as natural as you can get.

A lot of animals have been caught in shiny snares, enough to say it does work.
A mink for example, will see the loop and try to jump through it...
A coyote, (may) see it and avoid it, even though it isn't sure what it is.
It simply sees it as unnatural.

When you say : " vs how they see it " , that's merely your interpretation. You're not an animal. You're only going on what you've heard somebody say.
I want a snare the color of the environment. I want to have trouble seeing it, when I know it's there !
I want it to look like it GREW THERE !

For the most part, animals don't know what a trap or snare is.

I like a cable that is hard to see, yet as LT stated I do not boil anymore for the same reason, leftover snares may rust inside and I never know it till it is too late. Then again maybe in other areas, they won't rust. When folks talk to 10 different good cable men, they will get 10 different ways that YOU HAVE TO DO IT LOL When you come to the South Jersey Trapping and Snaring School, you will see Newt, Morgan and myself show you 3 different ways to make the cable disappear color-wise but we are the same on one thing. Make the cable blend in with the background 5 to 10 feet beyond going both ways. (animal eye level, not our eye level) I may use formula 1 on some cable, but if I need more cable midseason and in a rush, I will spray paint similar to what Robert did. or just like LT I always have a batch that soaked in the leaves. A grey cable, brown cable, camo cable can all stand out to the animal like a sore thumb or can disappear, simply by paying attention to the background the animal see past the loop and making the loop blend into that. I have new videos that I will be showing at the school next year of animals avoiding cable for no other reason than 3 feet back the animal viewed the cable as something to walk around or go under rather than go through, the loop was an obstacle rather than an easy push through. They were not afraid, they just viewed it, seems like an easier, not to go through. I showed a video at the school this past year of a red fox hopping over a 7-inch loop 7 inches off the ground, yet that same fox gets caught down the trail in the same 7x7 set up just on a bend in the trail where it blended in. I call this sightline, sight picture. There is a lot of good info on these 3 pages that work and is useful for the cable men that pay attention to what their ground looks like, and how the animal moves and travels.

I wonder if you could spray paint your snares bright orange. I know when I'm training my labs they have a hard time seeing the orange bumpers in short grass. White ones they can pick out no problem.