I only have 3 years experience foot snaring bears in Maine, but I'm happy to share what I've learned.
I use and really like the WCS Pro-12 foot snare. The springs are weak compared to footholds, so I use only a light covering of shredded, dry leaves or other ground covering so the snare can easily fire through it, especially in rainy weather. Use a large, green leaf as a pan cover. I stabilize the foot snare using 1/2 inch thick sticks that I hammer in on four sides of the frame to wedge the frame in place. Use a lot (I haven't tested the poundage) of pan tension to prevent raccoons from setting off the snare.
All of my foot snaring occurs at established bait sites which are initially used for hunting. Prior to the hunting/foot snaring opener, I bait once per week, since I live far away. I use ample (25+ gal in my case) trail mix bait to avoid letting the bait site run out. I also make every effort to fill all bait sites by 2:30 p.m. since the bears generally begin visiting around 4:30 p.m and late afternoon/evening bait tending seems to cause more nighttime visits. Trail cameras are invaluable for identifying how many different bears are regularly visiting, which direction they're from, and whether any visitors are sows with cubs. I haven't set a foot snare at a site being visited by sows with cubs because of concerns about the release. This is a tradeoff that I was comfortable making because I have multiple bait sites; however, some of the sow/cub-visited sites were also visited by large boars.
Sometimes bear trails are poorly defined when the bait site is in open pine/beech forest (for hunting). I've moved the bait barrel up to 50 ft (haven't needed to try moving it farther) into thicker cover, to yield better-defined trails, and the bears promptly followed.
So far, I've always found good locations ~25 ft from the bait to set my foot snare. The simplest location was where the bears were walking down a steep slope to reach the bait site and the repeated use wore in "stairs" on the trail. I use 1/2 inch thick sticks as stepping sticks by hammering them vertically into the ground in the trail, on both sides of the foot snare. They look like pegs sticking out of the ground about 3 inches. I've struggled to guide the bears' steps using horizontal logs, rocks, and brush fencing. They've stepped on and climbed over everything that I've put in front of them!
I'm foot snaring in hot, early September weather and unfortunately, tend to "sweat up" the trap site and evidently, the trap, too. Last year I had a problem with the bears smelling my foot snare and digging it out. The trail camera told the nightly story. So, I rinsed off the snare, reset it 10 ft away, and smeared a mixture of peanut butter, honey, and black oil sunflower seeds about 4 foot high on trees up and down the trail. My thinking was to raise their noses and distract them as they walked down the trail. This evidently worked and I caught one that night.
I use two heavy duty stainless bear swivels and heavy chain to attach the snare to a sturdy, 6+ inch diameter tree and don't give them more chain length than absolutely necessary to reduce the potential for entanglement or tree climbing problems. This hasn't happened for me, so far.
I am contemplating purchasing a culvert trap since I would like to have the option to easily release smaller bears and continue trying for a big one.
Good luck, have fun learning about this aspect of bear behavior, be creative and persistent!
Last edited by Mustela vison; 09/30/18 03:48 PM.
