What's your opinion on acceptance or rejection /

I see no disadvantage in loading your snares.

I definitely keep on in the chamber and a full magazine

you didn't specify snares

If I am loaded I could care less if I am accepted or rejected.

Loaded potatoes typically have too much garlic salt in a restaurant, but if we make them at home they are perfect!

REJECT store bought

ACCEPT home made

A Viagra question?

INstructions unclear. foot stuck in tree.

Well a unloaded snare gives you a smaller sized loop. With the loaded snare you get maximum loop size.


And I feel you get more refusal's with the un loaded snare. I hate those tear drop looking loops.

That was my response also, get loaded enough might not even know the difference.

Getting serious re the posters question:

Loading a dispatch snare is so important to having the snare work quick and efficiently. An unloaded snare will require the animal to have to pull the loop down. A loaded snare will jump (close) down on the animal very quickly when they bump the bottom of the snare loop.

An unloaded snare will catch your target animal generally as often as a loaded snare. The difference is that the loaded snares close faster and get a higher neck catch desirable for a quick and efficient dispatch in most cases.

I agree here. Equally important note, when snaring coons and beavers, I'd never use an unloaded snare as you'll have very few neck catches, where as a loaded snare set properly will neck snare almost every one of them. Fur buyers don't like snare marks below the neck on either of these critters.

Anyone that thinks the little bit extra speed a loaded snare may provide, results in better catches, is dreaming.

Ever see a critter get caught in a snare?

There is NO WAY even a loaded snare closes fast enough to catch a moving animal (sometimes moving briskly) that high on the neck.

It’s what the animal does immediately upon realizing it’s caught that puts the cable where it’s “supposed” to be.

How else am I catching 40lb coyotes, 20 lb cats, and 15lb fox high on the neck with the same loop size and height. And doing so with unloaded snares?

Yep Boone, ya nailed it. Loaded snares are also troublesome in high winds. I'm not against them, they just don't work for me. When there are multiple days between snare checks, I want them working, not blown or bumped over.

Un loaded allows for a tall narrow teardrop loop, which is desirable in some instances as the loc will be above the eye level of the quarry. It works well in swamp grass trails.

Clearly two schools of thought on this. Why not load them? What can it hurt? With a good support they don't get knocked down or blown down anymore than non-loaded snares. I have used hundreds of both and for me loading them is a no-brainer.

You can load a snare and still have it taller than wider, pretty easily done really. They don't have to be big perfectly round loops.

NO, so explain to me why jug head catches significantly decreased when using loaded snares.

Load away brothers, to each his own.

With the support system and the way I set them I have had very few blown or knocked down:

The two biggest misconceptions in snaring are that a loaded "fast" snare, and loop height are significant contributors to good catches (i.e. high on the neck).

How fast is a coyote moving trotting (or loping) down a trail? Or a fox? No way, no how a loaded "fast" snare is initially catching (and holding) that animal high on the neck. That snare, upon initial firing is coming to rest low on that animals neck. Heck, even if it did "catch" that animal high on the neck to begin with, the animals continued forward motion would move that snare down the neck some before it cinched enough to grab and stop.

Loop height? Bologna. I set 90% of my snares 10" off the ground. I catch big 40 lb coyotes, little 25 lb coyotes, cats, and fox in them. Now, loop height is important to better target a specific species, and to minimize foul catches, but as far as "high neck" and "low neck", nope. To many variables in animal sizes, and body postures when traveling (high head alert, low head relaxed, etc). A big coyote comes through and the bottom of that 10" high loop hits him in the chest. A little 25 lb coyote it hits her in the neck, a little 15 lb fox it hits right under his chin. They all get caught, they all end up with the snare behind their ears. You set an average, and guess what, it works.

The animals ive seen get caught, and my own dogs the first few times they do it, all have done the same thing. Once they realize somethings there, they spin around and try to back out of it. THIS is what drags that snare up behind the ears where we want it, and it sets the loop keeping it from moving further. Usually than, when backing out doesnt work, they tear out in the direction they came from.

The one caveat to all this would be cats that are more apt to be moving slower due to their hunting styles. Than I could see the "faster" loop to be of some benefit. But still small. But, cats are easy to put down as long as their caught anywhere on the neck.

As far as teardrop loops, HUGE benefit! So much easier to blend.