How much baking soda do you put in it and how long do you boil them?

1-2 tea spoons per gallon works for me.

Depends on the water ratio but I don't use a lot of soda I just want to etch the outside a bit and remove the oils that I can and not strip all of the coating from the cable down to the inside. I add until it works for a short time and pull them out I'd rather under do them then over do it.

I would never boil snares.

What do you do? I just made about 100 of them

Here's a very old post I made on it ...

http://jayme220.proboards.com/thread/53/snare-prep

That is what was recommended to me by a couple of snare guys from New Jersey.

Another vote for formula one.

Well thank you for that. I need to order some trap parts, so it looks like ill be getting some formula 1 too

Yes the F1 is a good way to go if doing a lot of snares, but I found getting the oil off first makes the dip better, or if painting stick better. To remove the oil, I do this with traps also, go to Wal-Mart go to the auto section and look for a product called SUPER CLEAN comes in 1 gal. purple jug, few years back was around $10.00, and think it comes in a larger size also. No boiling etc., use cold, don't add anything, as this product removes oil, grease etc. from anything.

Why?? I'm an old fart who has never treated them any other way and have not noticed an iota of significant difference in them compared to untreated snares other than to reduce excessive cable lube and remove the shine. In this regard I just do a QUICK boil in a baking soda solution, 2 or 3 table spoons per gallon of water. By quick I mean 5 minutes or less. I have no doubt a lengthy hard boil of 20-30 minutes may cause serious removal of interior cable lubricants reducing the life of the cable. Local climatic conditions effects cable deterioration much more so than a quick boil in a baking soda solution.

Same here Tomcat,Been dying and waxing snares for decades never an issue.And on our registered lines they are left out for many seasons at Idled jackpots,that are only set up on bi or tri annual rotation before they make a catch.

Boiling snares has zero affect on them durability wise. Like Boco, my snares on private land can be out there for years. Boil em, dry em, paint em, go!!!!!!

I also do the same as Bc.

I'm with bctomcat. All I do is boil In baking soda. Then do a good rinse In hot water and let them dry.
Sorry Newt but I'm not spending $19.00 a quart to do a few cables when baking soda dulls them just fine.
And I have yet to have a cable fail me that's been sitting around for a year or so after boiling In baking soda.
I will not take the chance In gumming up my cables by painting or dipping If It's done wrong.
I did spray paint a few cables this year and they worked fine. But I don't think the time and money spent to do It made a difference In my catch ratio between those and the un painted ones.

I had try what was said to me about do not need to boil your snares and just use as is. Well I try that this season and also use the ones that I did boil . The ones that I boil keep catching coyotes or what ever I had set for. I try the ones that I did not treat or anything like I was told to do by some and in the snow I seen coyote tracks going to where I know they will go through the fence and then see the tracks stop short of the snare and went the other way from it. I will keep boil all my snares. As for how strong they are I had one tested years ago by a farmer that was combine there corn and he got too close to the fence and I had a snare set where the coyotes was usen and he got the snot caught in the snare and he went for a ride he said wonder what happened and seen he got caught by the snare and bent his snot. I seen him change the snot and blame himself for what happened not me. I found the snare on my check and just had to reset the snare it was ok to use again. so I know they hold up for what all I done .

Been boiling and using baking soda forever, the thing is to only use what you need to etch the outside of the coating only! Get the water hot pour in the soda once it reacts to the galvanize STOP and rinse off that's all you need. I found if you use just a little brown dye you get a nice rust color add more it's closer to black then. The brown works well here in some of the weeds patches we have here.

Suit yourselves, I don't give a crap. lol

Removing the oils (lubrication) from the inner strands of cable makes them stiffer. The baking soda makes them feel chalky, they do not blend in nearly as well as camouflaged snares, and over time they will become brittle and weaker due to corrosion from the inside out (how long this takes may be as short as a couple years or may take much longer depending upon weather, humidity, storage, etc...) . Ask a bridge builder if they would use dry un-lubricated cable.

It's an old antiquated way of treating snares. Times change and there are better methods these days. However like doing anything, there will be hard headed folks who are unwilling to change, no big deal. Like I said "Suit yourselves, I don't give a crap."

I've been boiling mine and using baking soda since 1985, I can show you some I've had since then, they haven't trusted or broke with a catch, I have boiled them to get a little oil off of them and then painted then t blend in too, they are still working well also.

I tried using 3/32 cable for decoy weights once, it was toast by the next year it was stiff and rusty when you twisted it, like Cattrax said I have buckets of snares from long ago I could use today no problem that went through the boil/soda/dye. Some of the old Thompson Snares I have with the crucible cable they are another story they seem to rust rather easily but are stiff from the way they are built anyways.