Hello,
I'm thinking about trying to build snares, maybe for profit. Could anyone help me, please? What tools and equipment would I need? How much would it cost to get started? How would I build the snares; how would I load a snare?
Thank y'all,
AuthorTrapper.

You'd be wise to invest in the snare making dvd from Dakotaline, ask loved ones for it for your birthday or another gifting time.

Biggest problem might be selling enough to recoup your investment and make a profit. An established but little known lure maker once said to me: "If I had the best lure in the world I could not sell it."
To figure startup costs a Snare Shop catalog might be a good place to start although volume production requires automated equipment they may not offer.

All you basically need to build snares are a hammer, a block of steel standard with a ^ wedge welded on an edge, or a screw driver and good cable cutters. Under $100. If your going commercial you will probably go with a swagger rather than a hammer and screwdriver. Cost about $200 or so.

The screwdriver or ^ rib on the block of steel are for cross punching ferrules and stops for extra security.



To load the snare, grab the lock with your left hand and about 7 -8 inches of cable with your right hand. Run this portion of cable, in its natural wire curve, several times over a small round rod or screwdriver that has been clamped in a vise. Do not apply to much pressure on 7X7 cable or the snare will become kinked or twisted. The 1X19 cable will take a lot more pressure but you still need to be careful. Practice will teach you how much pressure is needed to provide either cable with a round loop that will close quickly when little pressure is applied to the bottom of the loop.

You can't make much if any money selling snares. You need to buy supplies in bulk the make them affordable yet you'll need to buy a hundreds of different components in bulk so you can make the thousands of different snares people will want. Different cables, locks, swivels, kill springs, etc... You can hardly find two trappers who use the same snares.

Achives can be your best friend!
https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/134334/snare-building-questions#Post134334

I made nd sold snare a little to make some extra money What you can do to help improve your profits is go on the trap shed and but used snare supplies. When I say used I mean like left overs. Lots if guys will buy bulk and have 200ft of good cable or an odd number of locks ,furrels ,swivles and so on left over. I was able to get 200 odd feet of some really good 5/64ths cable for like $10. Problem is with this route your gonna end up with different cable from different people and not all cable is made equal.
That being said if you do go this route ,the best thing to do is to make what you can off of that batch of parts and try to sell it all in one go in on of the FB trapping groups. Try to make each snare as good as possible. Learn how to properly load a snare ( there is a difference between an OK load and a real fast loaded snare) , alot of people who snare have never used a really good loaded snare and when you give them one alot of the time that can get you a repeat customer. Custom snares is a slippery slope because your gonna need to have like 10 different style locks ,5 different cable sizes and twists swivels and so on. If you do the way I described you just make what you make and sell that. And wht ever you don't sell you can just keep stored up to use later in trades or to sell.
Just some ideas.

Thank you, Wolfdog91!

Be careful.
Don't buy any of those lower priced copy cat snare locks, if they start breaking on your customers you'll get a bad reputation real fast.

What do you mean "copy cat"?

You have a computor, look up the definition.

I have a couple of online retail shops. I sell stuff I make online - but not snares. I wouldn't get into the snare business.

You can't compete with others on price simply because snares are selling so cheap already. By the way, competing on price is a terrible way to make money anyway.
You can't compete on quality because it's just a piece of cable - not a lot of quality to improve on.
I don't know how you can differentiate your product from the competition because, even if you came up with something innovative that nobody else had, they would all have it the following week.

Rule of thumb: The harder something is to do, the more money you can make doing it. The easier something is to do, the less money you can make doing it. Snares are too easy to do.

Make some up and see how they sell.I can make a snare for about 1/3 the price of a bought one.

your most expensive part of the snare is the components. I bought already made snare many years ago. Since then I just purchased the cable and reused the components. Snares don't cost that much anymore. Buy quality cable and components. if you are going to sell just locally ask around see what people are using and run with the averages. Plus you will need to follow your state snare laws.

There are many ways to build snares. Most people like different setups so you really need to be able to build custom snares.

Here's a video I made to try to help beginners get started.

https://youtu.be/x4lUccMRUU8

I re use all the bottom half of my store bought snares. All I do Is buy the upper 40 some inches with the stops and the lock and the BAD. It costs me $1.00 for that part of the snare. I don't see how I could build It any cheaper. And of course you have to figure your time.

Something no one has suggested but I think it’s valid: make some snares and try them out. See what works and what doesn’t ON YOUR OWN LINE or by someone familiar with snaring who will use your products.

As I recall, and I may be wrong, you’re fairly young and may not have used snares very much to know what works and what doesn’t.

I’m new to Snaring myself having caught a couple of beaver in them over the years. I’ve also spent a little time with Newt Sterling, Ron Jones and others who build and use snares. Learn all you can about how people use a product before building and promoting a product you may not fully understand yourself.