So I'm thinking about dipping some snares and mb 550s with F1 today. The can that I have I got from my FIL. It is dated Aug 5th 2000. Do you think it will still be good?

Also do you boil your snares with baking soda before u dip them?

I dipped some water traps yesterday in F1, I'm impressed with the finish. Also dipped a couple CRs, hung them by the closed loop. No build up on the lock and the lock actually is faster closing. The brown blends well also..

I still don't understand why we seem to have to dip a snare. We hang a snare we catch something and It's toast. It's not like we are reusing It time after time like a foot hold trap. In my opinion we are over thinking this camouflaging thing when It comes to cable.
I have hung untreated CRs out In the weather for months before using them and I didn't see where they rusted. And I've picked up untreated CRs after the season and stored them In a dry place and I haven't seen where they started rusting.

When you have snow on the ground you know how many you miss. And I miss very few with untreated cables. And you would miss less If you were trapping In entanglement.
I'm not buying it Newt. I use 1/19 cable and and with that tight of a twist you would have to submerge them for months before they would get any moisture to the center of that bundle. Maybe In a salt water environment but not here In the Midwest corn fields.

But of course were are all entitled to our opinions.

That's what I been trying to tell everyone. lol

No big deal, your opinion is wrong is all. lol You don't know how many you miss in untreated snares. The dip is for camoing the snares, not rust prevention. If you don't boil the manufacturing oils out of the inner strands of cable they aren't going to rust for a LONG time. If you do boil them they will be stiffer in very short order, 1x19 cable would be less noticeable since its pretty stiff already but it'll slow down a 7x7 snare, and the bigger the cable the more noticeable it'll be. If you don't make catches in these snares and reuse them for a couple or three years (based upon they moisture they encounter) the corrosion (looks white typically) will get bad enough you'll be able to hear strands breaking if you kink it, again 7x7 will be more noticeable since the strands are smaller.

I understand that Beav,
Years ago I talked to Gary Jepson.His cable does not rust.I was at his homestad. Heck they dont even have hay barns out there.

About coloring snares: To get a true picture of what your snare looks like when set. You must look at the set at the same hight as your target animal. In other words get down on your hands and knees,lower your head.
Even in snow country. A white snare might look good to you while standing. But looks out of place when you see it at the hight the target animal looks at it.