I am getting ready to try snares this fall and I need to prep them. I have heard boil with baking powder to remove shine but someone else says if you boil snares they can retain water and rust from the inside. Should I paint, die or just leave them gray? What do you long time snare men and ladies do?

Just boil some baking soda and water until they turn grey then hang up away from any human odors , painting them can slow down the lock unless you have a lot of time to experiment with mixing the paint .

I'd add some sage brush or whatever maybe in the area you're going to set them .

I have boiled snares in baking soda and they rust out faster then one not boiled. If you boil them after a while if you hold thm up by your ear and ben them you will hear them snapping. It is strands breaking inside. You boil the oil out and they rust from the inside out. I would rather run a slow painted snare than a rusted out snare that may brake.
To me baking soda boiling is an out dated idea.

Black and wax*=gold standard for snares.
*wax has to be hotter than 212f.

I rarely treat snares the last 15 yrs. I just leave them out in the sunlight and rains or hose them off a few times. The oil comes off and the sun dulls them up.

My new snares I have hanging from a tree limb in the yard. They will be used this next season. They might even get a light paint job before then.

I boiled some in baking soda, some I used right out of the package they came in. Both were successful with wolves. This year I’m going to try just a quick dip in formula 1 and a brushed coat of FMJ. I’ll try it on one just to see. Gibb gives his a quick little shot of paint. Boco does like he said, but his can stay tucked away in the bush all year and reset once the seasons open again. I think scent free is the ticket, I always have thin leather gloves on (it’s harder because of less dexterity and sometimes you’ll freeze you’re fingers, but they’ll warm back up on the machine with the winter gauntlets on) and usually rub the snare with whatever is around me. Like a little piece of spruce bow between the thumb and fore finger, rubbed along the wire. Black snares are good in cover, but will stand out in the frozen snow covered swamps I’m sometimes in, so I don’t want all of them black or coloured.

i hang mine outside for a few weeks then tiger stripe them with different camo spray paints

Like to leave them in the sun a couple months, then put them on a rack and smoke them with hardwood leaves over a low intensity smoldering fire.

Nice dull brown color & the smoke odor dissipates in a few days.

I'm not a big snare guy because of our laws here...we can snare beaver basically in the water. I just rinse them off in a bucket of water to get some of the grease/chemicals off and hang them outside in the sun and weather and use them. I do give them a good rinse in the creek before using them, just in case they have any foreign odors on them.

If your using them right away the baking soda/dye is no issue if your making a bunch to use over a long period year after year I’d just drop them on the dye solution and skip the baking soda. I’ve not seen a lot of snares that rusted easily on dry land snaring but some water snares can get compromised from acidic water your snaring in.

As simple test is to bend/twist the snare cable if you see dust they are probably weaker from internal rusting. I also run the lock a few times to make sure it runs smoothly before setting it.

Going to have to try this.

Thanks for the responses. I may have to try a few different ways to see what works for me.

I tried using snare cable for duck decoy weights but the water rusted the cable in just one season.