I've been building some more cable restraints for this year. How is everyone else prepping them? I see people mention just a simmer with baking soda to remove oils and what not, I see other people like to paint them, others do absolutely nothing to them. What's your method for cable/snare prep?

When I remake in the spring they get hung on a tree in the woods all summer. The weather slowly takes the shine off them. I have lightly painted them also just so they blend a bit better.

Dont boil them as theyll rust from the inside out, they get very brittle. Dip in formula one snare dip brown. Snare One sells it

You can catch stuff with untreated snares, but it's about the ones that you don't catch. I like a light coat of camo spray paint. I coil them together then I spray each side with different colors of paint and stripe each side with the third color. I don't do anything to prep them for the paint. Three cans of paint will do hundreds of snares. However if I have a thousand to do I use Formula 1 as TrapprChris mentioned. I thin it a little more than the directions on the can.

Formula 1...



Camo paint...

I do a 3 or 4 color paint stripping rattle can thing on both sides ... depends on what I got available for paint

Baking soda and water works well enough for snares as for them rusting out its not very likely , I've set out many long lines and never had a problem over many years , can it happen I suppose it could but unless your setting them in a acidic soil area I wouldn't worry about it .

Keith Gregerson will tell you the same thing that baking soda and water work and the best part is you can't over do it and slow down by getting to much dip on the cable or locks .
It also will keep a bit more money in your pocket than someone else !

I don't worry about the snares failing from the corrosion but it definitely effects their limberness and smoothness. If I were to boil them, I'd wax them to keep them smooth and fast, not stiff and chalky feeling. A couple extra catches from a better camoed snare or ne that works a little faster buys a lot of paint.