I posed this question to a very experienced trapper, but he didnt have a ton of experience with relaxing locks

I was in the shop making some snares and I had a question for ya. I might try some different things next year and one is implementing snares for bobcats. I generally trap country thats hard to get to ie, skiing if there is snow or just covering more miles then most trappers care too. It doesnt get me more fur but i do feel like I can have some country to myself lol.

Anyway Im making some bobcat snares and as you know they require a relaxing lock. 1/16” 1x19. Loaded. I had the plan of making pen sets much similar to how they do it up north for Lynx. I was planning on just wiring these to the tree “short”. Snare is just big enough to be opened about 8” or so. Loop on the end to get wired. My thought was, am I getting myself into trouble without a swivel? Will I get a lot dispatched with entanglement? Like to hear your thoughts. Thanks in advance

If it was a non-relaxing lock I wouldn’t be so worried. I dont want a twist or chew out….

dont have to worry about swivels with bobcats. If you might catch a fox or coyote, that might be a different story.

I don't understand the reasoning for a relaxing lock if you're allowed to set in entanglement, but if that's the law, I'd use a longer snare to ensure the animal can get wrapped up in the entanglement so the snare will dispatch the catch. It doesn't matter what lock you use if they are hanging in entanglement they will be DOA like you want to avoid chew/twist outs. Swivels are not needed at all for dispatch snaring in entanglement.