The Spanish Windlass Snare: An Effective Solution for Rats and Mice

The Spanish Windlass Snare is one of the most effective traps you can build. It can be made to catch mice and rats or larger game like wild pigs and deer.

Shawn Woods claims that the Spanish Windlass Snare trap is one of the best he's ever made. This snare trap is something of a combination of two previous traps Woods has built. It incorporates the Mojave Scissor trap trigger system and the Spanish Windlass trap coiled or spring-loaded killing system.

The key to this trap is that whereas the Spanish Windlass trap spring mechanism spins forwards and kills the animal by driving a spike into its head, in the Spanish Windlass Snare the spring mechanism spins backwards, which causes a snare to encircle the animal's neck and lift it up against a brace, thereby strangling it and preventing it from chewing through the snare.

Again, the keys to this trap are its light trigger, which is easily tripped by the light touch of an animal entering the bait area, and its snare system, which pulls the animal up and against a cross-piece by the throat or possibly the chest.

By lifting the animal up and pressing it against the cross-piece, the snare effectively chokes the animal against the stationary brace and prevents it from dangling and possibly chewing through or escaping the snare. Death is quick and relatively painless.

Woods built his rat catching trap specifically for use in his barn, where rats are a problem. He indicated that if you were trapping animals in a survival situation, this snare trap could be built between two trees and significantly enlarged to catch bigger animals, but his state does not allow traps like that to be built and used outside.

They can, however, be built for inside dwellings to catch mice and rats. This is a trap you would do well to learn how to build, given its versatility and reliable killing method.

Like what you see here? You can read more great articles by David Smith at his facebook page, Stumpjack Outdoors.

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