How do circle snares work?

[Henry]

Not necessarily. A man, provided he isn't obese or rachitic, is able to move more than his own weight.

Excellent scene from King of the Hill, where Boomhauer, Hank, and Bill are caught in snares. Boomhauer and Hank are caught easily, but Bill's snare can't lift him. He starts yelling! "YAY! I'M TOO FAT! I'M TOO FAT!!"

I've looked at the diagrams and I'm still not visualizing it properly. I must be somewhat denser than normal today.

 

[diaglo]

...I must be somewhat denser than normal today.

add the fatty foods to your diet. you will become more buoyant

 

[Plane Sailing]

Interesting that wilderness-survival.net seems to have stolen their text and images lock, stock and barrel from aircav.com (or vice versa).

A bit more digging reveals that the ultimate source for both sets of info is the "U.S. Army Field Manual 21-76".

I wonder if they needed permission to post huge chunks of it, since it is for sale on Amazon?

Cheers

 

[dema]

I love these boards

Just got a great idea for a side trek, PCs are walking through a forest, and whoaaaaa, someone gets tripped up by such a trap and hurled into a tree with sharpened limbs. Now the PC's can run, like they usually do, or actually investigate. Yes, my group like to live, and they feel like I'm always out to kill them though no one dies, I just bring them close to death.


Peace-

-de

 

[Umbran]

Not necessarily. A man, provided he isn't obese or rachitic, is able to move more than his own weight.

Yes, but somehow I don't think that the deepwoods rangers are carrying a block and tackle in their belt pouches. With enough artifice one can build the Hoover Dam. But most folk don't carry enough artifice upon their person for major endeavors. We're (or at least I am) talking about a simple snare quickly and quietly set out in the woods so that nobody will notice it was done, not a dungeon trap commissioned by the prince into which hours or days of labor may be placed.

That all, of course, is ignoring the fact that you aren't likely to lift a full grown man high enough so that he cannot reach the ground with a "sapling". I'm not saying that man-snares cannot at all be set. I'm saying the usual movie and cartoon image is thoroughly erroneous.

 

[Gez]

Of course, but then, they're movies.

And you don't need an actual pulley, a low horizontal branch, a partly exposed root, etc. Anything that will allow you to pass a rope behind and won't budge too much, and that is not too abrasive.

 

[Umbran]

Anything that will allow you to pass a rope behind and won't budge too much, and that is not too abrasive.

Anything that will allow you to pass a rope behind it, won't budge too much, that is not too abrasive, and is placed properly. That last one's not as easy as it sounds.

You have to have a tree to bend near where you want the trap (since you don't place snares randomly through a forest). Then you need the erzats pully near that tree, in such a place as it gives you enough advantage (typically meaning that it's a very low branch), and bends the tree in the right direction.

The whole point of setting a snare is to make your life easier and safer by taking away your need to hunt the target down bodily. If setting up this trap takes more effort than hunting (or making another type of trap), then is it worth the effort? It being technically easible is fairly moot if it's just not practical.