Black Bear Snaring

I've been searching the internet and noticed there is not very much information on snaring bears. Anyone here snare bear and give a few tips?
Thanks, ScotianTrapper

Footsnares are the only legal way to take bears here besides cages,or shooting.
Cages are way better,as it is much easier to release a female with cubs from a cage than a footsnare.

There aren't many places in the States where it is legal though government agencies sometimes use foot snares.What type snares can you use?

Belisle makes a good foot snare I think.

I only have 3 years experience foot snaring bears in Maine, but I'm happy to share what I've learned.

I use and really like the WCS Pro-12 foot snare. The springs are weak compared to footholds, so I use only a light covering of shredded, dry leaves or other ground covering so the snare can easily fire through it, especially in rainy weather. Use a large, green leaf as a pan cover. I stabilize the foot snare using 1/2 inch thick sticks that I hammer in on four sides of the frame to wedge the frame in place. Use a lot (I haven't tested the poundage) of pan tension to prevent raccoons from setting off the snare.

All of my foot snaring occurs at established bait sites which are initially used for hunting. Prior to the hunting/foot snaring opener, I bait once per week, since I live far away. I use ample (25+ gal in my case) trail mix bait to avoid letting the bait site run out. I also make every effort to fill all bait sites by 2:30 p.m. since the bears generally begin visiting around 4:30 p.m and late afternoon/evening bait tending seems to cause more nighttime visits. Trail cameras are invaluable for identifying how many different bears are regularly visiting, which direction they're from, and whether any visitors are sows with cubs. I haven't set a foot snare at a site being visited by sows with cubs because of concerns about the release. This is a tradeoff that I was comfortable making because I have multiple bait sites; however, some of the sow/cub-visited sites were also visited by large boars.

Sometimes bear trails are poorly defined when the bait site is in open pine/beech forest (for hunting). I've moved the bait barrel up to 50 ft (haven't needed to try moving it farther) into thicker cover, to yield better-defined trails, and the bears promptly followed.

So far, I've always found good locations ~25 ft from the bait to set my foot snare. The simplest location was where the bears were walking down a steep slope to reach the bait site and the repeated use wore in "stairs" on the trail. I use 1/2 inch thick sticks as stepping sticks by hammering them vertically into the ground in the trail, on both sides of the foot snare. They look like pegs sticking out of the ground about 3 inches. I've struggled to guide the bears' steps using horizontal logs, rocks, and brush fencing. They've stepped on and climbed over everything that I've put in front of them!

I'm foot snaring in hot, early September weather and unfortunately, tend to "sweat up" the trap site and evidently, the trap, too. Last year I had a problem with the bears smelling my foot snare and digging it out. The trail camera told the nightly story. So, I rinsed off the snare, reset it 10 ft away, and smeared a mixture of peanut butter, honey, and black oil sunflower seeds about 4 foot high on trees up and down the trail. My thinking was to raise their noses and distract them as they walked down the trail. This evidently worked and I caught one that night.

I use two heavy duty stainless bear swivels and heavy chain to attach the snare to a sturdy, 6+ inch diameter tree and don't give them more chain length than absolutely necessary to reduce the potential for entanglement or tree climbing problems. This hasn't happened for me, so far.

I am contemplating purchasing a culvert trap since I would like to have the option to easily release smaller bears and continue trying for a big one.

Good luck, have fun learning about this aspect of bear behavior, be creative and persistent!

Dang MV, that's archive material there. I doubt I'll ever get the chance to snare a bear but that's still some great info. Thanks for sharing.

I saw a guy at Minktoberfest on Thursday give a bear snaring demo that looked pretty good. He invented a device to make the snare work really well. It's like a giant DP trap. I don't remember his name but Mink Guy on here will know who he was if you contact him.

Didn't something happen to Maine's bear season this year?

Man Mustela vison that's great info. Our bear snaring opener started yesterday and I'm heading out Thursday to set a snare. But man them Belisle bear snare throwers are some tough to set.

Wess Osborn

I sell his Bear snare

I wish more states would allow foot snaring bears.

If its the design im thinking of it was invented by Orin Young from Maine. I trapped with Orin and caught a bear with the trap and saw several others caught.
Orin gave me permission to manufacture the trap.

As of right now it seems Maine changed the laws and it is not legal. That is really stupid as it would never catch a lynx.

I have trapped and been with alot of trappers who have trapped bear in Maine. IMO the trail set is most effective. Most of us prefer the aldrich and sometimes the Fremont if on hard ground. In Maine we are required to have a "stop" so the snare can not close smaller then 2.5" we set ours at 4" to allow most under 200 lbs to pull out.

Why not the Belisle, scalloper?

Sure would like to trap a bear....Is Maine the only state that allows trapping of bear?

Can a non resident trap bear in Maine?

I believe it's the only state of the lower 48. I don't understand why more states don't allow foot snares for bear.

The best trap for bear is a cage trap.

To be honest the Aldrich will do everything I need it to do. I see some of the new (last 10 years or so) style some are selling and i wonder how a large bear could possibly get caught in one. I set a nice wide loop at least 1.5" larger all around the track maybe even a little more. One day me and three of my sons made 4 sets. Back then we could set two per trapper but we had 4 real good chances. The next morning we had three bears waiting 337,340,and 347 lbs dressed two were 25' apart.
The boys had been going bear trapping with us for several years at that time but they were only 10,11 and 13. They had quite a serious look on their faces when they got out of the truck with all of that commotion going on.

IMO its the most humane way to harvest a bear with 0% chance of any suffering.

Where can I get a bear trap like he makes?

Newt Sterling sells them or says he does in your post.

Here is an article I wrote for the Buckeye trapper last year.


I think everyone should have a bucket list. You know the things you want to do or see before you go to that big trap line in the sky. Mine is a long one that's keeps growing every day.

One that was high on my list was to trap a bear.. I remember as a kid the old gun advertising ads with a big bear in a trap. The trapper coming around the corner with one of their guns in hand ready to put the big beast down. I was ate up with these images. That's what I wanted to do.

As far as I know Maine is the only state now that allows taking bears in foot snares. I was very let down a few years ago when they outlawed foot hold trapping of bears. I thought if I was going to do this I better do it soon. Well it took me a few years but I finally decided this was the year I was at least going to try to catch a bear.

In order to trap a bear in Maine a nonresident has to go through a registered Maine guide. I started my search early in the spring. I settled on a small outfitter by the name of Orin Young. This fall a friend of mine Bryon Flowers has taken over a bear camp in Maine. There are lots of opportunities if your interested in catching the largest carnivore we legally can trap.

In Maine bear hunting season comes in well before bear trapping season. The way they hunt bear is by baiting. They start baiting in August for a September season. In the fall sweet baits are used. Bait sights are used every year. It normally only takes one to three days for the bear to start hitting the bait sight. They put hunters on these sights and move them every couple weeks. At that time they know which bears are nocturnal and will never be taken by hunting. These nocturnal bears are the ones they target for trapping.

I talked to the guide about bringing a foot snare. He informed me he had tried them all and was not happy with any of the commercially available foot snares that where on the market. He said that every model had some kind of drawback. With the problems in his mind he went to work to come up with a better design. He came up with a design much like a large dog proof trap. And let me tell you if a bear works the set, It will get caught. With this design there is no snare thrower. When they fire the trap the bear is in so deep that they are caught just under the elbow. What surprised me was that it holds right there. They don't slip down to the wrist like I thought it would but hold the bear just below the elbow. They are not going anywhere.

Since we already had trap sights prepicked we just had to set the trap. Sounds easy enough. By law the trap has to be flush with the ground so you have to dig a hole. In our case a hole about eight inches in diameter and 16 or 18 inches deep. Where we were in Maine the ground was like a bunch of medium sized rocks with some mucky clay packed in between. Not the sweetest of digging. You also need a trench for the snare cable going to the tree to tie to. We tied to a 5 or six inch live tree. Make sure your tree will hold a bear. With the trap in the hole at or slightly below ground level you have to pack rocks and soil around the trap to stabilize it tight. The trap can’t rock up and down. You want no moment at all. The trench coming to the tree will hold the cable. The snare is spring fired and you don't want a bear playing with it. Much like a coon will do at a pocket set if you don't bury the chain. You then lay large leaves in the channel the full length of it. Then set your snare and fasten it to your tree laying it on the leaves in the trench. Again lay large leaves over your cable and finish by covering with dirt and blend it in. The reason for the leaves on the top and bottom is to keep debris from getting in the spring and possibly making it not fire. I believe it would take a lot of debris to do this but you might as well be safe than sorry.

OK, the trap is in the hole and stabilized rock solid and tight. Cable and chain are buried and blended, Now its time to bait. Use day old pasties or old granola or some other commercially available sweet bait. On the trap fill it to the top and a little more. If you have a cup or two on top the trap that's fine. Now you can add a little of your favorite bear lure on it. If your putting it on the bait make sure it is an edible lure. You don't want to turn the bear off with some synthetic

scent just as you where when coon trapping. You can also spray the whole area down with smoke scent. Spray it around your bait, up the tree, etc.. Don't be afraid to use it. And it wont scare any animals away.

Now go sight-seeing, rock hunting, fishing, or something else because its a waiting game now.

It would be nice if we could get inside the head of our intended quarry. One of the other trappers had an extra trail camera that he lent us to put on our trap sight. Several big bruisers came in and hung around the trap sight but just would not commit for some reason.

Let me back track a little. On the first morning of our adventure we went to check a sight with an older gentleman that had been there for two weeks. On our first morning there was a black bear cabled to a tree. We were all excited for the man. This was his third trapped bear. I was thinking this was going to be easy, it wasn't.

Almost without question that big bear would come through every night but he refused all of our tricks and baits. He just would not come to the trap itself. It would come maybe twenty feet from the set, take a good whiff and keep going.

I was beginning to think I was going to go home with no bear.

On Friday after checking an empty trap I told him we need to pull it as we were going home the next day. Orin said just stay one more day. I finally let him talk me into it. We moved the trap to a new location with good bear activity. The plan was to check it early so we could get on the road back to Ohio.

Imagine my surprise on that last morning when we approached the trap sight. Their sat a good bear wrapped up in the brush. Can you imagine what a twenty foot catch circle looks like? I had just lived a dream as I had since I was a small child.

My friend Bryon Flowers is working with the OSTA about having a drawing or auction of some sorts with half the proceeds going to the OSTA. If we get this pulled off and you have ever dreamed of trapping a bear get a chance at it. You could be one of the very few trappers in Ohio to trap a bear.

With all due respect Ohio the bear trapping season in Maine starts September 1st-Oct 31st and a guide is not required for a nonresident. But its costly considering they need to buy a nonresident trapping license and bear tag. If they want to also hunt while they are here thats another nonresident license and bear tag. But that would allow two bears.
I could see why you had issues but thats trapping right? If you ever have a opportunity to talk with Randy Cross or even better sit in on one of his bear trapping seminars at Neil Olsens "Trappers Weekend" you will quickly learn some very important lessons about trapping bear. To get the biggest ones in areas that see alot of hunting pressure the blind set is king.

I may have been mislead on that. I still had a great time.
I have never seen Randy Cross. I would love to though.

Randy Cross has without a doubt trapped over 500 bears. I had actually trapped two that he caught and tagged. He is considered to be the top black bear biologist nation wide.