HUN Chapter 67: Snaring Rabbits in the First Snow

Day fifty-seven.

Lin Yu'an woke up in a strange silence.

Unlike the usual morning bird songs and the rustling sound of wind through the coniferous forest, today everything outside the shelter seemed unusually quiet.

He sat up somewhat puzzled, turned over and crawled out of his sleeping bag, leaving the warm deer hide mattress.

The stove inside the stone house hadn't gone out yet, but because thick reed insulation layers had been added to the walls, it didn't feel cold indoors.

He walked outside the shelter, and the sight that met his eyes made him instantly gasp!

Overnight, the entire world had changed!

Vast whiteness covered everything as far as the eye could see! The ground, tree branches, the woodshed and smokehouse roofs he had built were all covered with a thick layer of snow!

The sky was still overcast, and small snowflakes continued falling from the gray clouds with no sign of stopping.

"It's snowing... it's actually snowing heavily!" Lin Yu'an's face was filled with shock and excitement.

He walked out of the shelter, his feet stepping on the soft snow, making "crunch, crunch" sounds.

A bone-chilling cold wind mixed with snow particles hit him head-on, making him shiver involuntarily.

However, after the brief shock, Lin Yu'an's eyes showed no panic or frustration.

"Wow! Look at this snow! This is amazing!"

His tone changed from initial shock to high excitement, even spreading his arms toward the falling snow.

"Guys! I never thought I'd actually persist until this day of heavy snow!"

He excitedly faced the camera, his visible breath clear in the cold air.

"Do you know what this means?"

"It means all camouflage has been removed! Any animal will leave the clearest traces!"

He bent down and grabbed a handful of soft snow, feeling its coldness and purity.

"For a hunter, this is a dream environment! Tracking will become unprecedentedly simple!"

"And fortunately, I prepared in advance."

He pointed to his solid stone house shelter and the simple woodshed beside it that he had already filled with dry firewood.

"Our shelter, after a comprehensive upgrade with reed insulation layers, is sufficient to handle such low temperatures."

He turned and walked into the shelter, pointing the camera at the hanging smoked deer jerky and fish balls stored in clay jars.

"Large amounts of jerky and fish balls are enough to ensure that even if I'm trapped indoors for several days, I won't go hungry!"

"However, the downside is that the wind is very strong, and my Pioneer has completely lost any chance of use."

He first cleared the snow from the shelter entrance and the small path to the woodshed, then carried out a large bundle of dry firewood from the woodshed and rekindled the stove inside the stone house.

Blazing flames rose up, and soon the entire stone house became warm as spring, forming a sharp contrast with the icy, snowy scene outside.

For breakfast, he luxuriously stewed a pot of steaming fish ball soup in the clay pot, adding plenty of wild onions and several pieces of smoked deer meat for flavor.

The scalding hot meat and fish ball soup drove away the last trace of cold from his body!

After finishing breakfast, Lin Yu'an didn't hesitate for a moment and immediately began preparing for snow operations.

"I can't stop moving because of a heavy snow. On the contrary, we need to seize this opportunity!"

He put on all his warmest clothing, wore fur gloves, and then stepped into this vast snowy forest that excited him so much.

Walking in the snow was somewhat difficult, with each step sinking into the snow.

But he quickly confirmed his judgment.

"Look here!" He pointed to a string of clear plum blossom-shaped footprints in the snow.

"These are tracks left by snowshoe hares! In the snow, their trails are as clear as highway signs!"

Lin Yu'an's face showed excitement. He didn't immediately follow these footprints but crouched down to observe carefully.

"Guys, snow tracking isn't as simple as just following footprints."

"We need to judge their behavioral patterns through these traces. The stride of these footprints isn't large, and the direction is quite winding, indicating it wasn't fleeing but leisurely searching for food."

He stood up, his gaze turning toward the direction the footprints extended, a patch of low shrubs covered with snow.

"The main food source for snowshoe hares in winter is the tender branches and bark of these shrubs. This shrub patch is very likely their 'cafeteria.'"

"And where there's a cafeteria, there must be paths leading to the cafeteria!"

Lin Yu'an surveyed the perimeter of this shrub patch.

Sure enough, as he expected, within this seemingly chaotic shrub patch, there were several relatively obvious depressed pathways in the snow.

"Found them! These are rabbit trails!"

"They travel along these familiar paths almost daily. This is the best place to set traps!"

Lin Yu'an selected the first trail that looked like it had the densest tracks. This passage happened to go between several closely spaced young spruce trees.

"I'm going to make the simplest and most classic fixed snare trap."

"This type of trap has no complex trigger mechanism and relies entirely on material strength and precise positioning to capture prey."

He first cut a section of steel wire about forty centimeters long and quickly made a smooth slip knot with a diameter of about ten centimeters.

Next, he firmly wrapped the non-slip knot end of the steel wire snare around the root of a young spruce beside the rabbit trail, tightening it to ensure it was extremely secure.

He used the steel wire's own rigidity and the branches of surrounding spruces to support the snare loop, suspending it in the center of the rabbit trail.

"Look, like this, the bottom edge of the snare loop should be about one fist's height from the snow surface."

"This height is exactly where the head and neck will pass through. It will unsuspectingly stick its head through."

He carefully adjusted it, ensuring the snare loop was perpendicular to the rabbit trail with a smooth opening and no obvious obstructions.

"The principle of this trap is simple. When the rabbit's head and neck pass through the snare and continue forward, the snare will naturally tighten."

"The more it struggles, the tighter the snare becomes, eventually trapping it."

From a distance, in that clear rabbit trail in the snow, only a metal ring that almost blended with the surrounding dead branches was suspended.

Over the next few hours, Lin Yu'an used the same technique to set up five more similar fixed steel wire snares.

Lin Yu'an brushed the snow off his hands, showing a confident smile.

"The snowshoe hares in this area have relatively fixed activity ranges. With these six new snares, I believe the fresh protein source for the next few days should become very stable."

Completing the trap setup, it was already afternoon.

Sharp howling sounds came from distant ridges, and visibility was not as good as in the morning.

Lin Yu'an could only return to his shelter.

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