How to make snowshoes with your own hands. Homemade snowshoes for hunting

Snowshoes are a thing that not everyone needs and not so often. But a man who wants to hunt in the winter, when there is deep snow, can not do without them. Of course, and standing on snowshoes, you can fall into the snow if it is loose. But, firstly, it is not so deep as without them, and secondly, on dense snow or an umbrella, such "shoes" are wonderful.

It is probably impossible to buy snowshoes. Even you can see them only in the museum, in an exposition dedicated to northern peoples or the history of hunting. Therefore, you have to make snowshoes with your own hands.

A bit of theory

First of all, you can not make such a device too heavy. Otherwise, snowshoes, instead of keeping you in the snow, will sink in it under your own weight, and your legs will tire of dragging such a weight. The maximum permissible weight of all materials that go to work, should not exceed two kilograms. And it's better to choose such source codes that will make homemade snowshoes more light.

It is worth remembering that the final result of your work is intended for marching, a little civilized life. Everything should be expedient. Therefore, hunting snowshoes are made of slightly different sizes, then they can be easily put into each other - and places will be less occupied at halt, and you will not have to look for a hidden pair then.

Snowshoes classic

They will be based on a wooden frame. For her, a bar is used, the thickness of which is seven millimeters. Thinner is impossible - can not stand the weight of the hunter. It will be thicker - snowshoes for hunting will turn out to be too heavy. The width of a piece of wood is from 30 to 40 mm. She arches to make an oval frame. The length and width of the base will have to be calculated independently, based on your own height, size of shoes and weight. When calculating, take into account the weight of equipment that you take with you. What do the simplest snowshoes look like with their own hands? The photos you see below.

To fasten the ends it is not necessary - the frame parts together will adhere to the braided ropes (in the original the snowshoes were intertwined with straps, and rawhide, but where are they now taken?). In the bars are made 18-22 holes (depending on the calculated length), and through them stretch twine crosswise to get something like a grid. The grid is covered with a tarpaulin.

Choosing this way to make snowshoes with their own hands, remember that the tree swells from moisture, and when dried, it can crack. Therefore, the frame must be impregnated with oil or oil.

In the end, you need to attach the foot supports to the products. In the traditional performance, these are belts, in which the shoes are shoved in the same way as in skis. Since snowshoes are much wider than skis, fastenings are fixed in the middle of the created support, on cross-bar or woven mesh.

Option Two

This is a more modern way of making snowshoes with your own hands, but based on the same frame of wood. It can be made from slats, sprinkled from neveschkovatyh fresh boards, and you can cut the nut rods, remove the bark and dry it. The second base is even more attractive: the bars are light, flexible, but strong, bend easily, and will not break (if fairly thick, up to 0.5 cm in diameter). The difference from the first method is that the cross strips are glued in the slots of the frame with moisture resistant glue, and the ends of the long bars (rods) are fixed with rivets.

The resulting blanks are smoothly folded from the front. To do this, you first make a model of solid plywood. Then the frames themselves are well impregnated with water (otherwise the bars or slats can break from the pressure) and gently bend over the breadboard and are fixed. The future snowshoes are dried directly on the template, and then it is carefully removed.

It remains to artificially twist the basis. The main thing is to pull the rope tight to create a rigid support. If a nylon cord is taken, it can be moistened before the frames are tightened - it will be better to stretch, and when dried, it will reliably remove the frames. The weaving as a result should resemble a fishing net with square (or square to square) cells. In the process of tightening with ropes weave, as in the previous description, fasteners for shoes. You can tie them from the same ropes, but then they will turn out to be tough, they will press on your feet. It will be more convenient to use snowshoes if you make fastenings from leather or tarpaulin, and you can build a system with stringing, then adjusting the density of fit to the foot will become available. And will not fall off, and to press too. If you choose this option, do not forget to provide holes in the bottom of the anchorages, through which they will be tied to snowshoes with ropes.

Once the snowshoes are made with their own hands, the ends of the ropes after the end of braiding are tied in loops and attached to the frame with small studs. And instead of oil the frame is covered with a waterproof varnish.

Not very successful imitation of the classics

There are suggestions on how to make snowshoes from plywood. Undoubtedly, this material is easy to work with, it weighs a little, is easily accessible and worth a penny. But to all the flaws of any tree, the shortcomings of the plywood itself are added. And the main of them - it stratifies! After all, it is done by layers, which begin to shift relative to each other both from pressure and from moisture. And to impregnate anything from the moisture of all layers is difficult. So even though snowshoes can be done quickly, they will leave you unreliable and short-lived.

Modern materials: metals

With all its merits, the tree still has drawbacks. First of all, of course, this is its susceptibility to soaking and drying out. And the strength of the wooden frames do not differ. Therefore, thinking about how to make snowshoes your own hands, give preference to modern materials.

Most often for frames people take titanium or duralumin plates. Their thickness should not exceed 2 mm, yet these alloys are very strong, but heavy. Some use aluminum, but it is too soft.

Non-standard materials

Folk craftsmen and craftsmen "mold" the basis for snowshoes from epoxy resin and fiberglass, but this method is very much for an amateur.

A good result is obtained when using polypropylene pipes. Their main advantage is that when heated they easily bend, so that it will not be difficult to create a smooth bend for their snowshoes. Grid, however, have to weave over pipes, holes in them do not recommended. However, originally snowshoes and braided over the base of the frames.

Snowshoeing

In many ways, this process depends on what kind of mounts you have installed on your product. If it's just straps, then the legs in them are shoved like in skis. We hope that even for such primitive fasteners you will find a way to regulate them somehow, at least buckles or shoelaces.

Some varieties of snowshoes do not provide for fastening at all. In these cases, the foot is placed on the snowstalk slightly closer to the front, a rope, a belt or a parachute sling is passed through the net, with which the shoe is simply tied to the supporting surface.

Well, if you swung wide and woven into the net a fastening like those that are installed on steep skis, then the snowshoe is put on like a boot. By the way, such fasteners are most convenient, although they will require considerable time and money.

How to walk on snowshoes

Something the gait that is suitable for snowshoes is similar to the use of climbing cats. You need to learn how to put the entire foot, and not rolled from the heel to the toe. Otherwise, you will constantly cling to the back, and there is a risk of damaging the snowshoe itself. If the weather sucked you nast or tightly caked snow, it does not hurt to stick into it the protruding corners of your "snowmobile".

Given that the snowshoes are quite wide - otherwise they would not help you in any way with deep snow - you will have to train yourself to put your feet wider apart than you are used to. If you ignore this advice or be too lazy to work out this skill, you will constantly step on your own to snowshoe.

When climbing a hill, the slope of a ravine, if you go first, try to push harder, push your foot into the snow. So for you will get a conditional ladder, steps, which will be easier to climb the rest.

However, even on snowshoes to walk on deep snow the first is difficult. That is why, for long hikes, hunters alternate, often replacing the "pioneer". But before a long trip, you should first practice: lack of skills in using snowshoes often leads to ankle injury.

Alternative use

Your "snowmobiles" not only help to overcome snow debris. On a halt or an overnight stay, a rather convenient table is obtained, it is only necessary to find a stump or a stone. Snowshoe is useful and for lighting up the Primus stove - even the snow will not have to be raked. It is also good as a shovel replacement. Earth, of course, do not dig, but to clear the snow, clearing the place under the fire or tent - it's the most.

In general, lovers of winter hunting or fishing, fans of walks in the snowy forest or those who have to visit a friend in a distant zaimke, snowshoes are very, very helpful.