The Purse Game Net

So, when I was a teenager, The Brigade Quartermaster's Catalog, The Parallax Corporation and U.S. Cavalry were the big wish books, right?

In The Brigade Quartermaster's Catalog, on the same page with the Thompson Steel Snares and British Brass Wire Snares was something called a "Purse Game Net." (Also known as a "Ferreting Net.")

There was no description as to how this marvelous device was supposed to work but I always wanted a few of them and never got around to ordering any.

So, folks that hunt with ferrets use these purse nets and they stake them out in front of a rabbit hole. Actually, they use multiple nets on multiple (escape) holes. They run the ferret down a rabbit hole and the rabbit is flushed from hiding and runs into a staked out purse game net which is basically a net with a drawstring. The fellow hunting with the ferret then goes up and kills the rabbit.

Dinner!

I didn't know any of this as a teenager. I even had an old hunting book that was massive and even though it covered Falconry and Ferreting, it had nothing about using a net like this in the Ferreting section.

It's pretty easy to see how a half dozen of these Purse Game Nets could net you a lot of food, pardon the pun. They would weigh absolutely nothing and take up hardly any space at all.

I guess you could also spread them out on small game runs and then stake them so you get the same effect. Then you could scare up some dinner, literally, and then go up and take care of business once you caught one.

Here is a good page on how to set them up.

And, here is a page on how to make your own. Sitting around the house or even out in the woods, this would probably make me pull my hair out. For those of you who are incredibly patient, you might want to try that out.

I need to order a dozen of these purse game nets to go along with the rest of my food procurement equipment.