2019 Presenter
Marty Senneker

A successful trapper and innovator, Mr. Marty Senneker will be in attendance!  His presentations will focus on coyote snaring techniques and fur handling.  He will also have a booth in the vendor area – stop by and ask him something that has been bugging you all season. Perhaps he’ll have a solution.

Don’t miss out on your chance to catch his shows!


The first animal I trapped was a mink, illegally in ignorance as a kid, however buying a trappers licence as soon as I became aware that there was actually a fur market for such, coupled with the reality that a kid could make a couple dollars. I trapped my first coyotes at age 16 , however my success was discovered by our neighbor after my second victim broke the second wire. I quickly became enamored with coyotes, tho distracted by bobcats for a short duration. Since that time, I have harvested, personally, over 900 coyotes in a single season, a mix of steel trap and snare useage, taken over 800 coyotes on 4 separate seasons, and over 700 coyotes more times than I can remember without looking at past records. 
When I began my fur trapping career, neck snares were not legally allowed for use by resident fur trappers in Alberta, and I became very proficient with the steel foot trap as it was my primary tool, and once discovered, was used by the FIC for capturing coyotes in the on-going trap AIHTS testing process many consecutive years until field samples were no longer required. 
Upon the legalization of snares in Alberta in 1992, I immediately began to use the neck snare, and used a wide variety of differing styles of snares, locks, cables, lengths, etc. as it seems to be in my nature to fix/correct/improve anything that I take an interest in, and the neck snare was of great interest to me.
Upon attending my first trapper convention in Alberta in the early 1990s, I met Bruce Bertram as he showcased/promoted his Ram Powersnare. Immediately upon seeing the device standing, set on his table in his booth, I remembered seeing similar but small sized torsion springs and immediately birthed the concept of a small torsion spring used in conjuction with a common neck snare. This idea became reality with my initial invention of the Stinger Kill Spring Snare, a spring assisted self locking steel snare which initially went to market as such, a non-powersnare spring assisted snare.  Several seasons went by and I invented a trigger for the unit and the snare became a light duty powersnare. 
The original spring was designed of such a strength so that a coyote, with a long lead, was physically able to compress the spring, however turning the spring assisted snare into a full fledged powersnare enabled me to design a second, more powerful spring, far more suitable to the task, and the Magnum Stinger Kill Spring was invented.  This model has done very well, and has literally taken Canada by storm, in all jurisdictions that this device is legal, turning the light duty powersnare into a heavy duty model. 
The addition of the spring and trigger to the steel self locking snare has been dubbed, the Alberta Powersnare TM, often referred to as the Senneker snare, however, there are many versions of the Senneker snare, and during this past winter a new third size spring has been released to the trapper public, The Senneker SuperMagnum, which in my opinion is by far, the best spring yet and likely does not need further improvement.
I also developed a line of breakaway devices, the Senneker-Elite line of breakaways. These devices have saved the lives of big game animals on an astronomical scale. An ultralight breakaway device was developed specifically  for use with the spring assisted snare and Alberta Powersnare, and is highly effective on big game, both neck caught and otherwise. Available in 5 different sizes/poundages, there is likely a breakaway for every application.  
One other area that I have experimented in in snare locks, having designed the Lightning Lock, which has seen limitations due to quality control issues due to the demands of a low income trapping public needing a high quality snare lock at a “Made in China” price. 
It has always been my career goal to press on in the area of product development for our fur industry to further our industry, yes, however my true goal in product development is to develop equipment that is as humane to the animals, that we love, as is humanely possible, and in doing so attempt to protect our industry from attack and ensure it’s longevity/continuance.