The war museum at the Cu Chi tunnels near Saigon has a variety of replicas of punji stick traps, as were used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War.

In these kinds of traps, one or usually more spikes made out of wood or bamboo or from metal, were placed in a pit in the ground, which was then concealed by camouflaging it with natural objects, such as dead leaves.

Also more sophisticated traps were sometimes made, consisting of a wooden framework covered with metal pins, nails or spikes, and a folding, swaying or rolling mechanism.

In addition, metal spikes were attached to heavy blocks of wood, nick-named durians (fig.), and were hung from a cord that would swing towards the direction of whoever activated the trap by stepping on its release mechanism.