beaver blind sets

[jax]

ive never water trapped. i got a guy thats got a beaver problem bad. anyhow creek is 40 feet wide 2 foot deep where i can trap. alot of trails on the steep banks and holes everywhere in the root of trees. my goal is to get the beaver and the man is gonna let me trap all his land. very good yote and cat sign. i dont have any beaver traps but ive been reading the archives heavy last couple days.. so i did set half a doz blind sets on a few trails and bottom of the slides. maybe ill get lucky. told the guy i didnt know alot about it but id try. so im willing to spend a couple hundred to get started on this but i dont know s$%# about it.read that trapperman i think uses mj600s and i had some so i used those. do they pull out alot on land? dumb question but how come all the drowning? is that not to spoke the others. oh and i can use snares here 4 beaver. i know im asking alot but i really need the beginner info. and some basic sets. and a good trap recomendation say a dozen wii do. a trap i aint got to tune every catch. thank yall alot in advance.

[ColdSteel]

My advice would be to purchase some 330's they are a beaver killing machine I hardly ever have to use legholds

[calvin]

If these beaver need to be totallly removed, you will likely need more than #330s. The #330s is the standard beaver trap but beaver figure them out pretty fast. Footholds are needed as well. Get a few of both and rig the footholds on a drowners (I use rebar drowning rods mostly). Not a snare guy...others can help you out there.

[jax]

im gonna get a couple but i really like using footholds. i think ive read enough on drowners to give it a good try. dont know about the fur price on em here but ill d glad to get all the other goodies on a beaver or two. so can i catch these on the banks too, in the runs and chewed sticks and trees. they are running some 20 to 40 yards from the water just looked like they would be a few good places to get em. but i need yalls input.....thankyou

[irnhdmike]

You won't drown many beavers in 2 feet of water.

[trappnman]

best place I like for blind sets for beaver are on resting/feeding shelves. Usually pretty obvious, but if not, one can easily be made with a spade- add a few fresh and peeled sticks there, and its a killer set.

reason for drowning is first- front feet on beaver are much like rats- fragile. I go for a front foot catch with footholds 99% of the time- one reason, is on a front foot, you can drown beaver in far less water than a back foot catch- plus, I find it far easier to catch them consistently by a front foot with footholds.

A tip given to me by buzzard, was to make a lip before the trap (forget sharp sticks, etc) with a spade that is 3-4 inches high- that lip gets them walking, and you don't get misses

[RiverRat]

Drowning is NOT nessary all my foot traps have 10 ft of chain and a pogo.

[coyotewhisperer]

my advice to you is spend $40 on a beaver trapping instructional video. Matt Jones has a good one.

[jax]

ya your right i was just gettin input to use what i had till i could throw money at f&t.... but hey i had 4 sprung and one in so thats a start not having a clue. i pulled till i get more stuff ... id say i spooked a few lol. landowner was tickled.

[Rally Hess]

Jax,
If you only have two feet of water and trails leading 40' away from the water, why not just snare thiose trails. Set it up heavy, meaning several snares to a trail, and going from there. With the current price of beaver maybe you'll get lucky and have a cat kill one of those snared beaver and let you know where they are.

[jax]

is 2 to 3 inches off the ground with a 8 to 10 inch loop ok? and also in the direction its moving do i stable the snare a little to hang on long enough to tighten before freeing the rest of the snare? ive never snared anything i land trap and we got the no snare law except beaver. ive read a bit on it. just tryin to get some tips. anything info will help. thanks for advice......besides im one that has to learn everything the hard way. lol seems i learn more faster that way.trial and error.

[Rally Hess]

Jax,
Place the snare so it is at a right angle to the walking surface or trail. The bottom of the snare should be about the width of your hand under the snare loop(like you karate chop the ground), with that 8-10" loop you mentioned. Most snares come with a support collar on them that you push a wire into and then either poke into the ground or use with a support stand that has a wire attached to it. For beaver you can use a stick from the area that is peeled already or dead. Just use your pocket knife and split the end of a stick about 1", or enough to get the snare cable into. Open your loop on the snare the diameter you want, then wedge the cable into that split stick. Push the stick into the ground adjacent to the trail at a slight angle to center the snare loop over the trail, and push the stick into the ground to get the loop the width of your hand above the ground. A peeled stick about an inch in diamater works quite well and also offers some blocking on one side of the snare to help guide the beaver into the loop. Stick a couple sticks on the other side of the loop to help guide them also. Also keep in mind you will need to anchor a snare very well because the beaver will have all four feet on the ground to pull. If possible wire it to a nearby tree with several strands of wire or a long stake or earth anchor. It's a good idea to use a snare that has an end or inline swivel. They can really roll and twist a snare up and the swivel helps keep the cable intact. If you snare the beaver, so that once caught they can still reach the water, they seem to fight less and feel less susceptable to their predators.

[jax]

thanks alot for your help. thats the kind of input i was after.. you put it in terms that i can understand and work with...

[ksboy2]

here are a couple of sets i've had good luck with on summertime, spooky beaver on ADC work

[trappincoyotes39]

charlie dobbins open water beaver video!

www.fntpost.com/Products/Beaver+Trapping/Charles+Dobbins+Wayne+Freebersyser's+Open+Water+Beaver+DVD

[Mudcat]

Feb 18, 2011 23:20:34 GMT -6 Rally Hess said:

Jax,
Place the snare so it is at a right angle to the walking surface or trail. The bottom of the snare should be about the width of your hand under the snare loop(like you karate chop the ground), with that 8-10" loop you mentioned. Most snares come with a support collar on them that you push a wire into and then either poke into the ground or use with a support stand that has a wire attached to it. For beaver you can use a stick from the area that is peeled already or dead. Just use your pocket knife and split the end of a stick about 1", or enough to get the snare cable into. Open your loop on the snare the diameter you want, then wedge the cable into that split stick. Push the stick into the ground adjacent to the trail at a slight angle to center the snare loop over the trail, and push the stick into the ground to get the loop the width of your hand above the ground. A peeled stick about an inch in diamater works quite well and also offers some blocking on one side of the snare to help guide the beaver into the loop. Stick a couple sticks on the other side of the loop to help guide them also. Also keep in mind you will need to anchor a snare very well because the beaver will have all four feet on the ground to pull. If possible wire it to a nearby tree with several strands of wire or a long stake or earth anchor. It's a good idea to use a snare that has an end or inline swivel. They can really roll and twist a snare up and the swivel helps keep the cable intact. If you snare the beaver, so that once caught they can still reach the water, they seem to fight less and feel less susceptable to their predators.

Thanks for the informative post. Is this for a neck catch or behind the front legs?

Mudcat

[Rally Hess]

Mudcat,
That's going to depend on the speed, height from ground, and loop diameter, of your snare. The closer the bottom of your loop is to the ground, the slower it closes, and the initial diameter of the loop all effect the location it closes. Beaver are taller when walking than most people believe. A loaded 8" loop four inches above the ground will head snare the vast majority of your beaver. A ridgid support system is also a must. The animal should only have to elongate the loop about 1.5-2" before it closes with a loaded snare. If the snare is not loaded the animal has to physically pull the loop closed. If the loop is also too close to the ground(IE lower than the animals belly when it walks) it will naturally try to step through it, it has been walking in brush and over obstacles it's whole life, and I'm betting slapped on the nose and poked in the eyes a couple times too. If the loop is close to the ground it is possible the animal will step through the loop and the cable can be pinned to the ground by it's fur or caught on ground grasses or leaves and the loop goes dead or stops closing at all as it passes through it. A snare has to move to close and anything that interferes with that movement will slow it's closing. If your support system is less than ridgid, it also causes the snare to move a greater distance before being closed or the animal exerts enough force on the loop to close it, even with a loaded snare. Lock positioning also determines how much force the animal has to exert to the loop to get the lock moving, the farther over center (12 oclock position) like at 1 or 2 oclock position, the more the animal has to elongate the loop to get the lock moving. The harder the animal has to pull, or the slower the closing, the more likely the animal is to feel the resistance and attempt to step through. Again consider the amount of sticks, twiggs, and limbs an animal like a beaver encounters in their life. They know how to deal with such obstacles and how much resistance it takes to push through or step through these obstacles. If they feel something dragging on there chest(your snare) or something slowly tightening on their neck, they use their front feet to remove it or back out. If your snare is set proberly and fast enough, it's already closed far enough that they can do neither and you catch the beaver, preferably by the head. If beaver came in just one size it would be much easier to head catch them all, but they deffinately don't, and catching them all by the head is near impossible for just that reason. It is however pretty easy to set to head catch the vast majority of your big beaver by the head.
Alot of folks catching beaver behind the front legs think that is where the snare closed on the beaver, when really that is where the snare ended up after the beaver got through fighting the snare. The reason for that is because that is where the beaver is smallest in diameter, and where the snare tightens after the beaver attempts to back out. A beavers body is quite "fluid" while tapered, when they are alive, and the beaver has it's front feet set and extended when they pull backwards. The snare just slides forward as it pulls bacwards or pushes away from an object with it's back feet, and tightens in the notch behind the front legs.

[jax]

very good posts thanks alot.

[Mudcat]

Thanks for the detailed post! It is a very informative post. You should do a snaring dvd!

Mudcat