Can't Catch 'em Sitting on a Couch!

[4fur]

BUT you can catch them setting by a couch!









I'm on a bodygrip and foothold kick right now so haven't needed to bring the rifle with me. Until today...







Water not quite deep enough to drown this beav and all I had in the truck was a pellet gun. Hoping the beaver wasn't toe caught, I made like an alligator trapper and pulled the drowning rod and beaver out of the water for an attempt with the toy gun. Fortunately the beaver's hind leg was buried in the 14 and the pellet gun put him down with one shot!

[~ADC~]

I think its great when guys use them older traps, the #14 has accounted for a pile of beavers I'll bet.

~ADC~

[minnow]

Thats for sure. Just need a Tv and you would not even need to leave the site.

[LLLTrapper]

I had a great day on the adc beaver line yesterday settung up two farms and catching 8 beaver total but I have not got a foot hold set. I got this 660 from Rich Casper and used it without dipping and have caught two in two days with it. I guess they are worth the money........



LLL

[4fur]

Sept 30, 2010 20:23:28 GMT -6 ~ADC~ said:

I think its great when guys use them older traps, the #14 has accounted for a pile of beavers I'll bet.

~ADC~

They have for me but my first experience with one didn't go too well for Dad. Under the tree that Christmas with the presents were an unwrapped small but heavy box that said to: Wayne and Jim, From: Dad, and a nice broom which had a small brown hardware sack taped to it and said To: Mom, From: Dad. My brother and I were much more excited with our present than Mom was with hers. We had a brand new huge trap with factory teeth and a baby food jar full of something called beaver castor! And my mom had a broom just like the one Dad had broken the handle on loading fat hogs several days earlier!

It got worse. Mom wouldn't let us set that big trap in the house but when she went to the kitchen, Dad set the #14. And guess what he used to trip it with?! Like I said, it got worse! LOL

[4fur]

Oct 1, 2010 5:03:44 GMT -6 LLLTrapper said:

I had a great day on the adc beaver line yesterday settung up two farms and catching 8 beaver total but I have not got a foot hold set.

Wow you are a beaver legend Ill Trapper! I've been pretty lucky but wouldn't call it cleaning up! Well kinda...











BTW, this wasn't too far from the couch beaver. Stupid idiots!

[4fur]

This is how I add tension to the pan of a 14. It's called a Miles Trigger Notch and ADC has posted a nice diagram of how it looks. But I was taught a little different. I use chain saw files, a 5/32" round and a 60* triangle one...





A little more work on the pan notch and this trap will be ready to take some beaver while avoiding rats and smaller coon. A shallow set trap without tension will often fire from a pissed off beaver when first approaching a castor mound set IMO...

[~ADC~]

That's a good tip there Wayne.

[LLLTrapper]

Wayne how deep do you have your footholds that beaver wake sets them off? I usually try to get them in 4-8" and don't catch a lot of rats that way but with them being a hot item I may start setting them shallow. Coon are a pain when you foothold beaver no matter what. I have 6 #14s and they are night-latched. LLL

[4fur]

I thought the 660 and other over sized bodygrips were a gimmick when they first came out but they're worth every penny extra. What I really like is the 660 made from a Belise 330. They will hold anything and I really appreciate the spring safety hooks. All the big traps are good at catching turtles, though...








Untreated traps are effective, Larry but I paint mine twice a year to extend spring life more than to camouflage. I add more green to my bodygrips for spring and summer work than the ones I'm painting now.

I guess we all have different philosophies on beaver foothold trap placement, Larry, and none of them is wrong as long as they work. I catch almost all my beaver out of fur season and the majority in September and October. I am very careful to avoid non-targets and pretty good at it because of the way I set. Almost all my footholds are made at constructed sets. Crossovers, natural castor mounds, pull outs and slides are all fantastic locations to catch beaver but are great places to catch coon and rats, too. Trap selection is also important for avoiding catching and killing NT's to.

I construct nearly all of my foothold and (snare) sets with a tile spade on ADC jobs. I dig a half circle in the bank about 18" across and make a fake slide up 2-3' above it on the bank. I also like the water about 4" deep for a front foot catch but I want the beaver walking when it hits my trap. To accomplish this, I make a ledge to place my trap on. Beaver swim with their front legs folded up until they think they need to walk or crawl over an obstruction. I want a foot to fire my trap, not it's chest. A variation of this set I use on rivers and ditches where I have breached the dam is I make a lip on my half circle so my trap is actually in it's own little pond if the water should drop too much. My rear foot catch traps are set elbow deep and offset just as the front foot is. It is much easier to avoid non-targets by setting deep for a hind foot catch but it is also easier to miss a beaver that works the set.

Pan tension is very important IMO, too Adam. I want to miss most NT's but of course the biggest reason for setting heavy is to have that foot go deep into the trap when it trips.

A few days ago I had a beaver move an Alaska #9 all of the way out to the end of a 20' drowning cable UNTRIPPED! I repositioned the trap and did a better job camouflaging it with liquid mud and had the big bitch the next day! She was the last beaver on this farm pond and if that trap had exploded in her face while she was moving it, I probably would have been in for a long fight.

[~ADC~]

Interesting. Want is your thoughts on using small sticks as something for them tom breast into to start them walking over the set? I've put them in at an angle pointed out from the set and just a couple inches under water. The bever bumps its chest into them and them begins to crawl over them where the trap is waiting. (at least that's how it suppose to work....

[4fur]

Breast sticks are a great idea, ADC! But I just don't have access to them on the bottom ditches unless I import them. Which I guess I could do since I import my peeled bait sticks. The bottom drainage ditches are mostly void of trees since they are dredged in less than 5 years. So usually no sticks laying around to grab.

I just read my post and realize how confusing that mess is! I have all my beaver stuff pulled right now while I work the traps but I'll get some pictures when I get back out again.

[LLLTrapper]

Thanks Wayne and that post is interesting. I have had alot of luck with snares and they are lighter than #14s and a drowning rod. It seems that all my jobs have been where I had to walk along ways. LLL

[hvtrapper]

Thanks for sharing, Wayne, and X2 on the Belisle 660!
Turtles + nuisance beaver work =