BEAVER TRAPPING: LEARNING BASIC SETS AND SIGN

[Graybeard]

https://www.wideopenspaces.com/beaver-trapping/



Posted by Emily Kantner

These are the basics of trap sets for nuisance beavers.

Along with skunks, American beavers (Castor canadensis) are the most popular furbearers throughout North America. While beaver ponds can provide habitat for muskrats, mink, fish, and other wildlife, unchecked beaver populations can also do a lot of harm. They destroy trees, plug culverts, and block migrating fish, to name a few.

Responsible trapping can limit the negative effects of beaver dams and help manage sustainable populations.

Much of the beaver trapping that happens today is specifically for population and damage control. However, there are plenty of people who trap for fun and profit from the pelts too. These are the basics of getting started trapping beavers.

Beaver Sign

Beavers are typically easy to locate via obvious sign. A fresh dam is a sure signal that beavers aren't far, as is a beaver lodge. These large shelters are constructed of mud and sticks to protect them from predators such as bobcats and coyotes, another animal that can be harvested by trapping. They're usually not very subtle, which makes lodges easy to spot.

Look for a feed bed nearby, where brush is piled to store the winter food supply. You should also find clearly used trails, both on land and underwater, near the structures. Heavily used trails may be worn down to the bare dirt in some high-traffic areas.

Beaver Traps

Depending on your preferred setups, you'll need some or all of the following:

* Heavy coil-spring traps

* Double longspring foothold traps

* Large bodygrip traps

* 330 conibear traps

* Non-powered cable devices and cage traps

* Snares

Beaver Sets

Submersion trapping systems are most common for intelligent beavers. Trappers typically place sets in open water during late fall and early spring. But winter, when pelts are at their most valuable, calls for setting them through the ice. These are some of the most popular beaver sets.

* Castor Mound Set: Construct a mock castor mound, which beavers make to mark their areas, near the water's edge and set a foothold trap on the trail leading up to it.

* Leaning Pole Set: For this under-ice set, place bait on a leaning pole and attach a trap a couple feet below it. The beaver will use it as a step to reach the bait, and the rest is history.

* Snare Pole Set: Attach two snares to a vertical pole - usually under ice - and set it in a beaver run with or without bait. As beavers try to dodge the pole or grab the bait, the snare will catch them.

* 330 Runway Set: Set a 330 conibear on a beaver trail near the lodge entrance, where beavers will frequently swim through.

Be sure to set traps properly to guarantee a quick, ethical kill. Depending on trapping seasons, you may also need to take measure to avoid catching otters in your beaver sets. This can include using beaver-specific bait, choosing proper placement, and adjusting trigger on bodygrip traps.

Wildlife agencies have different trapping regulations from state to state, so be sure to do your research before purchasing anything. Not all traps and sets are legal everywhere. A little research now can save some real headaches later. Trapping beavers can be challenging at first, but it's a fun and rewarding winter and spring activity that can help you make a little extra money on the side through the sale of pelts.

[Ranger99]

None to be had around the places
I can trap at. The meat and glands
and secretions are supposed to make
for an excellent predator bait

[trapper9260]

I trap them ever season here . It is for farmers and land owners . It got me in to trap other furbearers . I use snares and conibears and footholds to trap them. Yes their sign is easy to see. It is the smart ones are hard to trap .

[BUGEYE]

I trap them ever season here . It is for farmers and land owners . It got me in to trap other furbearers . I use snares and conibears and footholds to trap them. Yes their sign is easy to see. It is the smart ones are hard to trap .

Welcome to GBO
I trapped when I was a kid, caught a lot of coons, and I still have a #2 single spring dyed and waxed hanging in my shop, but it'll stay right there, I'm too old now.

[trapper9260]

Thank you Bugeye , I have some undersprings of #2  traps still also some others beside other makes , I make my own snares  I have slow down on my trapping , due to medical problems . But still look to make it work . Lost if I did not trap when  the season opens. My line is not as big as it was about 15 years ago.

[Buckskin]

The only point to trapping these days is varmint control and entertainment, unless you use the pelts yourself.  Truely sad how poor the market has become over the last several years.

I recently read an article comparing the price of furs from the 1800 until now, unfortunately I cannot find it now.   It was staggering how much they would be worth now incorporating inflation compared to their actual worth now.

I did find this: If a Nēhiyaw trapper (the people the English called the Cree) showed up at York Factory on Hudson’s Bay in the early 18th century, he could trade 23 made beaver pelts for a Hudson’s Bay Company musket, a cleaning kit, a bullet-mold, two pounds of lead and a five pound keg of black powder.  And of course Hudson Bay Fur got filthy rich!

This is a passage from a report made in American territory (Oregon) in 1836–37:
“The price of a beaver skin in the ‘Columbia district’ is ten shillings, $2, payable in goods at 50 per cent on the invoice cost. Each skin averages one and a half pound, and is worth in New York or London $5 per pound; value $7.50.  In 1836, $2.00 is more than a skilled craftsman earned in a day.

[BUGEYE]

I think silk hats is what killed the beaver trade, and Russia and China seems to be the major buyers of wearable furs because it's cold there and the fashion nazis haven't been throwing acid on fur wearers.

[O-mega]

Apparently the money is not in the fur, but the price a trapper charges a landowner to trap the nuisance beavers.  I recently talked to an adjoining landowner to hash out some hunting (retrieving) rights and he said he pays about $1400 to a trapper to keep the beavers from damming the river, or tearing up his crops, I didn't know about the crop damage, just figured they kept to the river/creeks.  I have some beavers on my portion as well, but since it is just hunting land, they can dam all they want, gives me more area to fish.  I may take one here and there, I hear beaver is good to eat 

[Buckskin]

I think silk hats is what killed the beaver trade, and Russia and China seems to be the major buyers of wearable furs because it's cold there and the fashion nazis haven't been throwing acid on fur wearers.

Fur farming also killed the trapping, mink farms for the most part.  When I was a kid a big buck would bring $40-50 now they are worth less than $10.

[Buckskin]

Apparently the money is not in the fur, but the price a trapper charges a landowner to trap the nuisance beavers.  I recently talked to an adjoining landowner to hash out some hunting (retrieving) rights and he said he pays about $1400 to a trapper to keep the beavers from damming the river, or tearing up his crops, I didn't know about the crop damage, just figured they kept to the river/creeks.  I have some beavers on my portion as well, but since it is just hunting land, they can dam all they want, gives me more area to fish.  I may take one here and there, I hear beaver is good to eat 

We had a dam on a small creek when I was about 16, flooded a small 6 acre corn field.   That was the most incredible duck hunting I've ever seen anywhere.  I trapped 11 beavers off of one set that fall, biggest was a 76# behemoth, every day I had another until they were gone.

[trapper9260]

I trap for a hobby and what I get for the furs pays for what I want to have paid for and still be ok. I got in alot of places because some that was trapping only done it only for the money. Will not see the price of furs be like it was in the 80's. Those days are gone . I been in this for many years with the ups and downs. Yes I like to get the money for the furs but also it also supply me with meat also for the freezer, Just that alone save me . with the cost of meat , you will save . You need to skin the animals anyways to sell the furs. Yes beaver is good and lean meat , You need to add some fat to it . same a muskrats , Coon if  you do not take the glands out , it will not be as good and possum is very fatty . Need to trim alot of the fat off. They are buying beaver skins by the pound after they are put up. Like they did in the 1800's . You end up with more now for selling them that way besides the castors , that they buy by the oz. .