Walked a half a mile one way today to 3 dams and 2 lodges. Would have been a long walk toting 330s and #5s.

It's going to be a longer walk when you have three or four or more to lug out. Anyways, good luck, git'em!

Yeah toting the beaver out will be the fun part ha

Serious question for you beaver guys

Do you skin and pull what you want (castor/meat/glands,etc) in the woods or do you really tote a whole 50# beaver a 1/2 mile? And then head back in to pack out another and so on?

September of 2020 I tore the meniscus in my right knee.
Little trim, 6 weeks of PT, cortisone shot, was feeling OK.

February of 2021, carried 4 330s 5/8 of a mile and set all 4.

Next morning I had 4 beavers.
Like an idiot, I reset.

Carried 139# of beaver out, sling over my shoulders.
Sat down a few times
Fell down a few more times.
Could see my heartbeat thru my waders time I got back to truck.

But figured I was good to go.

Next am, had 3 more, but 2 were small.

Plan on setting same spot in coming week.
With one ruptured and 1 bulged disc.
Taking a sled with me though.
And hopefully someone MUCH younger, lol

I’m hoping to float them out. lol

Isn’t this the way it goes, had one in the first set I made and one in the last. lol

Optical illusion or does that big one have a small tail? Or maybe it is so fat it just makes the tail look small?

Congrats on the beavers and the workout

Did you flote them or pack them? This thread brings back memories of when I was teaching my little brother in alw to trap when he was in high school. We set some on public land they just spent a bunch on drainage pipe becuse of beavers. In the back side off the river I hung a snare and caught a huge beaver. That was my first lesson on packing out a long distance. I hot the lesson a few more times like walking in a mile and half for deer in hilly country. Getting in and deeper Than others was no problem getting the deer out was work though.

Per Murphy’s law, had to pack out the big one the whole half mile. Picked up the other one for the last 85yds.

BT, that tail is twisted a bit.

I use aPlatic sled and tie them in. Pulling seems easier especially when it comes to fields and Logging Roads.

I did beaver control work for timber companies for many years. That required going to the problem, rather than trap close to the roads. Luckily though, most problems were plugged culverts at roads. Not always though. I remember many times when four beaver were caught a long ways from the truck. I would grab two by the back feet and walk as far as I could till I couldn't hold them any longer. Then go back and grab the other two, and carry to the first two. I rough skinned some. Even the pelt of a couple of blankets is a heavy pack. I also remember tieing 3 beaver in a line and floating them up a shallow creek. Nobody ever said beaver trapping was easy.

A male and prego female. Question, with all the sign that was there I find it hard to believe these are the only two. Will a male have more than one female he tends to?

1/2 mile is nothing. Back in my day, I’d go many miles in many feet of snow

We didn’t have beaver here back in my day. lol

I’ve packed three supers and a couple of otter more than a few times!

I caught one at a caster mound set a month ago. I used 3 snares. He found a way to get his head in each one of those snares. Normally for me, they are so clumsy they knock most of the snares over. Not this one.

I used to do a good amount of coon trapping I could generally have the landowner allow me to drive the tractor lanes an often they would also say it was OK to drive on the hay fields as long as it was not to soft from recent rains One farm the owner grew a lot of sweet corn and the coons would tear up his crop every summer So even when coons where not worth much he wanted me to trap them hard The best spot on his farm for coon was a small stream at the bottom of a large grass pasture area. It had some swampy spots as a rule but it was easy to get around them Well one fall it was raining nearly every day and the pasture was like a sponge It would have been ditches from my truck wheels if I drove it And to get there is was all down hill .And coming back it was all uphill so I was not setting that spot .One day the owner asked if I was setting the lower pasture for coons and I said I had not be able to get in due to the rain .He joking told me it is not that long of a walk even if I am an old man I told him since coons. where worth very little I had come up with anew rule on trapping them .I said if I can WALK UP HILL TO GE TO THE PLAES I PUT TRAPS and walk downhill with any coons I catch I still set for them But if It is the other way around I wait for the ground to dry first .I went on the say that carrying 2 or 3 coons weighting 35 to 50 lbs up hill is more work that what they are worth I agree with your idea of using snares where legel or Cable Restraints instead of traps

cant answer your question,but i trapped a place that had 2 lodges and ALOT of sign,i was sure there was a colony there,but the first day i had 2 pigs and then that was it.no activity after that and the dam break never got fixed.i walked back there recently and the water is all but gone,so those were the only 2,im thinking she was prego too and next year there would have been a colony