Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: Marc St Louis on September 11, 2020, 05:37:05 pm
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There's a creek that drains the swamp that goes around my house. Beavers have decided to dam it up making life....wet. I set up my trail cam next to their dam and set it up to take 3 consecutive pics. After I break the dam during the day they show up like clockwork at 9
(https://i.imgur.com/1xr06p4.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/sWKVi9Y.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/pt1mIgi.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/6Kd98Gs.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/8r9Pj2l.jpg)
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I don’t have any on my property. I’ve seen some very impressive hydro projects they have built though.
Busy as a beaver.
Bjrogg
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Is it legal to rid the world of them or is that a 3 S's situation?
Mark
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If they're doing damage then they are gone. I'm not quite sure if I'm going to get rid of them now though.
Before the Beavers came along this guy showed up
(https://i.imgur.com/tXZIRkv.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/foLSFQF.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/MSDxeAu.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/TtahGxI.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/RzGnsrK.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/IwDS4F2.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/5FDSaxX.jpg)
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Is that a Bittern, I've just seen pictures.
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I agree with your thinking that it is best to leave them be if they aren't causing any real damage. Unfortunately the fur prices on them have been so bad for so long hardly anyone traps them anymore. They are fairly easy to trap in most cases, if it comes to that. When I was young and poor I ate a few. Surprisingly good. If you do need to take them out, consider just cutting a backstrap out of one and trying it.
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Yes it's an American Bittern, we used to call them Mud Hens...don't ask me why.
I've eaten quite a few Beavers when I was young as well as Muskrat. Beavers are good but Muskrat are excellent eating. I'm not a trapper but I've trapped them before, it is easy. When I was young I would use a .22, a shot to the head and that's it. If they're in deep water they sink but float after an hour
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We leave them alone on the farm till they start flooding parts of the fields then dad tells me you know what to do.
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22lr at night with a gud lite. Pull apart damn til you can water running at dusk. Get comfortable and wait. Shoot the big Mama Beavers first not the kits.
You smarten yo a mature beaver and youll have a challenge.
Shawn
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Maybe the price of plews will go up! As far eating, I read somewhere the tail is very good roasted on coals.
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The scouting party with Cpt Lewis and Cpt Clark preferred Beaver as table fare above all else.
HH~
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Drown sets are the easiest way to catch them....there go crazy for carrots...
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the beavers on my friends land destroyed everything until he and the shared owners trapped them all. good riddance and good burgurs!
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My .17 HMR in 20 grain round nose with night vision would do the trick.
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I haven't decided yet if I'm going to remove them. They are making it a bit harder to access the land behind my house for hunting but killing them just for that just doesn't sit right with me. I might just take one for eating.
The most effective way to get them to move on without killing them is to poison their house
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Best way to trap a beaver is;
1) Get a proper sized trap
2) go out during the day and tear a hole in the dam, enough to get the water running through it, audibly.
3) set the trap, under water, in front of that hole.
or just set it in front of the den, under water. Baiting the trap with a small piece of fresh cut aspen works too.
The tails are good eating. The pelts don't get much in the way of money anymore, and this time of year they wouldn't be great anyways... but fleshing and stretching them isn't too much work, and beaver fur is incredibly durable, makes for great trim on moccasins and wrap-arounds. Would make good string silencers and quivers, too.
remove the castors and freeze them, they're worth money.
Properly butchered and prepared, the meat is pretty good. But it's easy to make it awful, too. Makes good dog food, as well, sled dog racers love them. Some guys use them for bear baiting... but that seems wasteful and wrong in about a dozen different ways, for me.
I've got beavers behind the house, like New York has rats. My local R.M. has a bounty on the tails.
if you do decide to shoot them... a spring-fork made from a green sapling can work to recover them when they sink. Split the trunk for about three feet, open it with a stick wedged in it, and use the "spring" tension to grab the beaver under water... basically... "spear" the beaver, knocking the wedge out, and the sapling springs shut, giving you enough grip to pull it up.