Beaver problem

[LazyJ_Arabians]

They've been around and haven't bothered me much but today I found where they had started cutting down a large native dogwood tree and I declared war. Sat in the woods for three hours tonight and shot 5 with 12ga 00 buckshot and they all five kept on swimming, albeit much faster. How tough are these things? Hate to shoot a rifle into the water. Will I have to resort to a trapline?

[egon]

Mayhaps try and wait till they are on land and a little closer. Traps would be more effective.

Also consider wraping some of your favorite trees with metal to discourage the beaver. This may be the easiest depending on the amount of trees.

Egon

[johnday]

Maybe paint some Tanglefoot a couple feet up the trunk? [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Ah, ma nature's cute little buck toothed warm cute fuzzy rodent, again the target of unwarranted repression. They are only doing what comes naturally....gag!

If you get up high enough so you can get a good down angle on the water, there is no particular danger of glancing a rifle bullet off in an unitended direction. My neighbors have found shotguns to be effective on the dam rodents (yes it is an intentional pun of sorts) if you get in close enough but rifles like a .243 or 22-250 are very effective. A 22-250 with properly selected bullets is virtually ricochet proof as may be other high velocity rounds with similar bullets. I shoot 52 grain gilding metal jacketed hollow points that virtually brreak up into dust on contact with the slightest thing (rain drop, blade of grass, or twig) They have proven over the decades to be safe to shoot around stock when shooting ground squirrels. They disintegrate on impact and the little pieces are very unaerodynamic and decelerate quickly to non injurious velocities and energies.

That said, it is tough to shoot them all as some wander away and come back on their own schedule and the first indication you have another beaver could be the loss of a fine and wonderful OLD tree. I have had considerable success with connibear traps. Leg hold traps where the animal would be caught while underwater and drown immediately would be my second choice. I don't like traps that don't kill right away and leave the animal struggling but that is just me and my "tender streak."

I strongly believe beaver have a rightful place in the natural scheme of things, just that that place is somePLACE else and not on my PLACE. I have lost MANY wonderful trees to those industrious rodents. I have oodles of stumps ranging up to nearly 3 ft in diameter. I have precious few nice BIG trees left anywhere near my 10 ponds and many of those have varying degrees of beaver damage. Much of this damage was done prior to my purchase but unfortunately the loss continues, albeit at a slower pace with my active intervention.

You can wrap the first 3-4 ft of a trunk in sheet metal and stop a beaver. Tanglefoot does work but it too isn't cheap. It would be my first choice if I were trying to maintain a viable beaver population but protect selected trees. I really don't need or want beaver on the place so I put out traps and will shoot them on sight if able. I would be more generous if I didn't have overflow pipes to keep clear of their "REPAIRS" to avoid blowing out my pond dams.

Best of luck to you in handling the toothed menace.

P.S. Be very careful if you handle one. IF it weren't REALLY DEAD it might inflict quite a bite with those chisels.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[LazyJ_Arabians]

I've got three ponds in a series along a watershed, the first and oldest and largest has had beaver for decades and they do a good job of maintaining a natural spillway and there's plenty of willow to keep them there, or so I thought. Obviously a fertile year and recent rainfall has caused the population to spread to the lower ponds which have 12" culverts as spillways and boy can they plug up a culvert before you can take your hipboots off. Upon going in for the third dam destroying mission I found a rock precisely 12" round stuffed in the pipe. Understand that I often brag that there's not a rock on my place, but they somehow find one and position the thing perfectly braced inside the pipe, had to hammer it out with a piece of iron pipe. Broke the handle in my favorite hoe too.

Certainly a formidable foe, I bought 3 Victor 330 Conibear traps and some beaver castor at the coop and set them this evening. Boy, there's a dangerous undertaking, the $20 setting tool I did not get was a bargain.

As for hunting them, I'm curious if maybe because of all the fur and blubber maybe they can take alot of lead without much damage. When I was a kid and had eyesight I could shoot them in the head with a .22 and they'd roll right over. I'll setup a climbing tree stand tomorrow and take advantage of the full moon with a scoped rifle.

If this action doesn't push them back where they belong, I'll find something to blow up their lodges with. My actions have already caused the wife to compare me to Bill Murray (Caddyshack) the gopher hunter. Told her when I came in this evening "we're having beavertail for breakfast, baby!"

[LazyJ_Arabians]

Three traps along the 100 yard stream between pond #1 (theirs) and pond #2 netted three small beaver. I climbed 15' up a pine tree right on the edge of pond #1 tonight. As soon as the moon came up I counted at least 20 beaver swimming in this 1.5 acre pond. A 30-06 shooting straight down was just the ticket for six more of the bigger beav (immediate bellyup) and they never figured out where I was.

The traps are set again tonight but I'm betting they won't venture out much for a couple days because I did some major brush removal and channelization along their trail (creek). I don't think any are actually living on pond #2 at this point, they're just trying to get the water up high enough to flood the timber and then setup house. But if they do dam construction on pond #2 spillway tonight I'll move a trap to that area and concentrate on catching the true offender(s).

Thanks goodness I had a couple days off at just the right time to deal with these little hydrological engineers and I got to see a shooting star cross the entire western hemisphere sitting in a tree tonight. Much more nightime shooting though and I'm sure the game warden will be setting a trap for me.

[Pat]

LazyJ, I had similar thoughts, briefly, regarding beaver, all the cut off willow saplings, etc. ..B U T.. there was plenty of facts in evidence to the contrary. Namely a plethora of large stumps that were obviously beaver cut. Man O man would I have loved to have purchased this property prior to the heavy beaver damage. Still we love it but miss those BIG trees. I was gratified to note that some of the trees in the process of being attacked have callused over on their wounds now that I have intervened.

Connibear traps work for me. Yes, you do need to be alert, careful, some strong, and determined to set them. I bought over the net but balked at the price of the setting tongs. I actually measured the proportions on the screen and built my own. It is just a couple pieces of flat bar with a bolt for the pivot and notches to fit the trap. Only cost a few bucks to make two sets. One set as a thank you gift to the guy who loaned me some traps before I bought my own. I made my handles longer for more leverage and like them fine. Sure makes for a safer operation and a lot less struggle.

Please please please be careful... those traps could put you in a world of hurt.

I read about but haven't used the castor nor did I recover any from my prevous captures. I like to set traps at the waters edge where they have slides. I sometimes put large branches on either side in a funnel shape to help guide the animal to its demise. I have a 30 inch culvert under my driveway that takes the overflow of a series of ponds under the drive to the next pond in that series. Beaver liked to partially plug it but I set a trap in the culvert since they were using it as a pedestrian underpass and got the rodent.

Collateral kills so far have been 2 turtles and 2 armadillos. Actually, one of the turtles was in a borrowed leg hold trap. Even when you think you have got them all in an area, more wander in. It doesn't hurt to leave a few taps out in good loacations. I have caught a couple when I was not aware of there being any more around.

I have used their instincts against them. I partially break up one of their dam sites and set traps around the break. They come to do repairs and sometimes get in a trap. Depending on topography, this sometimes works better with leg hold traps.

Repeating for effect: Some rifle calibers can lend themselves to ricochet free shooting. Among these is the 22-250 for which there are bullets that are highly frangible. Not a good deer hunting caliber but terrific varmint gun. Flat shooting and will "git 'er done." I zero for 200 yds and am only 3/4 inch high at 100 yds and about 4 inches low at 300 yds. Anything from point blank ranges (as close as you can focus the scope) to about 225 yds or so, you just ignore "hold over" or "hold under" and just aim with the cross hairs. It will "do" a beaver just fine (assuming you aren't interested in the meat or pelt.)

Best of luck to you in your rodent control program.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Egon, If there were lots of beaver and few trees, I would lean toward the static metal solution. As I have few beaver and many trees (smaller trees but loved nevertheless) I opt for traps and dynamic metal sloutions (dymanic metal=bullet.) Actually, my beaver population stays pretty low but I haven't enough nice large trees to let nature take its course. So... traps for me. I'd be pleased to shot some but it is a lot of work to get to see one of them.



[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[egon]

When there are lots of trees beavers have a habit of increasing in number to match the food supply.

In some situations metals in the kinetic energy state are definetly more effective than in a static state. Of course it must all be converted back to the static state to do any good.

Egon

[Gatorboy]

Check out Beaver Solutions. I have a beaver problem as well, but I am thinking about installing the flexible leveler system to keep the pond at it's current level. Beavers do not build up the pond until they have too -- meaning the water is flowing over the sides. If you keep the water level constant, then hopefully they won't be cutting down all my trees.