I have been asked to remove some beavers that keep damming a culvert and flooding a road.

Supposedly they have installed the basket devices "properly" and the beavers have just blocked them too.

Ok, so my plan is to cut a hole in the dam to get the beavers out and hell bent on repairing the leak, then I will be using either 222 or 12 gauge with buck. This is in GA so the pelt will likely not be worth saving especially early in the fall.
I have told them that this tributary stream will be repopulated by local beavers from the main stream nearby and they said then we would remove them.

Heck I will get paid mileage and paid for the day so I can go back as often as needed.

Any experts out there to provide assistance with my plan?

LouisB

Beavers are trapped. That's how they get them. The wife has a spectacular sheared beaver coat.

I have seen them in beaver ponds while hunting. They are very secretive and the .222 from a distance would be better but that's going to be time consuming and you may never get them all.

Blow the dam with dynamite! Or trap them yourself. A conabear trap in the culvert works good.

Green willow branches are like candy to them,,If you're looking for a bait.Good luck.

Having done this a couple of times, the best method I have found is to tear out a section of the dam, and then after dark hit them with a spotlight when they arrive to repair it. They will usually freeze when the light hits them.

[ 10-15-2002, 15:16: Message edited by: crowrifle ]

Like Don, my wife has a spectacular sheared beaver......coat.

crowrifle, that is what I had planned, dig thru the "dam (clogged culvert) early in the afternoon and then sit up on the hillside and wait for the repair crew.
Guess I will carry either 30 carbine or 222 and a shotgun loaded with buck.
GA DNR may well help me make these decisions!

Doubt a beaver ever gets prime enough in that area (GA/TN border) to worry about the hide!

I do plan to try eating one if I can get a young one! Any and all recipes (EXCEPT recipe for Beaver on a pine or cedar board) will be gratefully accepted!!

LouisB

OK, where is that book . . . "101 Ways to Eat a Beaver" . . . . bound to be able to find that on the net someplace!

[ 10-17-2002, 04:54: Message edited by: TCLouis ]

Having down this more then once I use a 12ga no4 buck and a full choke. wait with a light and when you hear or see them light them up both ways.

Hey LongBob, how's that sheared beaver....coat look? Is it as nice looking as an unsheared beaver...coat? j/k My dad was given a 60 lb., yes, that is accurate, beaver one time. We butchered it and it made great burger when it was ground up with some beef tallow thrown in. Otherwise, I've found beaver to be good raw. I can't say if young beaver is better than old beaver, I've only had young beaver, and it was good, especially when it is in the red phase coat. I hope my wife doesn't see this... I'm sorry, I'm not a pervert, but I am just out of college and can't resist, it's just to easy.
Willie

Don't worry Willie. You are one among many here.

Thanks Longbob, I'm also a public school band director 5-12, and we obviously don't get to vocalize all of the funny thoughts that run through our minds during the day to the kids, we'd get fired if we do. Fortunately I'm in a small school in Iowa, and if you'd believe it, the women have the sicker minds by far on this staff! It's good to have someplace where such humor is appreciated rather than at school where I could get sued for such fun!
willie

In the prime of my life, working on a large cattle ranch here in MT, I was responsible for irrigation ditch maintenence. Beavers were the primay culprits, and the MT Fish and Game gave me a lot of lattitude on executing my duties.

Shooting beavers is not very sporting, but it is effective. Here is my finely-honed technique, the result of several years of beaver-induced encounters:

About the middle of the day, tear a hole in the dam. As you probably already know, this is not as easy as it sounds. Beavers are attracted to the sound of running water. I recon a boom-box with the appropriate tape would work, but I never had the equipment for that particular approach.

Anyway, come dusk, have yourself in a good position to take a shot when they show up to begin repair work. I finally settled on my 22 Swift for this task. Started with a 300 Win Mag, but got tired of getting wet... I was amazed at how big beavers can get, so be prepared for that.

DEDA

Lastnight while leaving my deer hunting area I happened across two beavers, they were coming out of the woods and just mosying down to the water, would have been easy kills. I got out with camera in hand and went to photo one as it was just about to enter the water and didnt see the HUGE one RIGHT BEHIND ME! He let out a hissing sort of growl and damn near made me ruin my shorts as he plunged into the creek..

Can't resist replying to this one...my Dad was a fur trapper, and I spent a quite afew years as a young'un helping him harvest 100+ beavers every spring. I still have to shoot a dozen or more each year, as they flood my land and chew down my shelter belt. They are very destructive.

A .22 Magnum is the weapon of choice, and clean head shots are the mark of a pro. If you get a head shot (and believe me, there isn't much showing above the water line), they float. Otherwise, they sink. I've shot dozens with a .22 LR, but they often thrash around and kick themselves into the brush. You kind of have to retrieve them, 'cause 50 pounds of ANYTHING is gonna stink if you don't.... Like the other fellas said, you can wait 'till they come out of the water, and they DO come to the sound of a hole in their dam, but they wait until after dark every time. I've heard some folks eat 'em, but I've never tried. They stink like hell when you skin them, and I've never been hungry enough.

Is it true that when threatened Beavers will bite off their own testicles and hand them to the agressor?

I know the ones from Oregon State did that last weekend against the Huskies.

[ 11-17-2002, 09:23: Message edited by: Gator1 ]

I can tell you that a threatened beaver might be intent on biting testicles off but its not his thats involved!
You decide to dust these flatails by shooting them you make sure you build a de-lux stand. Something with a couch and TV maybe 'cuz you could end up spending a lot of time there! Pop one or twoif you like but let a trap take over from there. It just sits and waits and waits and waits. Gonna wait there a lot longer than you are willing to!

TCLouis,don't know about the rest but i have torn out a few for farmers here in VA.One thing I found be carefull around the damns,the Cotton Mouths seem to like them here,almost have been bit twice now. Iused a 22 hornet handloaded with the blitz 55 grain slug as I remember its a little better on th noise problem and easier to get off more than one shot.I found if its a large family more than one will come to repair the damn.

All we have ever used to shoot behogs is .22 long rifle.Sit on the down wind side of the house just before dark,by the dam.when they come out they will come right towards you.You can pop them in the ear at about 10 feet in front of you if you don't move. Done it this way for years. Probaly average 40 to 60 behogs a year.

TCLouis,I used to tear open a notch in the dam and put a #330 Conibear body gripper trap in it.This is very effective, but you only catch one at a time. Those traps are also capable of hurting your hands if they fire unexpectedly. Then I found out about snares. They are great! Not as much fun as shooting them with a .45ACP when you're floating down the river, but very effective.You can order ready made assemblies from The Snare Shop complete with everything you need.Then all you do is find trails that they are using and gang set them with snares. You may catch them all the first night! You need to check the sets every morning as they will be body snared and just waiting for you.It's also good to check in case you've caught someone's dog so you can release it.(Note it is very important to set the snare for holding instead of killing if there are neighbor dogs in the area.)I wish you well, Russ

The one problem for this project is that the site is about 120 miles from the house. I will have to do the shooting during the week because the site is used for training on weekends. Things may slow down a bit now with "winter" weather and holiday season so maybe I could get down there on a friday afternoon and Saturday when noone will be around in December.
Looks like rifle and Shotgun with buckshot. If I have both, one is bound to be right!.
LouisB

I've just finished (yesterday) my two beavers that I shot in april. When I came home I just throwed them in my wifes freezer, and thought: I fix this later. And later was now!! It started to be a problem when I came home with 110 kg. of moose-meat!!
Here in Norway the most common hunting method on beavers (the animal ) is to wait for them to come out of their hut in the morning, and in the evening. We usually wait near the hut, or a good eating place. We usually hunt the beaver in spring time, when the ice on the lakes starts to break up. It's easyer to know where they pops up then.
I have never used the teckniqe of making a whole in the dam, but that does'nt sound to stupid to me.
I have used 308 Win. on all my beavers. Loaded with 110 grs. Sierra HP., and thats a true varminter!!
I have a 22-250 that I wil try next year.
But I strongly recomend to use a rifle!! The one beaver I just skinned was full of shotgun -pellets(?) under the skin. It sure looked like someone else wanted that beaver earlier. It looked like it had been shot some years ago.(this was an big old male.) The beaver -skin sure is tough to penetrate. Just think it over!
Good hunting!!