Pesky Beavers

[Double Naught Spy]

Video...

https://youtu.be/ZmOAZueTgxs

My folks have about 23 acres and a little spring fed stream just outside of town, literally across the street from the city limits. The first beavers appeared nearly 20 years ago and the folks didn't mind the few trees they cut down as the creek was overgrown. Then the beavers started moving inland and taking the fruit trees pop had planted. They were grabbing these more than 100 yards from the creek. All of a sudden, they weren't cute anymore.

Over the years, the folks have tried various trappers (kill and relocation) and such and then I got involved with trying to trap the beavers. That worked pretty well, but I had some unfortunate by-catch (snapping turtle, raccoons, squirrel). So I took to shooting them and I find it much more enjoyable and sometimes more efficient.

Well the beavers are back after about 3 years and had built a fairly large dam for the tiny creek. It was mostly a mud dam and there wasn't any immediate sign of the beavers taking trees, though I have no doubt trees are missing. Here is a video of my efforts to get rid of the beavers. My apologies for the lack of focus. The combined factors of being in a hurry to get my first kill, too much zoom, and the beavers being wet, together resulted in the video not looking as good as it shoot. My goal was first on getting the kill, not videography.

[Sticks]

Interesting. Saw your other post in the knock down thread.

I guess a head shot does not always equal DRT.

[Double Naught Spy]

No, it does not. Back when I did a lot of self defense training, that was one thing I was always trying to impress upon people is that with the human head, only about 30% of it is critical structure (brain, brain stem) in order to get a physiological cessation of aggressive activities. The rest is stuff like the cranium and face. There are a lot of angles from which the human head can be hit and no vital structures are destroyed. Then you have the times when bullets glance off the skull and fail to penetrate or do any deeper cerebral damage.

Even if you hit the brain on critters, they often got through their death spasms. I have shot hogs through the brain and had had them remain kicking for nearly a minute. Of course on the ground, they don't go anywhere. I used to find this very disturbing to watch, fearing the animal was still alive and trying to get up and I would pump more rounds into it and the animal would just keep right on kicking. So the animal may be "dead" but until all the oxygen is gone from its system, the nerve impulses may continue to fire and the animal thrash about involuntarily.

[customcutter]

Great video, and thanks for reminding everyone that yes those bullets can ricochet off of water. The In-laws have several ponds and creeks on the property in Al and several beavers. Last year was a wet one and a pair of beavers moved into a head across the road from the house. It drained through a culvert, down a ditch into one of the creeks on the north side of the pasture. Naturally the beavers started damming up the culvert as it was the smallest area for the water to flow through. This caused the backed up water to rise up into the only entrance road into the south pastures, making a soupy mess. We would clean the sticks and debris out of the 24" culvert each day, and each night I would try to find the beavers in the head approx 200yds by 300yds with my thermal. With temps in the 30's, I would spend a couple of hours before giving up. Never did get those pesky beavers....LOL

[VASCAR2]

We're dealing with the same problem now but the lake has been frozen last few days. Will be above freezing next few days, I'm sure the beavers will be more active. Great video again Double Naught Spy!

[Texas]

Beavers are tearing up two of the dams on our farm and we have had some success with 330 body traps, but there is some side catch. We have set up a night stand so that we can cover both dams at the same time. Now we have Otter, and they will decimate the fish population if we don't get them fairly quickly.
I always enjoy your videos. Thank you for the effort.

[Rugerfan.64]

That's $40 worth of beaver tail here. Save em and check to see if the ASCS office has any beaver money. Good shooting by the way.

[Kilco]

People laugh, but we had a huge damn built one summer on a stream next to our food plot. After a weeks worth of me trying to pick them off one at a time night after night, I purchased 8 pounds of tannerite and set it in the deepest part I could still get a safe shot.

Saw one beaver sence, and ended his mourning quickly.

[Double Naught Spy]

Tannerite for the dams can be very beneficial, but not in my location.

Checked on the dam yesterday. No more repairs being made and the water level was down more than a foot. So maybe there were only two? Will check back in a couple of days...

[newb]

Good sized flat tail water rats....

[sneaky one]

Great shooting DNS. We had a 78 lb. beaver near our area- medium size stream-- he blocked the walking-bike trail around our development.. A pro beaver trapper was hired- no shooting in my town., to catch him.

He was taking down 12-15" diam trees !

[Double Naught Spy]

That's a big beaver! I have only killed a few, but the 41 pounder is amongst the largest. Several I have killed have been less than 30 lbs and were probably juveniles.

[Constitutionalist]

Great video! Gotta save my nickels for one of those thermal sights!

I've been beaver trapping for 37 years. Keep your traps in the water and you'll limit any non-targets. I haven't caught a non-target animal in over 20 years and I take 60-75 beaver a year.

Happy New Year, Guys!

John

[rickt300]

Beaver is fine table fare, try it, cook it just like a beef roast.

[Texas]

Great video! Gotta save my nickels for one of those thermal sights!

I've been beaver trapping for 37 years. Keep your traps in the water and you'll limit any non-targets. I haven't caught a non-target animal in over 20 years and I take 60-75 beaver a year.

Happy New Year, Guys!

John

Are you using the conibear 330s for beaver?