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Got my first beaver today

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  • Got my first beaver today

    First year I've tried any beaver trapping and we finally connected! This guy weighed in at 45 pounds
    Attached Files

  • #2
    Big guy . Do you do the fur yourself or send it out ?
    Saw a beaver on our trail cam but no dams?
    Got an otter

    Comment


    • DitchLeeper
      DitchLeeper commented
      Editing a comment
      This year we are gonna do all the tanning ourselves. I used to sell my hides or have a taxidermist tan the ones i wanted.

    • DitchLeeper
      DitchLeeper commented
      Editing a comment
      They may not make a dam if they have a large pond or lake to inhabit already.

  • #3
    We have them on the farm and their population is cyclical. Some years (or decades) we don’t have any problems, then there’s a population explosion, and BOOM...I gotta get out the Dino mite and start sniping them from the banks. Right now we have a fresh dam where they’ve never built one before, flooding about 10 acres of hardwoods. They are very destructive to a forest. Having said that, I love the ecosystem the create, but they can’t just creat a pond and live there. They are like humans....they have to make it bigger, and bigger, and biggggger.
    me and a buddy bought a piece of “farm land” about 30years ago from an old lady who wanted the money and didn’t care about the land. It was a holdover from an earlier time, some land her family had been granted as part of being freed slaves, from what I was told. All her kids had moved off up north and she wanted to basically do the same. Me and my buddy had hunted it for years with her blessing, and had put much meat on her table as a thank you. It was a 120 acres, very flat land, with about 40 of it cleared for farming, but the soil was so poor it would barely grow a weed, and it was so flat it didn’t drain well. A creek ran through it in the timber part, and beavers dammed it up. It flooded about 10 acres of oak and made for some of the best duck hunting I’ve ever been part of. The beavers went unchecked for a couple years and before we knew it, they had flooded nearly the entire property, the neighbor’s property, and backed all the way up until it flooded a highway. The county finally came down and dug out part of the dam, but it didn’t take long until they had patched that up. The county eventually hired a professional trapper to come in and remove the beaver...and he earned his money.

    beaver trapping is a lot like work. Good on you for saving a tree, Ditch Leeper!!
    Wandering wherever I can, mostly in Eastern Arkansas, always looking down.

    Comment


    • DitchLeeper
      DitchLeeper commented
      Editing a comment
      I feel the same. They are destructive but create abundance of habitat for other wild life. Thats why i feel an inportance in controlling populations, not wiping them out

  • #4
    I don't know how they did it, but beaver tails in Canada are amazing! I was thinking it would be tough and chewy, but they were light, fluffy and sweet.


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    Hong Kong, but from Indiana/Florida

    Comment


    • DitchLeeper
      DitchLeeper commented
      Editing a comment
      Ha! If I seen one prepared like that I'd give it a try

  • #5
    But in all seriousness, good on you, they are an example of a critter that needs predators to check their population. They are great to see, create some wonderful habitat in the right areas, but they have expanded in range like coyotes in many states. I never saw them as a kid in Indiana (wiped out early in the fur trade era) and now they are a pest that doubles its population every couple of years because they are disease resistant, they live a long time, and their pups have a relatively low
    mortality rate.

    My parents had a lake cottage for decades, in the last 10 years they and their neighbors had to pay trappers every year to get rid of them. They burrow in to the banks and erode the shore, killed dozens of big trees, etc.
    Hong Kong, but from Indiana/Florida

    Comment


    • DitchLeeper
      DitchLeeper commented
      Editing a comment
      Like all critters, populations have to be controlled. We had a large flood this spring on the missouri river and all the creeks and potholes in the river bottoms are loaded with beaver. They are destroying wood lots and denning in flood levees.

  • #6
    I was shocked and uneducated .
    learned in the past that the big felt top hats were made out of beaver felt .
    There was a fur trade in that Hudson Bay Area .
    Well we have a beaver that gets a going to where we can’t cross a road . So off we go in the spring to open up the dam way back in the woods .
    Thats those big snake boots I wear a Jethro . Besides the snakes it’s a briar stomper and mud wallo helper .
    We get to cross it for a bit and he gets it all damed up again .
    nothing beats your story Jethro .

    Comment


    • #7
      Herbert our friend almost 80 gets out there and leads the pack .
      let me know how the tanning goes . Been on Utube trying to see if I can handle a deer cape . Idk looks like a lot of work but 2 bucks year is a waste . I need to get on this .

      Comment


      • DitchLeeper
        DitchLeeper commented
        Editing a comment
        Ill post some of the tanning progression when we start this spring. I feel confident about it but i already have experience fleshing the skins so that helps

    • #8
      Beaver skin is super lush and warm. A buddy of mine I trapped with when I was a kid, his dad used to take some hides and tan them. He used some pretty odd stuff, if I remember correctly, like salt, brains, ashes from a fire pit, and urine. I forget the combination/process, and he was an old timer, so it was probably some ancient recipe.
      Wandering wherever I can, mostly in Eastern Arkansas, always looking down.

      Comment


      • DitchLeeper
        DitchLeeper commented
        Editing a comment
        Sounds like a brain tan method. Makes soft, naturally tanned hides but it is more work

    • #9
      I watched a clip on first you have to really clean it from not just the meat but all the fibers and I know you all know that .
      Then a salt bath I ca. Do all that but that tanning process after it’s hard and you have to rub and pull it .
      I am going to have to pay the guy .

      Comment


      • #10
        Good catch. A pretty good sized animal you caught. What kind of trap and set did you use.? in Alaska we trapped them underwater sometimes using a conibear trap and bat the set with willow cuttings. I've skinned a lot of wild animals but the hardest one for me by far is a beaver It is a skill and an art to make a perfectly round pelt and stretch it properly. I really never learned the knack of it. Most furbearers llike mink, foxes, wolves, etc. can be stretched over a board but not a beaver. I still have a western style hat that I bought 50 years ago that still sheds water like rubber. I don't think felt made of other furs or wool will shed water like beaver felt. Maybe I'm wrong cause I never was one to wear felt hats much.
        Last edited by sailorjoe; 01-01-2020, 12:40 AM.

        Comment


        • DitchLeeper
          DitchLeeper commented
          Editing a comment
          Caught it with a Duke 330 conibear trap. Set at an entrance of a bank den.

        • Tam
          Tam commented
          Editing a comment
          That’s it Joe Beaver felt its suppose to be the best .

      • #11
        Thats awesome.......thats a monster beaver.....good catch man
        Last edited by Benji; 01-07-2020, 08:39 PM.
        Benny / Western Highland Rim / Tennessee

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        • #12
          I hope you mark your traps. I talked to a trapper and asked if he marked his so nobody would step on them and he said no.
          NW Georgia,

          Comment


          • DitchLeeper
            DitchLeeper commented
            Editing a comment
            No i dont mark my traps. Only traps i have that would hurt anyone are set under water where people wont be, especially during the winter months. As far as setting footholds on land, i step on every trap i have when i take them out and have never gotten close to getting caught. Our feet are way to big. Also if someone does happen to step on one of my traps they are trespassing and shouldnt be there anyways. Now if i were somewhere that i could trap mountain lion, bear, or wolf and needed larger traps i would probally take some extra precautions.

          • SurfaceHunter
            SurfaceHunter commented
            Editing a comment
            I walk in creeks when its 30 degrees. I have permission but still it would be good.
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