Beavers plugging up my risers

[fivemile]

Beavers are working hard to plug up my flashboard risers. Got a good idea from someone on the forum last night, but thought I would check to see if any other ideas to keep them out of the risers.

[Wingman]

330 conibear. That's the only surefire way.

Wingman

[Doc & Nash]

A 30-06 seems to work fairly well.

[Bustin' Ducks]

ditto.....

[Delta Duck]

Hey Fivemile, Don't let water run threw them, no running water no damn problem.

Maybe someone else has some better ideas!

[GulfCoast]

Let Delta Duck blow them suckers up for ya! I saw him blow the better part of a beaver dam over a 40 foot oak tree one time. Big ole bore beaver flying through the air like a dart.....way cool!

[ducman77]

I like the .223

[Blanton Wildlife]

Beavers are working hard to plug up my flashboard risers. Got a good idea from someone on the forum last night, but thought I would check to see if any other ideas to keep them out of the risers.

If you can kill one and hang it or lay it by the pipe they will leave that pipe alone. I have tried it and it works on dams also. I have used rotten meat before and beaver

[judge jb]

place a ladder stand next to your riser and remove a board just before sundown.....sit tight with a good light and a pocket of 22 ammo... head shots are definate.... as wingman said, the only surefire way is with a beaver in hand......


judge jb


ps. anything larger than a 22 is illegal after dark.

[Double R 2]

Just to be on the safe side, be sure to invest in a good ol' fashioned potatoe rake too. Might need to put a long, sturdy handle on it. It ain't fun, but it'll get the water moving again.

Give me a holler if you need any dams blown.

[peewee]

If you can kill one and hang it or lay it by the pipe they will leave that pipe alone.

I once trapped a beaver in a coniber in a ditch that I blew if Flora, went back and check it the next morning and the damn was back up. After fighting through the stick to get the conibear out, I found I actually caught one. The other beavers covered him up with sticks and mud. I guess they were just giving him a funeral

[Delta Duck]

I never had any luck with leaving dead beavers on dams.

[tunica]

At least the coyotes should of left a thank you note, water and meat with alittle greens on the side served in a gumbo base heck it don't get anybetter does it?

[00ducksr.]

dont know if this will help you and you will have to keep a very close watch; ie every day in the morning and late afternoon get a tin pie plate or aluminum one /shiney/ get some d con rat posion sardines and set the buffet ,it needs to be almost full . the deal worked at my boathouse at pickwick where they were trying to build a home up under it and in the process of tearing up my boat house///

[Wingman]

If I were a game warden and I found poison, there'd be a hefty fine to pay. That sardine trick will draw coons, possums, mink, dogs, cats and everything else that comes to a stinky fish smell.

Man, just go buy you a 330 conibear and set it up like this.

Dam running across the ditch...make two breaks in the dam with your boot, about 3 feet apart. Make them about 1 foot across and deep enough for a good flow of water to run through for a while. Place your coni perpendicular to the dam, with about half of the trap or maybe 1/3 of it above the surface of the water. You'll need a couple of beaver sticks through the springs to hold it up...make an X out of the sticks and the trap will stay put. Put a bigger beaver stick on the deep-water side of the trap, or make a little fence on the deep water side. What the beavs will do, is swim up to one break, fix it, swim alongside dam to fix the other break and swim through your trap. Stake your trap out to deep water using some 10 gauge wire..wiring the trap to something heavy or either a long stick stuck in the mud. Buy a 50 cent drowner and put on the end of your trap, so that it will slide down the wire, but not back up. You can catch every beaver on your place like this. DON'T FORGET TO TAKE SAFETY LATCHES OFF OF YOUR SPRINGS OR YOU WILL HAVE A SPRUNG TRAP AND A SCHOOLED BEAVER!
Or...you can use a foothold trap. Make a good break in the dam, about 6 inches deep and a foot wide. You want a big enough break so that the beaver brings a stick to patch it up with at first instead of mud from the bottom. If he pushes mud up from the bottom, he will more than likely bulldoze your trap and if it snaps in his face, he'll be one bad booger to trap later. Make a little ledge(more like a bowl shape) with your boot between the deep water and the break. Place your foothold on that ledge, with the jaws laying to the L and R, not with one jaw toward deep water and one jaw toward dam(doing it the latter way, his foot will bounce out of the trap when the jaw begins to close under his leg). Make your trap be about 8 inches below the surface. Place a large beaver stick at edge of trap, between deep water and trap, and leave the stick about 2 or 3 inches above the trap. This stick keeps the beaver's tail from slapping the trap. The beaver will usually swim up with stick in his mouth, bump his chest on the stick poking up out of the mud and put his front foot down. When he does, he will usually put his foot right in the trap. You can even offset the trap a couple inches L or R to center his foot. You want a front foot catch here, as a back foot catch usually will let the beaver keep his head up for air even though the trap is down at the bottom where the weight is. And a beaver in a trap that doesn't die quickly is as bad as pinning a wildcat in a corner. He will literally twist and roll until he has rolled all of your drower wire up into a neat little ball, and either chew or wring his foot off and be gone. Also, putting your trap on the ledge instead of directly in the break, will keep you from catching all the critters that travel the dam nightly. Coons, bobcat, deer, dogs, coyote, possum, skunk and everything else use dams as bridges.

Trapping is fun, and makes you notice all of the small details that you usually miss when out in the woods.

Wingman