Beaver Hunting

[fdnyretired]

Seriously folks.

What is the best way to hunt beaver. I don't want to trap them. What is the best time of day? Is it best to break up their dam? Where and when would you wait? I need to get rid of them.

 

[Sebago Son]

Better Check With The State...

Beavers have special protection under game laws and you will probably have to get a permit to remove them. Shooting is not likely allowed.

My Grandfather who was an Adirondack native Indian used to say that if you needed meat the best way to get it quickly was to find a beaver dam, open up the flowage and wait with a club. This especially true in winter when water levels needed to be maintained to ensure their survival.

That being said, beavers are most active at night. You can dynamite the dams and destroy the lodges and they will move on. BTW, more Game Wardens in Maine have been killed while destroying beaver dams than by any other hazard they face.

Good Luck.

Drew

 

[dkizer22]

First light and last light, set up with a good rifle near their mound.
Check your state laws also. In TN season is year round.

 

[Marshwheeling]

Darn. I thought this thread was going to be about, well, you know...

 

[mamasfatty]

i was gonna say,,get em drunk....but we must be talkin about 2 different things here

 

[pawncop]

Dinner and movie works, so I hear. It sure was hard, dragging the projector out in the woods next to the pond.

 

[Bell Charter Oak Holsters]

Sebago Son's advice is spot on. Destroy the lodge or house and bust the dam and they usually travel. Depending on the level of infestation. This time of year, usually the young adults have been rejected by their parents and seek out new digs. If you only have one pest, your lucky. If you don't get rid of them, there will be more.

I think state DEC might refer you to a licensed nuisance wildlife trapper, at least that's what a neighbor told us. He has several large ponds stocked with trout and bass and has over years past had problems with beaver.

If you shoot them, they sink like a rock. In a few days the bloated carcass will surface. I don't recommend it and I don't know if it's even legal to do so. Probably not.

We had a problem with them in past years on our ponds. By the time we discovered them, the water level rose to the point of overflowing and the pond nearest our house began flooding the leech field of our septic system. We busted the dam with a bulldozer, destroyed the lodge and harrassed them constantly. They moved on. A few years later, we had one, an immature and got rid of him pronto. It is amazing how much they can do in a few nights. We found poplars 10 or more inches in diameter that they harvested. One of the first signs is willows and rushes in the spillway, they seem to start with those and clay mud. Good luck!

Cheers;
Lefty

 

[Fishslayer]

OOPS! You meant something else...

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Seriously folks.

What is the best way to hunt beaver.

Having made a career out of tracking the wiley beaver, I must warn you that it is a most treacherous beast. Some have beautiful pelts while others are almost completely bald-apparently suffering from some type of mange. You must use absolute caution or it can kill you. Study it carefully before making any moves. Move slowly and methodically-don't try to rush things. If at all possible administer a coup de grace after what you think was the kill shot- it is a hardy beast that oft times needs more than one shot to bring down. Sebago Son is correct-that if you destroy the lodge they will leave, but remember this, they will return if the conditions present themselves as they are quite territorial.

Good luck

 

[sourdough44]

You may get one or 2 shooting. Trapping would work 24/7, usually more legal too. You could always look for an experience local trapper. The season should be open about now & they are worth a little anyway.

 

[brucev]

"BTW, more Game Wardens in Maine have been killed while destroying beaver dams than by any other hazard they face." What??? How?

 

[Bell Charter Oak Holsters]

I assume "explosives".

Cheers;
Lefty

 

[beach elvis]

My mother told me a story about back in the '40's when they had a farm in northeastern Ohio with a large creek running through the "back 40".

Beavers had dammed it up and the field was starting to flood. This was back when you could legally own dynamite w/o all the rigamarole, BTW. The dam was about 25 feet long and my grampa went back there and completely blew it up one morning.

Overnight, the beavers completely dammed up the creek again. My grampa and uncles had to go back, shoot the beavers and blow up the dam again. Last trouble they'd had with them, I'm told.

Off-topic: As soon as I read the title of this thread, I thought to myself, "This is the day Sipowitz gets himself banned"

 

[Beaver]

Official Protest

I must officially protest the unnecessary killing of the beaver. Please shoot all the ducks you wish. The beaver is mighty wimpy this year and should be easy to kill however.

 

[semperfi71]

"Off-topic: As soon as I read the title of this thread, I thought to myself, "This is the day Sipowitz gets himself banned" "

I could get banned on this one! And I am a nice, Christian lad (sometimes).

 

[novalty]

"Off-topic: As soon as I read the title of this thread, I thought to myself, "This is the day Sipowitz gets himself banned" "

I could get banned on this one! And I am a nice, Christian lad (sometimes).

I know what you mean. When I read the title, I had to send myself a WARNING on the post I thought about making. Which makes 2 just today with that "flashy" holster thread.

 

[WC145]

If you shoot them, they sink like a rock.

That's exactly right, go figure.
A few years back I handled a beaver complaint for one of the game wardens that was off in the willywags. Seems a city slicker from away had bought a summer place and called in about a beaver in his stream acting strangely. So the warden asked me to check it out and if it was indeed acting unbeaver-like to dispatch it. So I go out there and sure enough this huge beaver isn't running away from people (let me get within a couple of feet of him when he was on the bank) and when he was in the water he was swimming all shaky and odd. So I tell the complainant that I'm going to have to put the beaver down and he wants to know how so I tell him I'm going to shoot it. Then the guy weirds out on me and wants me to live trap it and take it to the vet to be put to sleep. I tell him that isn't happening and that he should go in the house so I can work. He leaves and I wait for the beaver to float by close enough for a head shot and BAM!! And I'll be damned if that thing didn't sink straight to the bottom like the Titanic, never saw anything like it. Luckily I had a catch pole in the truck and was able to reach a foot and drag him out so I could dispose of him.

One piece of advise, don't put them in your vehicle if you can help it because they reek. It took a jug of clorox and a bottle of pinesol to clean the stench out of my pick up bed and I swear if you stood in the right spot you could still get a wiff of that beaver when I sold the truck two years later.

 

[7003006]

Every few years we get them daming up the culverts in our creek,I usually just wait til a couple hours before dark and slowly walk along the bank you will be able to see their wake a ways off then get ready to shoot.I have also sat in a deerstand near their lodge look for bubbles and get ready to shoot,it's amazing how far they will swim before they come up sometimes tho.

 

[A10]

"Off-topic: As soon as I read the title of this thread, I thought to myself, "This is the day Sipowitz gets himself banned" "

I could get banned on this one! And I am a nice, Christian lad (sometimes).

We should be OK as long as we are not talking politics

 

[safearm]

I eradicated a group (?) of them from my pond with a .22LR rifle. Just about sundown I would wait on the berm until they came out of their lodge. Since we're not talking about a creature with a high degree of intelligence, it was easy to pick them off night after night until there were none.