I see a lot of pictures of beavers held live in snares usually sitting on the bank, high and dry. I'll be trapping a shallow lake, with few spots to drown a beaver. Even in the spots with 4' water, I'm still not sure I can get a snared beaver to drown.

What's everyones thoughts on this? I know you can wire a snare off to a nearby tree, but if there isn't one big enough, close enough, can they be just cross or long staked? (soil is pretty solid)

I make extension's for my snares 6-10 ft. and just stake down with a 2 ft. rebar stake, in loose ground a berkshire works fine.

ifin ya want to ruin a good beaver, by all means , dry land snare the sucker. If the lock don't ruin him , he will be full of cable stripes. I never set a snare for a beaver unless I put the snare on a drowning rod.
If you have deep enough water nearby, them make you a castor mound set. The beaver will find it. I make them come to me, I don't chase after them.

don, You must have wimmpy and weak beaver where you come from. I just dont seem to have that problem in the 5 states where I have Live Snared beaver.
Sure once in a great while I might get some slight damage. But I'm sure once in a great while you will get some slight damage out of a trap too.

Thanks for the replies so far.

Newt, How about some staking ideas?

Don, this will be mostly a 'damage control job'. They guy wants to shoot them (with his 270), but offered to give me a couple weeks to get as many out of there as I can. I'm not sure I can afford to pass up a lot of sets. My guess is that a 270 might do more damage than cable marks.

Newt as a furbuyer I see a lot of snare damage on beaver. One of the biggest problems I see besides the snare damage is the fighting that beaver do. seems a live beaver in a snare, attracts all his old enimies. I see a lot more bites from people that sell me beaver that are live snared.
I may buy wimpy beaver, but, funny thing, all the beaver I catch in snares that are drowned, have 90% less damage on them.
They have a very faint white line from the snare, where as most that are caught in live snares have a dark red cable line with occasional clear spots on them from the locks.
I also see a lot of cable striping on the fur part. These are places the beaver has had the cable slide acrossed his fur and actually cut or break the guard hair and even pull underfur out of the beaver.
Newt you must remember, Sir, you are an expert snare man. Not every body has your expertise. I am sure you have been through all this stuff at one time or the other and have learned special ways of avoiding the damage that a snare can cause a beaver.

Trapper Jake, where do you live in So Ill.? I could use some beaver .

I'm with Don on this one. I watched that Beaver DVD and a beaver caught In a live snare was one wild critter. I would also think that those snare marks would realy show up In the tanning procses as weak points. I've seen that In coon hides after tanning.

PM to ya, Don.

Gary I don't think that a lot of trappers know what snare damage on a beaver is. It not only comes from the cable, in the form of a cable line on the hide, but as I said, it also causes vast amts. of fur damage, that you and I know from looking at big quantities of fur. Next time you talk to Greg, ask if he knows where any big bunches of snared beaver are at in the shop. Look at those beaver very close and inspect the amt. of fur damage that you will see on the pelt.
I know you know what I am talking about.
The sad thing of it is, the beaver damage them self as bad as a coon does in a snare.
I had a fella give me 50 new locks to try on coons this yr. He told me that I would not be able to tell the snared coon from the trapped coon. well you guessed it,you can still tell the difference. Granted the snare line on the coon was not nearly as bad as the old locks I was using, but it was still a visible line on the leather. It did have a much lighter appearance to it though. No real bad red marks but still had a very faint red outline around the white line the snare produced.

Hm NAFA has sold tens of thousands of beaver for me over the years, and I know I have been docked for it. Forst thing ya need to know is how to understand the grade on NAFa beaver. I have stood right by the graders side and watched beaver being graded that belonged to me. I know what and why they are being graded damaged and slt and slt. damaged for. Anybody that don't think their beaver for the most part are not downgraded because of snare damage is kidding them self. Mind you, I don't say that every beaver has snare damage. The ones that are dry land snared have way more damage than the ones that are caught in traps or drowned in snares.
In other words Buz. most of your beaver never have any damage to them.
funny thing I buy snared beaver constantly and see damage from snares. I sure as heck would not tell my trappers they had damage if thery didn't have damage. NAFa is the place I learned to grade fur Buzz. I spent many many hours with graders on all typs of fur, in the learning process.

Ain't no argument to it, I know what I am talking about.

Snaring beaver on land = damaged beaver.
Cheers Jim

Call it what you want but beaver snare on land= damage
Cheers Jim

According to Dale Billingsley if you use a long enough snare to allow them access to the water and land the damage is minimized.

Don is it possible the people you bought off of were using the wrong snares or methods? They are not all equal you know. I don't finish my beavers here so I can't say one way or the other on damage but perhaps there is more to it than just saying "all beavers snared on land will be damaged". ???

I sell mine just skinned out and haven't ever gotten docked by my buyer but I don't snare very many either, low population here.

~ADC~

Buzz yes some beaver that are snare on land will not be damaged, lots of things will come into play size of cable, length of time in the snare, entanglement and lots of other factors. Bottom line for most trappers that do not know how to do it right is going to be a damaged beaver.
Cheers Jim

Can you tell us the "right" way?

Personally I use non-entanglement sets, positive locking snares of 3/32" diameter. This combination I assume works the same on beaver as coons in that it rides atop the fur some rather than cutting through the fur breaking guard hairs and bruising the leather side of the pelt. It wouldn't however allow all the beavers to access to the water every time which could lead to damage from attacks by other critters and other beaver as well....



Fill us in here, it's a learning forum after all.

~ADC~

..and I'm learning. Great discussion, guys, from both sides.

*insert popcorn eating smiley here*

Honestly almost impossible to prevent damage unless of course you snare them under the ice and prevent the beaver from getting any air.
Cheers Jim

Several years ago I snared quite a few beaver . I had the least damage using short 1/8 "snares with a universal swivel and an extension . All of our beaver snares have to be set in waterso most beaver had access to water wich I think helps .some beaver would tangle on the bank and these I would see more damage . In high populations or on really good traveling nights I would get alot of fresh bites one even killed with 49 different bites .

With several feet of cable there isn't any reason you can't stake your sets like J said . they arn,t that hard to stake down and a little entanglement goes a long way .