Call me nooow.

Lol.

I know that look of a job. Lol. I picked up 23 buck-toothed freaks one night and (jokingly) said the night before "bet I get 21 tonight."

I had 30 traps out. I know others have picked up 40 something in a night. I'll go haze myself now for failing. Lol.

Man, what an outstanding thread. I read the whole thing and will be building torpedo's tomorrow so I can introduce them to two colonies asap.

Goldy made a massive run in one check a couple years ago. Very cool thread by him, what was it, something like 50 in a check? I can't recall, but it was wild.

50 in one check, wow, makes my back hurt just thinking about it.

TTT. Good stuff in here.

Aix, you been checking this place still?

I keep watching this thread. I made a torpedo, and have another mostly done. Haven't had the opportunity, or need, to deploy one yet. I'm anxious to try. Aix has given me a few good ideas to fit my situation. I'm ready for some updated adventure Aix!

Totally my favorite thread on the whole website. You guys are awesome.

And here I sit. In California. Lol.

I used what I had available in true trapper fashion. Had to buy the spray foam gap-filler, but that was it. I used an old river fishing jug made from 4" PVC about 16" long. I used a piece of all-thread I picked up at a yard sale a couple years ago for a buck. I used 1/8" cable. To attach the anchor end, I used a Hagz body-grip bracket.




I thought the end result floated pretty good. Turns out the bigger diameter pipe actually requires less weight and effort to balance. The problem was our current MO regulations require beaver snares to be sub-merged. While we are working to try and have that changed to half-submerged, I have an unusable tool.


Showed all the above to Aix, and he suggested maybe lowering the snare and getting a dive-stick beside the float. At least that was my understanding. As you can see, I also took Aix's suggestion and got some snares with lighter-weight locks on them. I can easily push the support wire down just a bit, and the entire snare is under water and blended with the dive stick.

Here, you can see that I just bent the support wire around to the side. Because of the larger diameter pvc, I didn't have to balance/rebalance the torpedo. Using a lighter weight snare also helped some I'm sure.

I'll point out that I didn't actually have a large enough loop formed when taking these pics. If the loop is made larger, there is less hanging below the torpedo where the snare swivel is j-hooked to the torpedo. I would also tend to believe that the dive-stick should stick out from the torpedo as far as the outer edge of the snare loop.

I used a piece of copper electrical wire to attach the dive stick. It's easy to bend, adjust, move around, etc. Plus it was laying there when I needed it.

My idea is to place a little castor or castor based lure on the snare end of the torpedo. Ideally, the beaver will dive under the stick as it maneuvers around the torpedo investigating.

I'm open to suggestion or critique. I can't wait to try it or the others I'll have ready by then.

So long as I get the snare under water, I'm legal here in MO.
I see what you're saying about making the cable shorter, or do away with it, where the snare attaches. I think I'll do that. I really wasn't liking the way it could possible snag on something. I have a property that I educated the beaver on a few years ago. I'm hoping the torpedoes do the job. It's definitely something they haven't seen before. I haven't even run a snare there, so it'll all be new to them. I'll definitely report here what my experiences are.

I've tried the torpedos but haven't caught anything in them yet. The problem I have is rednecks shooting them with rifles. I've been cleaning out farm ponds locally and it looks like I am going to have to spray paint them so they are not standing out like a diamond in a goats butt.

I had just got to check this whole post and like it.I did some beaver jobs ,not as big as this one.but do not have them that big here.The one I did the farmer kept take the dams out from flood his ground.The one that was trapping it stop when the price drop on the furs like you Aix had deal with and it was 3 years that I end up take the place you say over because i get to trap everything on the place.I came out with 10 beavers in all and a otter and other animals.The land owner put me in charge of who can trap the place now.I got the place tie up.It is nice for you to post the photos of the place you trap.It dose look nice also. thank you.

Jeff, it was darn good to meet you in Texas. What a guy.

Aix, have you played with the torpedos much in current? Thinking of building a few for the river. I think a rudder may be needed to keep them from being run against the side of the bank.

Pretty much what I was envisioning. Balance can be overcome with the angle of the support wire methinks.

Cfowler, did you end up using your torps? How did having to use fully submerged Missouri snares work out? Work on getting that reg Changed. Half submerged snares are a valuable tool!

Great post and look forward to feedback on the torpedos from Cfowler.
Can we continue this post regarding single bachelor beavers and when to pull?
Doing ADC work it can be a challenge trying to determine the number of beaver in the area especially when flooded.
Do you veterans have any wisdom to share?
I just finished a job like this and had a heck of a time convincing land owners that it was a single...big male.
Let me hear from you....

I've removed single beavers from a number of sites. When people ask me how many I think are there flooding the place I tell them all it takes is one. I just keep going until I stop catching beavers, usually it's between 4-7 on a typical colony. Rarely do I catch more than 8 and it's always in a river system.

Just caught a single in a farm pond last week. 33 lb male with only one tooth top and bottom. The girls must be looking for a full set of chompers. Caught him the first night and no sign after that. I told the owner and pulled the traps. Singles are unusual for me though.