First I want to say that I understand if this post is removed because it is too gruesome for the anti's and I don't want it used for propaganda but I am having a problem.

I am new to beaver trapping but have done plenty of reading, research and have watched a pile of videos.

I have three castor mound sets out that I am using a 12' long cable with a 10 lb. weight on one end, with the other end staked at a mound with castor in tubing for lure. I am using a Duke#4 4 coiled, a foot of chain with 2 swivels, set 18 inches from the mound. and plenty of guiding. I keep the pan somewhat loose because I read on here that pans on water sets should have a little more movement.

I have had these sets out for two nights and they are getting hit every night. The problem I am having is that instead of swimming out and drowning these things are banking themselves breaking their legs and twisting them off. I have had two on the same set on back to back nights do this leaving me with a front beaver digger in the trap. I caught another that drowned on another set that the leg was broken and ripped open, but no evidence of twisting. These have all been front foot catches and the beaver are 45lb. plus judging by their paws.

My questions are:
Is this something that has happened to anyone else?
Could the Duke 4x4 be too much trap for them and be the cause of the broken legs?
Should I tighten up the pan or move the trap further away to try for a rear foot?
What are the odds of these things surviving?, I scoured the accessible banks and didn't find them.

Thanks in advance for any advice or ideas.

First off, 10 pounds isn't enough weight. Double it, or more.
Second, what sort of lock are you using? And is it going "the right direction"?

You do not mention where the weight is after the catch but a 10lb weight is not sufficient to drown a beaver in most cases.

The beavers first response to to danger or the trap firing is to dive. You need to make sure your cable rig is set up to allow them to dive without getting tangled and you have to have enough weight or sufficient staking of the bottom end to keep them down there. You also need enough water depth to do the job. You do not need as much water for a front foot as a back but remember that the chain length needs to be figured into the amount of water required. Shorter chain is better.

Sounds like your setup is either not getting them down the cable or is not keeping them down or does not have enough water depth to finish the job.

You are getting them caught fine but now you have a couple of educated beaver that will be hard to catch. Probably going to have to change methods and body grip or snare them in blind sets.

One of the first things Paul Dobins taught me 15 years ago was to use four or 5 pounds pan tension and I would triple the weight

Are these front foot wring offs or hind foot wring offs?

-L style locks that are homemade from 1x1x1/8" angle, and seem to work really good and are pointed the right way.
-Water depth at the weight is at least 2' at the shallowest trap.

I am seeing that weight is probably the issue. These guys seem to want to bank themselves first and if they can pull that weight in a foot they can get up there and start rolling.

So I am looking at:
-giving them more pan tension at least 5 pounds
-double or triple weight to 20 to 30 lbs.
-and double check my locks are working correctly and not straightening out or deforming

Thanks for the quick replies and patience, I'll be going back out in a couple hours to rectify everything.

With a foot of chain on the trap and 2 feet of water, you are not going to drown many adult beaver. You need to find deeper water to drown the quickly. The longer they can fight, the more likely they are to escape.

And good luck trying to catch them again using the same method.

Your drowner cable has to be tight and unmovable, I have caught a couple front feet, I would say you need to set the weight, I use 2 cinder blocks, in about 3 to 4 feet of water. Distance between trap and drowned cable connection also needs to be about 9 inches or less, you have to "short leash"" them, and drown quickly. It's gotta be a one way trip to Davey Jones locker. Also your trap jaws may need filing down on the edges so they don't cut into that front foot, causing a break. I personally like offset jaws for this reason. I have gone back to areas where I caught a foot a year ago and trapped 3 legged ones..the front foot hole was healed over.
Good trapping and hope ya get em..

Front foot or back foot?

Beav- These have both been front foot wring offs.

AIX-Good to know I was going to use rebar drowning stakes but have a long way to travel through the woods so I sat here a home and premade my sets with cable so they each fit in a bucket that I can carry back to the location. I guess I'll be adding a lot more weight and will be getting strong by the end of season, LOL! I'll be tightening the pan up too.

QBD-Thought about it again and your right, I have one set that is that shallow, it is the one that seemed to work as planned though, I'll be moving it to deeper water for future catches though.

Rosscoak- Good to know that they will survive it. I love to hunt and trap and it always makes me heartsick when a wounded one gets away. I'll look in to cutting a couple links out of the chain too.

WOW! that is all a lot of good info, looks like I'll be going out and modifying everything A-Z, I'll be glad to know that I am doing it right in the end though!

I have killed a lot of beaver In 2' of water. I prefer 4' but you deal with what you have.
In my opinion you need a weight as close to the trap as you can get It. 5lbs Is enough. Even a big beaver In 2' of water Is going to wear down pretty quick with 5lbs of weight hanging on It's foot.
I trapped a major river here In WI. Our drowning rig was a steel fence post and 10 feet of chain and a tie plate or a window weight attached to the trap chain.
The beavers first inclination Is to head for the water. It gets to the stake and gets wrapped up It can't get back to shore. Fighting that weight soon tires It out and It's lights out.
The biggest problem we had was by driving the stake In the water created a eddy and that formed a sand bar. And a beaver wrapped up around the stake was even worse. Lost a few beaver and traps do to that set up. They were completely buried by a sand bar.

I'm betting If you had a weight attached to the trap your loses would be a lot less. Stake your system as deep as you can then use that 10LB weight at the trap and see how that works.

Or give up the foot holds and use 330s.

Beav- I would love to use more 330's, but PA law restricts us to a total of 20 traps statewide, only 2 can be 330's, 8 can be footholds, and 10 can be snares. I have snares and 330's set on all the accessible runs and troughs between a series of 6 ponds and have only had one 330 catch. That's why I decided on some castor mound sets with footholds, I only have 3 out because that's all I could find in stock locally, I'll be getting more before the end of season. I see what your saying about attaching a weight directly to the trap. I'll be trying a couple different sets to see what works best for me.

AIX- I'll see what I can do about staking the deep end, all your suggestions are good, and are the smarter not harder approach.

Your problem is the weight. If all you have is ten pounds at the end, the beaver has no trouble moving that around and the weight actually is causing the leg to break. Attaching weight to the trap won't help if the beaver doesn't drown, but will only make things worse. Beaver fight the trap very hard at first and pulling all that weight around by a front leg is what is giving you the problem, increasing the weight will only make things worse. You'd be better off with no weight at all. You either have to add weight to the end so the beaver can't move it around, (at least 45 pounds) or get rid of the weight all together and "live chain" them.

Pan tension has no bearing at all, unless you want to totally eliminate front foot catches. #4 traps aren't fool proof by any means with hind feet either, big beaver have big feet and there's not much room for error. And unless you have 4' or more of water, it's going to take a while for a beaver to expire when rear foot caught, making escape more likely.

I prefer front foot catches with #3 and #4 sized traps. If you have at least 2 1/2' of water and the beaver can't come up for air or get back to the bank, a front foot caught beaver will be there when you return.

How many swivels were on that chain

I long chain mine, no weight, except the trap.
I've trapped beaver since 1987.
I've never toed or footed a beaver, ever !

I disagree on the weight Issue at the trap.
Take a good swimmer and tie a 5 or 10lb weight to his foot or hand and see how quick he tires out and goes down. It's the same with a beaver. You just need lots of swiveling action between the trap and the weight.
But I would be staking the deep end.
Then what about all these beaver trappers that advocate staking on dry ground and just let the beaver lay on the bank and take a nap? No entanglement small traps and plenty of swivels?

But its the weight on the trap that is causing the leg damage Beav. I'm betting it happens within the first minute the beaver is caught and before it ever has a chance to drown. They thrash around violently when first caught(seen it first hand many times) and all that weight is putting a lot of pressure on the front leg. Grab a trap and swing your arm, not much pressure. Attach ten pounds to a trap and swing it and the pressure increases dramatically.

I didn't find It to be that way with my system. But I was just long chaining them so they weren't fighting a fixed system and I always set for a hind leg.
But If the trap Is getting all the way to the deep end that could be the case. So to correct this situation and I've preached this before. You need to put a stop on your system so the trap dosen't get to that deep end weight. Now It's not getting tangled In the staking system and getting some leverage.
I've killed a lot of beaver In shallow water as long as there not getting to the deep end stake or getting back on shore.

Iv'e used sash weights before on long chains and the biguns are still on the bank. So i quite using weights, long chains except for close to bridgers. Swivels are the answer and a strong trap on 6 foot or more chain. At bridges I use rerod drowning rods and lots of swivels. No twist outs for years..
4-6 pounds pan tension makes a big difference too..

When I long chained and used the weights I was using a steel fence post at the deep end. Never had a beaver on the bank.
We worked out Of a boat so weight wasn't a Issue and I was forty. LOL

I often times find a strong stick from the dam,10 foot long or long enough to reach deep enough water.tie the drownder wire on the big end and jam it into the bottom,drive a stake to attach other end of drownder wire,dont let stake stick up to high so the beaver doesn't wrap around it.then wire the stick to the same stake.if you catch one,unwire stick and pull the beaver out.i use swivels for drownder lock,feed the wire from the inside.