Do you have to drown them ? Theirs a few guys who just long chain em and let them swim.mihjt be something to look into

Well , I changed two of them out tonight. I changed the locks to some I made today, I didn't think of using the swivels but now that I think about it I bet they would work pretty well.

I over doubled the weight on the end to far end to 22.5 on one and 25 on the other. I found out the hard way that the banks are way too steep to get in there and stake anything. Everything around here was stripped in the 70's so they are steep stripping cuts. The weights I am using are lifting weights and some are chrome plated, some are painted silver, once the silt settles they looks like they are right there at 3-4 feet but they are in fact about 5-7 foot deep.

I forgot my chain cutters today so I wasn't able to shorten the chain or add a swivel but I will when I check tomorrow morning.
We got a pile of rain here around noon and the first river I drive across rose about a foot and the second one would have been impassable so hopefully it will settle over night so I can get to the rest of the traps or I'll be going an alternate route that is double the distance on worse roads.
Thanks again for all of the info!

The only thing that makes me nervous about this is that both times I found the wring outs, the trap was sitting on the bank with the beaver paw in it. The chain wasn't twisted over itself like it would because of lack of swivels. The weight was still in the water, once it was only pulled in about a foot the other time in about 3 foot. So it seemed like it used the bulk of the trap on the ground in order to twist off. So really I want them in the water where they have less traction to roll around and wring out.

More weight and super tight cables. As far as too much trap, a lot of trappers use MB-750's for beaver which is a powerhouse.

I always use a positive drowning system when using footholds for beaver.

I understand the long chain theory but the typical beaver habitat that I deal with is not conducive to long chaining. There is always entanglement and if they are front foot caught and get the chain tangled anywhere but in deep water, it is bad news.

I understand more weight is better and I have more weight to put on them all. It's just I can only carry so much along with my tools so I went ahead and split the weight among two sets that I have in the same area. I have an additional 50lbs. loaded in the truck for tomorrow. All I have to do to add weight is pull the stake open the J hook, remove the trap from the lock and drop more weight on and lift the cable so it slides to the bottom. It is a lot to carry but I have plans on caching some of it in a couple brush piles for future use.
I tried to see if I could stake the far end but it is way too deep, so for now I am kind of committed to this set up until I get some time to recon some shallower and easy to access areas. For now I am fairly confident I am on some areas that haven't been trapped in a while.

Believe me fella's I am trying to heed y'alls advice that's why I asked for it, But I can only follow so much advice at one time. One guy says shorten the chain another says long chain, some things I can't do in the area I am in. All advice is good and welcome, especially for a fairly new trapper like me. But some of it I'll have to try one idea at a time.

That's my preferred method on carry in beaver sets long chains 6-7' and stake them 4-5' off bank then another stake 6-7 " off bank keeping them swimming the entire time most times they are wrapped around the deeper stake tangled and drown. Attach the trap chain low on the first stake so when they go round and round it reels them in. The bottom of your water way plays the biggest part on the weight on your drowner anchor. Rocky bottoms once they get it rolling across the rocks its on bank fast. Silt mud is just as bad. Unless you literally walk out and plant it in the mud its going to move! lol I had a 60 lb beaver moving two concrete blocks so fast thru the water it was making wake. sorry that one was on a snare. Then I went to entanglement for snares problem solved no more live beavers waiting on me

I always stake the deep end with a dry 1in diameter spruce or tamarak pole.If the water is 10 foot deep cut a 15 foot pole.I don't need to get in the water to stake the deep end,using a long pole you stake the deep end right from the bank.There is no way I am going to haul a bunch of 40lb weights or heavy re-bar into the backcountry.Of course if you have a rocky bottom,staking wont work,but a roll of chickenwire works to bag up some rocks for an on site drowning weight in those cases.
If you are trapping roadside out of a vehicle,then you can haul weight if you want to.

Lot of good info here, but I will agree with the beav. I have caught a few beaver and never had a bad problem with 15 to 20 pound at the end of the chain.

From what you described, any chance the beaver had some help?

A lot depends on the bottom structure. There are places where 10lbs of weight will just about be impossible to retrieve.

About 1/2 the beaver on a long chain will be drown and half on the bank asleep or bobbing like a cork.
Contact me on FB and I'll show you some pics.
I have no idea how to post them on T-Man anymore

LT theres an app called IMGUR that you can download pics from better than photobucket.

postimage.org is also very similar to photobucket and works also.

But the simplest way I have found is to use the photo uploader on here. It is the block with the blue arrow pointing up. The only problem is that there is a size limit on the picture. Must be less than 2.09 MB each. Most good quality phones and digital cams are bigger than that so the pics have to be resized. But that is easier and faster than using a hosting site.

To resize: Right click the picture and select properties to see how big it is so you can determine how much you need to reduce it. Close that box and right click it again and select Open With Paint. This open a window that allows you to resize by percentage. If the pic was 4MB before, type in 50% and it should be small enough to post. Then save the picture. I usually keep the original full size and change the name of the smaller one by adding a-1 or something similar to the end of the filename.

Once you have it resized and renamed, go back to your forum post and put your cursor where you want the picture and click on the blue up arrow box and follow the instructions.

It took me a lot longer to type this than it takes to resize and upload the pic to a post.

Yotetrapper30 (Angela) posted this a long time ago and IMO, it is much simpler and quicker than any of the 3rd party sites.

I know this works well on a Windows laptop or PC. Not sure about tablets and smart phones and apple products.

get rid of those footholds and go with all snares. Put them on enough chain/cable to be able to reach both land/water. They will not fight near as much. The whole beaver will be there waiting for you.

I saw this mentioned once in the posts but if you have a long way to go you should consider poly sacks you can buy em at Agway for about .50 cents. Carry em in empty and fill em up
when you get to the site. I think weight is your answer I too learned the hard way about that a few years ago. You cant have too much weight but 10lbs is not enough. If you cant drown em snares is the way to go. Light very versatile they don't spook the beaver and typically they will be waiting for you when you get there.