Going to get a few MB750's this summer for beaver next year. Do i need laminated jaws for back footing beaver? How about an offset jaw?

no and no.

I run the plain jaw,laminated as sometimes I do sets with the MB 750s where there is no way to get in a drowner. So they are essentially held live on the bank. I run 48 hour checks...so critter comfort is something I'm concerned with.

If you can send them down the wire....any style will work real well for you...but my preference is the laminated ones. I usually laminate my own up with the preformed round bar kits from MTP.

Be forewarned...you'll probably be buying more of them....LOL. You're going to really like them!!

I will encourage anybody to laminate all their footholds because it save fur from walking around with 1 less toe and I do like offsets because they will keep beaver from breaking their toe if they are toe caught.

As many people like them as dislike them........

You are wasting your time and money by laminating beaver traps in my opinion. It will cost you fur using offsets also. I've held a lot of beaver over the years by a toe or two.

I have held the last 3 or so by their 3 back toes. I have 2 mb750's with the standard jaws and not laminated. None show any evidence of damage, but they don't have much time on a 9 foot drowning rod.

The key to beaver trapping with foot-holds is to get them under water quickly and keep them there.

tighten up your pan pressure and you wount get toe catches.well most the time, ever do this?

I have tried footholds both ways for beavers (laminated and unlaminated) and have found the unlaminated caused fewer backfoot toenails left in the trap.

I have all my beaver footholds on drowners, so all I have to do is hang onto that beaver's hind foot for 12 - 15 minutes.

Next time you catch a beaver, put one of it's hind feet in your favorite smoothjawed foothold so that the jaws are holding it below the ankle joint. Now, step on the chain and pull upward slowly with the front legs and see what it takes for a beaver to pull out. You may be amazed that you hold onto any of them.

The beaver's hind foot below the ankle is tapered with no pads or obstructions to keep the trap from pulling off. I found that the thinner the jaw, the better the jaws grip that part of the foot. A wide face jaw, which is what you have when laminated, spreads that pressure over a larger area making it easier for that trap to pull off that tapered surface.

I didn't learn this from trapping a few beavers on the weekends. I learned it from trapping thousands of beavers over a span of 16 years of trapping beavers as a full time job.

If you can get that hind foot in a trap above the ankle, you can hold it in a one and a half size trap. It doesn't take much.

The front foot is a different story. That wrist joint on the front leg is very fragile and subject to wring-off if the trap gets hung up on something before the beaver can drown. For me that seemed to be the main cause of front foot wring-offs. I've never seen where a beaver caught in a laminated or unlaminated trap has wrung off when it was caught by the front leg and freely went down a slide wire unobstructed and the water was deep enough to drown it.

Just my 2 cents.

heres a good view of what paul is saying see the pressure being applyed to a narrower area.

From what I have seen of other trappers as well, is they set their traps too close to center, so they only get the inside part of the foot in the trap, making it easy to pull out and maybe leave a toenail. I try to set my trap to catch the front foot on a big one and the back foot of a small one. Also, too many trappers don't have the end of the drowner in deep enough water. Measure the tip of the nose, on a back-foot caught beaver, to the end of trap chain (drowner), and it's a long ways! If the beaver can get air, the longer it battles making escapes more likely.

back foot all the way for me. if he drowns fine but ive had plenty didnt had some bring some awful heavy weights back to shore, but they are still there in the am. and to many times them front feet are holding something and wount get in a trap.

I will encourage anybody to laminate all their footholds because it save fur from walking around with 1 less toe and I do like offsets because they will keep beaver from breaking their toe if they are toe caught.

Really?

The key to beaver trapping with foot-holds is to get them under water quickly and keep them there.

Is that right? I'll be!

Paul already explained things, maybe some on here will comprehend it, lol.

I actually rigged up a drowner this week, first time in i don't know when, sucker was up in the culvert looking at me when i returned the next day, cut all that wire junk off and tied him off to a cable and a stake, let the next one swim around, less trouble.

But im using CDR's so don't have to worry about traps slipping down feet and all that junk, lol. Unlaminated CDR's that is.

You reading backwards J?

Naw, just reading old stuff found in trapping books wrote by experts is all.

Pay me no attention, I never liked following rules and the longer I trap the more I see NOTHING is chiseled in stone.

If there's one thing for sure about trapping, it's that nothing is chiseled in stone. LOL

I use regular jaw myself. Ive had two toe claws left in the last four seasons. One in a 750 and one in a CDR, all the rest where either waiting on me or drowned. I believe pan tension is the key..

Somethings wrong with me then KY.

Either i trap too many beaver thus problems are more likely to happen or

I just suck at beaver trapping, lol.

I don't get toes but I get alot of repaired dams and the trap not even fired off!

Had that happen the past two days in a row with a big TS 85 trap!

The dam break set is one im finally convinced i'll NEVER master! It's a crap shoot at best if it catch's the beaver or not.

I haven't caught thousands...so I must be pretty darn lucky.because out of nearly 100 hookups this past seaon, I just had one toenail. Often I hold them on shore on a 2 day check with the laminated 750s. Most of the time where I trap. I don't have the option of water deep enough to drown. Sorry about the bad picture...but you can tell this big one ( in the left of the screen) didn't struggle in the least...LOL. Looks like a bulldozer tore the bank up.

Laminateds slip off if not above the ankle? Maybe it's the new springs I put on..but I sure didn't have any problems holding them down low. These two even had a stick in the trap.



Might just be I'm lucky...but the laminated 750s work for me.