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.

J ifin ya ever do figure that out let me know would ya. i like the un lamanated jaws like paul said. ive used a few #5 dls that were lamanated and they didnt last long down to only cdr's now.

No lamination for me....just rubber padding lol Try that one once....

CDR's and good pan tension...makes all the difference

this big fella wasent caught all that well but my old bridger i can set on my knee held him. he was sleeping when i took the pic, man the water was flying when he woke up and saw me! he went ove 60 and took a bag full of rocks back to shore with him.

J, I aint saying i catch em' all,LOL..just saying I catch most of what steps on the pan..Beaver still make a liar out of me often..LMAO

Let me add to this mix...lol

I've used the MB750 OFFSET with 4-5 pounds of pan tension and have had little of no problems....even on front foot catches. Again trap positioning as others have said and pan tension is important.

Strong springed, large jaw spread, well swiveled trap equates to good beav medicine.

I've found the laminated beaver foothold traps will hold beavers by the hind foot, but not all of them. The pullout rate is not high, but it's high enough that I don't want to deal with it.

A fur trapper has the luxury of being able to leave a beaver here and there and actually many try to. However, when you're contracted to take every beaver from every colony every time, catching the same beaver that pulled out is time consuming and not profitable.

TLC, I also experimented with adding stronger springs and it did help the laminated traps a lot.

DUKE 1 1/2's are the way to go I'm telling ya! lol




i had to try the laminated 750's ... just cause for the most part i'm gonna stick to my ol' regular jaws


i use 750's for front foot catches too ... thought it might be a good thing? for front foot i think it just might help.




Skip the feet ... book and video on this "by the tail" method coming soon )

ever have one put a rock in the corner of the jaw befor they step on the pan skinner? i tell ya them things is smart. aint no alabama beaver smart enough to do that!

Guts - that's one of them "McGyver" beavers

had one fix the jaws with a gum wrapper and a lid off a old pickle jar ... hmmmmmm that mighta been a bama beaver? lol

that tail caught beaver made me laugh. last year i was talking with jtrapper in herkimer. he was telling me how m scat had just bushwacked belin from behind. he didnt see her coming. the way he explained it was that belin was jumpin like a tail caught beaver when she katacked him! wish id have seen that show!