Have picked up two beaver by their tails.
Me too Bruce. One anyway -that thought he was hiding in the brush...just the tail sticking out.
I grabbed 1 beaver by the tail once while seining minnows in a small creek. Walking upstream towards a shallow hole and saw a beaver scooting along ahead of me. He went into the foot or so deep hole and froze on the bottom against the bank. He knew I was there for sure but was expecting I'd walk right by without seeing him. I got right beside it, sidestepped and bent down all at once and grabbed at his tail. I only had it very briefly with one hand and man did he ever get outta there !
There's a small thick clump of brush along the road from my house to the mailbox. I walked it most every day last summer. Most days for about a month, there was a buck that laid there and watched me go by, then come back by. Just had to keep walking as if I never saw it and he would stay there, all day. Maybe 20 yards or so. We would drive out and back in the car and I'd point him out and he was there most of a month.
I knew a guy that hunted them that way and was quite successful, read a book about it too. Walk through the woods, or down a road/path like you were walking to school. Keep looking left and right (you can see much more when moving), The deer hear you coming way before they see you but you're not quite the threat of tiptoeing hunter so they tend to stand still, assuming you don't see them, and anticipate you just walking on by. Just keep your pace and as you are approach a tree, bush or anything that briefly blocks their view, bring the gun up midstride and be ready as you come back into view. You only have a second or 2 once they see that you have stopped. I've done it a time or 2 myself, but sort of by accident on my way in, or out. But it definitely works.