Earlier this week I set two 330's on an old beaver lodge. The more active lodge is maybe 200 feet away. I figured the older ones would be using the old lodge to escape. I located the entrances, found the clearly defined run with hard bottom and maybe 1.5 feet deep. It's open water conditions here. I staked the traps into the mud and anchored to some solid sticks on the lodge. When I came back to check the next day, I had a live beaver caught by the tail, one jaw on the tail, the other just above the vent. Not having a gun along, I drowned it with a makeshift catch pole. What happened to have a catch like that? My guess is that be beaver somehow bumped or moved the trap, then swam around/over the unsecured trap.

Second Part:
This beaver weighed in a 55 pounds. That's the biggest I've caught by a good margin. While butchering, I noticed a fairly strong odor. There was also some weird brown translucent gel (coagulated something) near one of the hind quarters. I'm thinking the 330 smashed an oil sac on something, but maybe the big ones are just a little smellier than the little ones. Removing the castors, one of them was slightly crushed. It wasn't ruptured, but not the usual shape. I took the quarters and backstraps off, washed the meat and froze it. All pieces seemed to have an odor to them I didn't notice on the younger ones. I was planning to smoke the meat and make BBQ beaver for a wild game dinner, but I'm wondering if this one's still safe to eat. Any thoughts?

used the meat for bait, don't eat!! anything that smells

beaver must have swam thru your trap I've had this happen one would thing its not possible but it does happen !!!!!!

How much trigger movement does your trap take before it goes off?

Some figure coni smart critters spin around and kick off when they see the coni. Leading to often snapped and empty traps. Sometimes their luck runs out!

I’ve noticed that live beaver generally don’t make good table fare. Not sure if it’s stress or how they cool or both

Both traps had a circle trigger setup. There's less play on these triggers than the standard 2 straight wire trigger (i.e., the circle triggers are more sensitive).

I would do this^^^ don't want to use something especially for a game feed that's even bit funky. Might be the reason that person never tried beaver before, never eats it again. Then bad mouths it anytime it's talked about. Always want best batch you can make at game feed.


Mac

I suspect sometimes they just go over the top. Knock the trap over or hit the dog with some part of their body.

You're gonna need some strong BBQ sauce to overcome that flav. FlavA'.