I've (mis)spent a large part of my life chasing beaver. Open water with footholds, open water with Conibears, through six feet of ice with snares, it doesn't matter. I really like them. For the pelts, the castors, the meat, the livers, the skulls, or all of the above...


This is my good friend Randy Shuff (of the wallet-making fame) with a super-blanket open-water beaver.



A blanket beaver just looking for a trap.



Dogfood (and catfood) extraordinaire. "Gourmet Beaver". "Canine Caviar".



The external ear bones that serve to block off the ear canals when they dive. As far as I know, they're the only mammal with these bones.



My bride checking her beaver trap on the Tanana River.



Fighting deep snow and six feet of ice, airplane snaring in Alaska.



Hope you enjoy the photos!...

Great pics, thanks for sharing.

The nicest coat I have is custom made from super blankets and blanket under ice prime beaver, sheared and plucked from Tubari , built by a Greek furrier in NY.

My beaver hat is the warmest I'll own, maybe even rivaling my sheepskin hat. Hard to tell which is warmer.

Thanks for the share, Jack.

[video:youtube]https://youtube.com/shorts/dH71sw4596M?si=ZrUmdlpjA6xxWVcZ[/video]

Six feet of ice. Wow!

Yeah. Even with a good chipping bar and youthful enthusiasm it was often 2 hours to get one hole in. I finally bought a gas-powered auger and extension rod and thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Still, boring dry holes was a real downer.....

Ha, nice art work Sharon! That last one would make a great tattoo!

Lol.

That first beaver is definitely AT LEAST 3X-4X

Nice!!

As your fellow beaver man I'm looking at that shot with your sweety wondering where the heck she's going to make the reset?

And good to see Randy's mug. I've dealt with him for years but all long distance, so it's my first time to see what he looks like.

A beaver house made of mud and cattails and bulrush. When there are no trees, what else would they do? They wintered on aquatic plant roots. The dam was made out of the same material as the house. It was a spring removal job and I took six beaver out of the spot.

What was for bait? Some cottonwood.

I've only seen a handful of lodges in my life. All my flat tails are bank or brush patch dwellers.

I have seen them make some big lodges out of cornstalks.

Awesome!

Great Photos and Artwork

Hey Jack, I got some wallets from Randy a while back. How's he doing?
Sharon, how about a photo of the coat?

No trips into an area before break up with a canoe? Shooting/trapping? Paddling out after break up?
Me and some other guys dog teamed about 40 miles up the Selawik one spring. Each made a canvas canoe and we shot rats and beaver. We all got picked up by a local in a motorboat after break up.
Also had a couple spring break ups on the Nowitna.

Here is the coat. A crop coat, meant for out on the town fun. Tubari is the best on earth for how they hand pluck fur ending in the highest quality product. Tassos, the Greek furrier, has decades of garment experience. He also made me a pair of earmuffs and a long nice scarf from the leftovers. The last pieces, he sent back to me and I puzzled together a lap blanket out of the four heads and long scraps. Nothing was wasted.

The hat is great too. Made by a student in college , from N Idaho, years ago. Dont know what happened to him. He was a nice kid with talent in fur handling.

Sharon,
You'd be a hit anywhere with the hat and coat combo!!!!

That is one great looking jacket .

The coat makes anyone look great, thank you, Nessy and 3togo.

I have a nice AK trip coming up this March and have plans to take it along for the Fling.

I have a friend who is handy at making memes. His spelling and such could use some work. That was the first and last time we used metal stretching hoops. They were falsely sold to us under the understanding that they fit all beaver. Those 2 proved them to be undersized completely.

The coat compliments you very well! Cool use of fur.

Thanks for the photo and info Sharon!

Great photos Mark. I remember walking along a beaver dam in Alaska, east of the Talkeetna's and south of the Alaska Range. It was in upland tundra with no trees for miles. Biggest willows and dwarf birch were about pencil-sized. Incorporated into the dam were many caribou antlers that the beavers had picked up and used. I remember most were dropped female antlers. Sure wish I'd'a had a camera.

I thought you said they used antlers to dam up the creeks so they always knew which 'fork' to take to get home

Does a caribou not have a spade as one of the points.
If we are talking beaver, now the poundage video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV0KXubdjos&t=144s

Gulo. I have seen them cut off the wood corner post on a barb wire fence to try to get a chunk of wood to add to the dam, But it was just hanging by the top two wires. I have seen them cut power poles too. I have a picture of a grass beaver house in the water with a rail road tie on it. I dug a plastic bristle broom out of on and used it to clean the bed of my pickup for years. I have never see antlers in a dam, but if that is what was there I am sure they would use them.

Gulo If you have time tell s a little bit about the plane .Looks like it is a sharp looking way to check a trapline

Only trapped beaver in the Interior. Lots of 5 ft. ice in the colder winters in the 70's and early 80's. My first gas auger was then, the heck with chipping holes. I met a beaver trapper that trapped the Portage Glacier area when I first arrived and he had an antique gas auger. Thinner ice there.

Enjoyed this thread. Beaver trapping is my favorite trapping subject! Not everyone is cut out to be a Beaver Trapper.