For beaver.whats the best trap to use if you don't plan on drowning them.

So not drowning ? Ho you plain ing on doing them then ? Long chain and just let them swim ? Or got something else planned ?

Dale Billingsly is a great guy to talk to when it comes to "non traditional" beaver trapping. He don't drown any of his beaver , he highly advises using "high jaw" footholds. Think he prefers the #4 Duke #3 Bridger and #3/#4 Northwoods. Here's a demo he did.,he a nice guys to chat with on FB as well as having a great YouTube channel

Yep 10 ft of chain or cable I've watched his videos just wanted different ideas from different people on what they use and why.

You don't drown them with a front foot catch, bad things will happen.

80% of what your gonna get here and most other places is gonna be big trap back foot always drown when it comes to footholds. Not trying to be rude just kinda the truth

Snare

dale claims he only has 1 in 100 wring off. So why not trap them like that.

Why would you not want to drown them? I usually set for a front foot, many of the places I trap don't have enough water to drown a back foot catch. I prefer #4 longsprings, but have caught quite a lot in #3s at times when I ran out of #4s. Never, ever set one without the intention of drowning it though. And in fact the only one I can recall not successfully drowning, a bobcat stole.

Ive long chained a lot of beaver. Its not my first choice but I never had an issue loosing beaver, though I normally set for a back foot catch. In places I could not drown and a bodygrip was not feasible always a CDR,mb750 or a #5 on about 10' of chain.

laminated trap with heavy tension.No offsets.

And you better not have any entanglement Or your going to get lots of wring offs when targeting a front foot.
Do the right thing and get that beaver drowned.
Snares are another option like some one mentioned.

I use a #3 Bridger or #5 Bridger (modified to Pa. regs.)
I'm a lazy Beaver trapper and use 10' cable. Easy peasy. 24-hour check. I do use drowners as well. But really enjoy cabling off in many situations.

Waiting along Penns Creek-


Double, under RED marker-

Which way would you want your lams outside inside or both

set 2 traps yesterday had this guy waiting this morning.

I always use drowning sets as a rule.
But there are rare times i dry land set such as periods of constant up & down water levels on big creeks & rivers.
Non drowning sets have their place

Yup, even with ten feet of chain well swiveled on a clean mowed grass bank without entanglement in a duke #4 coilspring. Ask me how I know.

Big difference between can and should in this case.

Whole bunch of ways you can catch beaver but there's reason why you should use other ways.

Better compromise if your insistent on non drowning, target that big back foot and get above the ankle. Still not great but less likely to catch and release.

1 in 100 is 1 too many in my book. Especially when your being paid to catch the very last one.