Don't recall ever seeing or hearing much about pan tension and beaver sets..

Myself I've not trapped a ton of beaver but always transferred a few Bridger 3s I set for K9s over to beaver and run a dog bent up for pan tension. Somewhere in the pound and half to 2 lbs neighborhood. And never had much of an issue..

What say you?

4lbs

I like around 4 pounds. I like them committed when the trap fires

I prefer light pan tension on beaver footholds.

Boco, why do you prefer lighter tension? Just curious.

Dale Billingsley wants between 4 and 5lbs of pan tension on his traps.he wants them committed plus trying not to catch non target animals.

Catch more beaver.

These Canadians get right to the point don't they?

Pan tension really doesn't matter on beaver traps if you're worried about the beaver pulling out before the trap fires. They're not that quick like land critters are thought to be. They just plop their feet down. Now if you want to keep from catching incidentals like ducks, muskrats or cotton mouths (I caught two in footholds), 4 or 5 pounds of pan tension is good.

i dont measure pan tensions but whatever pan tension is on a #4 DLS is what works for me.

No any problems or complaints

This^^^

Also eliminates wading birds and most otters (if you want to avoid them).

But, I will add that heavier pan tension will result in missing the small beaver, which need to be removed on nuisance jobs.

Same here. Only nontargets I usually get in beaver footholds around here are the occasional otter or very occasional muskrat or mink. I don't mind them. I did catch a spawning salmon when I was kid in a foothold at a beaver spillway once. If I was catching cottonmouths I might be more concerned about pan tension. lol

Some places have such gloppy mud that I can barely keep from sinking into the mud, I'd be afraid that if I ran some pan tension in such places the beaver would just push the trap deeper into the mud instead of firing the trap. I like my pan to be floppy on my beaver traps.

Use a tray or trap stand...problem solved.

Floppy pan

4+ pounds and I try set deep (10 inches of water) and back (elbow length from the bank), to avoid non-targets and smaller beaver.

I run #4 dbl long springs for beaver . Some of my dbls are set up for coyote and have 4lbs pan tension, I tend to get deeper catches with the greater pan tension. I’ve probably caught 6 or 7 beaver with one trap in particular since late December. This trap is setup with a Miles trigger and may have one pound of pan tension. Of the beaver caught, only one was caught with the entire foot in the trap, the rest were toe catches.

I’m just saying in my experience 4# of pan tension and a good bottom relates to deeper catches. Most times around here we have clay or sand bottoms on the ditches I trap.

This discussion made me go check my beaver traps. Surprisingly, I have no set pan tension. Some are about 3-4 pounds and some are pretty floppy. Looking at my traps I noticed that I subconsciously set the pan tension in accordance with the height between the top of the jaw and the pan. The less room, the more pan tension, the more room the less pan tension.

The traps with less room are set for front foot catches and the more room are set for rear foot catches. Wow, I never put any serious thought into this until after I read this discussion. It’s really making me think about my beaver sets.

I try and run a stiffer pan tension- 4-6 pounds for 2 reasons.... 1.) to avoid incidentals, and 2.) to try and reduce the number of toe catches. I think pan tension is more important in states like PA where you can only run traps that have 6.5" jaw spread.

Your setting of 1.5 to 2 pounds is a bit on the lighter side, but if it's been working for you, that's great! However, if you're finding your traps are firing prematurely or catching non-target animals, you might want to consider increasing the pan tension.

a pan tension of 3 to 6 pounds seems to be a good range for beaver.