I'm looking to up my game and do some reading on different techniques on beaver trapping/snaring. Does anyone have a good book to read? Thanks in advance.

Here is a free online option to get you started....... until someone comes along with something better.

https://mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/BeaverNuisance2019.pdf

Go thru that a couple times, then the youtubes and archives will fill in the blanks.

thanks

Calvin Cobb's book is a very good basic snare book so is Slim Pederson's first snare book there are many others

I typically read and watch everything I can, and I notice that the foundational concepts are similar in many of them. Beyond that, and now that the fundamentals have become second nature, I am looking for that one ingenious tidbit or tip or insight. It seems like many authors have at least one thing to share that is unique and those are the gems.

I don't have a specific book to recommend, but I read through every one I find looking for those gems. The most important skill is reading the sign, and learning to trust your interpretation of what you see. I ran a lot of video cams on beaver locations for years, and eventually I realized that beaver leave a lot of sign, and I trust my ability to read what I am seeing and apply my toolkit to the task at hand. The cameras did help me train my eye to see and interpret the sign.

There is also an important distinction between beaver control work and fur trapping. The goals are different and sometimes the legal equipment is different. So when looking for books, and when studying them, keep in mind that most are focused on fur trapping where running a lot of equipment fast and getting the “easy” ones with the least amount of time and effort is the goal. When doing control work, it is more of a “chess game” where your goal is to get the ones causing the problem, and that is more of a careful calculated approach for many reasons and in most situations, and especially the last few trouble makers in a colony. I have at times spent an hour in the shop making a special tool just be able to exploit a particular situation to get a single beaver. I would not do that in numbers fur trapping, the economics just would not be worth the trouble.

Can't forget about Newt Sterling's excellent books...updated methods and very simple( K.I.S.S.)

Thanks for the advice fellows. My second night of having snares out I scored. I think I’m hooked. Another tool in the toolbox.

From the photo, looks like you snares it behind the front legs or at least one front leg. That is my goal when snaring beaver. I have videos of neck snared beaver removing the loop by digging at it with front paws when neck snared. Not a lot, maybe one in 10 or 15, but that was too much for me. Never once had one escape when at least one front leg is through the loop. Important to note that I am strictly a control trapper, so I don’t care about snare marks on the leather or fur damage. If I did care, I would try to tweak my system for neck catches. I just want them to be there when I get there. I set my loops a big bigger, and keep the bottom of the loop down about an inch from the ground. This also helps avoid the raccoons because most will walk right through, but almost all beaver will be caught.

I'm a control guy as well. This was a water set with a tree leaning off the bank and it begged for a snare. I made about a 10-11 inch loop and placed it about 1/2 in the water. I put some Beaver Plus on each side of the tree and staked it off to the bank on a used drowning cable.