That was in Eastern Washington.

That knife is a beauty Carl

Paul, I would guess that it takes close to 1500 beaver to get that much castor. Does that sound right?

Keith

Keith, probably closer to 4000 beavers

Absolutely

I figure it would take between 4 and 5 thousand.

Wow!

Keith

I wonder which state produces most of Paul's castor. N. Carolina? 4-5000 beaver is about 4 times the total beaver harvest for my state.

Wow

In NY state annual havest is usually between 10,000-15000+

Probably North Carolina followed closely by Mississippi.

This is a cool thread. Super informative.

Oregon used to produce those numbers. Low prices and the dying off of the old hands at it are probably the main issue. Beaver are a lot of work and newer trappers would need more incentive to learn the craft.

I got curious about the annual harvest numbers of beaver in my own state and so I looked it up. The numbers vary greatly in Pennsylvania from a high in 2020 of 18,841 to a low in 2024, the last year records are available, of 6,929. The numbers year-to-year are all over the place, interesting.

Those are impressive numbers Lug. I'm impressed.

I weighed the dried Castor from 20 beavers this weekend and it was 2.85 pounds.

That's 0.1425 pounds per beaver

So 538 pounds would be 3,775 beaver.

That's a pile of them!!

I get a lot of #2 castors. I think some cull out the #1 castors and send them to auction in hopes of a higher price. That's why my estimate is higher.

I would hope that folks don't do that Paul. If you're buying field run castor all-in @$40/lb you should be getting the best of it too. I would never do that to a country buyer.

Paul, Is there any particular area or state that produces particularly odiferous castor (in a good way)?

Seems to me that Paul is always wanting southern castor where sweet gum is the main forage.