Live Traps for Beaver???

Thinking about getting one or two of the suitcase type live traps and wondering which one to buy... the Hancock, the Tomahawk Bailey Beaver trap, or the KORO? Also where to buy them?

Thanks In Advance!

I use a Big custom cage that ADC Built me years ago!

Never had one of the others

Is that something you set on dry land? Or both, in the water, and on land?

Koro. WCS has them https://www.wildlifecontrolsupplies.com

I think WCS sells the type traps your looking for. Personally I'd avoid traps that recommend having a football helmet to set them.

Comstock makes a swim through trap that can be set in water or land, anywhere you would use a 330 or snare side by side. Have some of kirks traps too

Both but make sure not completely under water when it snaps shut.

The beaver(s) I'm after are avoiding square traps like the plague. And don't seem to be the least bit interested in bait. Not sure who wised them up but they did a good job! Wasn't that many years ago that I laughed at the idea of there being "smart beavers". Over the past 20-30 years it seems as though the smarter ones have become the norm in my neck of the woods.

35-40 years ago I could set 2 or 3 330's and have 2 or 3 beavers the next morning. NOT these days. Either they have got smarter, I have got dumber, or BOTH!

Beaver trappers are coming out of the woodwork...I took a beaver job today and the guy I talked to said he had a half dozen other guys wanting to trap it. There's more competition for beaver now around here than there was when beaver were going for 40+ for bigger ones.

You might want to ask Paul what brand of live trap he uses for control work.

Half in the water backside in the water. Castor in the back.

Mine are Drop door

Snares would be my choice as you can't do catch and release in Illinois anyway. Using a cage trap you are adding to the load you pack in and out not to mention the added expense.

Cut a snare off of a live beaver, without administering drugs to combat infection and you likely have that beaver die !
A snare is NOT a good choice for relocating beaver !
Comstock Swim through or Hancock will be a far better choice if you can keep the beaver 'above' water.

I have and use regularly comstock swim through cages and they work great. I do give them some (camo) when they aren't fully submerged. Used on educated nuisance beaver and they work great sometimes the only option

I believe that If I tried hard enough I could probably still trap beaver for a living with only comstock cages and 1 foot hold in the arsenal.
The foothold is for the tricky ones

I don't use live traps for beavers. I use snares, body grips and footholds. We don't relocate beavers here.

Us either

I can't relocate them but i do trap in some extremely sensitive locations. That's when a cage shines

Still? Good deal.

Thats it ADC, That's my picture from the first beaver in the cage you built me way back when!

Thanks Again for all of the feedback everybody! I'm not looking to relocate any beavers except to my furshed and boards and they most certainly won't be alive when I do. lol! Just looking for another tool that I can use in a special circumstance(In addition to snares and footholds).

Been trapping beaver full time 27 years (ADC) I use hancock style. We have been getting over 300 beaver in them every year. I use Comstock traps also. We have a new trigger design for the Koro trap. James will be offering this soon. It allows the Koro to be a great blind set.
As for Bailey. They have about a 65% success rate.
I have several given to me by frustrated trappers.
Advance Traps are good but the weight is just to much if you have to carry them very far.
The nesting feature on them is nice but just to heavy.
The Easy Set has the same problem and its success rate was lower then we can accept.
We expect about a 95+ % success catch rate or not using them. The fact is they are all expensive so it has to pay for its self quick.
Don LaFountain

About 20 years ago I bought at least 10 Koro traps and two Hancocks. I sold Hancock’s and kept the koro. I wore the koro out in 10 years. I caught at least 100 to 200 beavers every year in them. I hate to say how many easy set traps Ibought but they were awful in the south. They might work good up north but I don’t work good here. I think every beaver trapper could use at least one Koro.I use cage traps every day for beaver. They’re all traps that I made. They are not the advanced traps made in Canada they didn’t catch well at all that’s why my patents are no longer with them. Well made but had a high magnetic intensity going into the trap.They are too heavy.
Of the 100 different designs and traps that I made, the 14 x 17 x 32“ high speed door trap powder coated is the most effective I’ve ever used. You want a trap that can be set on land and in water. It can be seton an incline can be floated It can be hung to catch as well as underwater. Trap weighs about 28 pounds depending on whether the bait cages on it. It is used for Bobcat Fox coon Possums beaver otter and many other animals.
Getting back to your original post., Of the two you mentioned the koro I would recommend wholeheartedly.

This is the first I've heard of the Advance Traps. I won't have to carry them far and wondering which trap, the Koro or the Advance trap, would be the best bang for the bucks spent? And I'd hate to spend $400 on a trap that's ONLY got a 65% success rate.

Trapper Don mentioned a trigger that would allow the Koro's to used in blind sets. Have you used yours strictly as a baited set? Or have you used them as a blind set somehow?

I use them both ways. The new trigger system allows the Koro to be used both ways. Great breach set without it showing. Without the trigger (AKA stock)
I use Koro most of the time. I have great success with Hancock also. Not much difference between the two until modified. As a baited set Koro/Hancock can be hung on a snag or anything in the water to hold it. I like having some of all of them they all have their pros and cons. If I was going for only one, I pick Hancock/ Koro style.
Don LaFountain

I have only used a koro beaver trap using bait. The traps I’m using now llock bar door traps and guillotine door traps with extremely fast doors. I set them on trails in the water and under the water. They are also set on land and in different configurations of up to five traps in water for multiple catches. That is using the guillotine door traps.They have a reduced magnetic field going through the trap. The Koro trap because of its design and the way it’s made will have a reduced field in the way the animal would approach the trap. It makes it very effective because the way it’s open and the way it can be placed. It’s just limited on locations that you can make set. The koro trap is ideal when there is no run or trail to set. It works the same way with the trap I use. You can just be sat out in the water as Baited set or Whatever. The Koro trap sure has its place.

Sorry Kirk but with the new trigger, Koro can be set blind in trails in water. Great set at crossovers in dams, trails to cutting areas in grass if in water. As for on dry land, no. But beavers travel mostly in the water and thats where they return to so, trap at the re-entry point. Like I said before, pros and cons with all of them.
As for magnetic fields got nothing but they have an open top so no idea how that works. All I know is if I don't solve the problem (catch them all) I don't get paid at all. That has never happened.
Don LaFountain

Thanks Again! Thinking I'll give the Hancock a whirl. I'll let you know how it works out. Appreciate you taking the time to help me out!

Don't give this Jack guy ideas! All he wants to do is relocate them beavers in my creeks!! Like I don't have enough to trap now! Right Jack????

The OP never mentioned he was trying to relocate those beaver. So If It were me I'd be hanging snares.

If a beaver Is square shy and bait and lure shy I can't believe It's going to go Into a cage trap.

Beav-- He is not trying to relocate. We're friends and I'm just giving him some crap!!

I know you're the kinda guy that likes a challenge.....