Good weekend of trapping

[r00s7a]

Got my beaver traps fired up Friday evening down on the slough and surprisingly had succcess. There is a big lodge that has been there for 20+ years and it has three channels coming out of it. The water is pretty low right now, so the channels are relatively narrow and pretty shallow, deepest being about knee deep.

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This is the shallowest set
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These two are a little deeper, so I set a cinder block at the bottom of the channel to set the trap on, then put up my barricades to direct them into the traps.
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Saturday morning I got this little guy, juvenile male. I skinned him out and was surprised how easy it was to skin. I had always heard horror stories about how hard they were to skin, but he did great, no holes and was not that offensive of an odor. When it came to fleshing him, that's when it turned into a nightmare. I don't know if I didn't have the right tools, or I just sucked, but that's when I started poking holes in the hide. Finally I just said screw it and hung him on a fence post.
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Check the traps this morning and I had this big fat boy. He was a brute. Going to skin him out later.
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I saved the castor glands from the first one and will save them from #2 to make some lure for when trapping in other areas on castor mound sets.


Also got a few little pigs in the pig traps yesterday morning.
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I felt like a regular Jeremiah Johnson this weekend. If any of ya'll have any tips on tanning and fleshing a beaver (insert joke here), let me know, I am all ears.

 

[dennishoddy]

Great job on the beaver and pigs! Your sets looked great! I'll bet there are more to take.
I agree with the Jeramiah Johnson feeling, but, I'm a little more of the Jim Bridger type
I've never skinned one, so no help there.
If your going to trap anything else, the old timers say the beaver meat is the best lure, and you already have a bunch there.

 

[r00s7a]

You ever done anything with beaver tails Dennis? They are kinda cool and I figured there is something that can be done with them, other than nailing them to a fence post. One ol guy told me they make good dog chew toys. My hound snatched it as soon as it hit the ground, so I guess she liked it. The big one this morning has a big hunk taken out of it, apparently he's a fighter and someone took a bite out of his tail.

 

[Okie4570]

There used to be a place in CO where you could send hides and furs and have various things made from them. I believe that they made wallets out of beaver tails.

 

[imhntn]

Beaver tail skin is very fashionable for the grip on your traditional bow. Looks good. I usually wire the beaver tail with a chunk of the red meat still attached to it in the back of the trap for bobcat bait. These next few nights will be good for trapping cats as everything else will be snugged up in den trees and not venturing out. The cats will still be roaming though. Frozen creek beds are good places to set. Where a creek goes under a bridge is always a good place to set a box trap and easy to check on and reset as needed. Keep up the good work r00s!

 

[dennishoddy]

Beaver tail skin is very fashionable for the grip on your traditional bow. Looks good. I usually wire the beaver tail with a chunk of the red meat still attached to it in the back of the trap for bobcat bait. These next few nights will be good for trapping cats as everything else will be snugged up in den trees and not venturing out. The cats will still be roaming though. Frozen creek beds are good places to set. Where a creek goes under a bridge is always a good place to set a box trap and easy to check on and reset as needed. Keep up the good work r00s!

Good info on the tails! I'll see if my buddy in stillwater that makes trad bows wants some tails.
I love trapping bridges and culverts. Lazy mans way to do it, and really productive

 

[deerwhacker444]

My aunt up in Idaho called me last year and wanted a recipe for Beaver. Apparently somewhere up near Boise, they have a wildlife/outdoor type of event and cook up every critter known to man.

She was given a fully dressed beaver by the Wildlife department, already skinned, gutted and had the glands removed.

She kinda "crock potted" the beaver in BBQ sauce. Said it was delicious, just like pulled pork. She also cooked the tail meat, said it was awful.

One of you boys ought to try it out and let us know.

 

[dennishoddy]

One of you boys ought to try it out and let us know.

Your first

 

[imhntn]

I've had a couple smoked. They are very good. I took one to work with me and had it under tin foil and would just ask my customers if they liked smoked meat. If they said yes, I'd say get some of that under the foil. They all thought it was great till I told them it was beaver. You would never know if you were not told. Eat More Beaver!

 

[oneshotonekill]

Eat More Beaver!

Now there's a statement I can support!! Somebody had to