One of these days, I'm going to run a rod through the eyes to definitively mark their location in the raw skull. Blue ink outlines the brain cavity.
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Those Dam Beavers!!
- Thread starter Ezana4CE
- Start date
That beaver was caught in a drowning set. There are no bullet holes in that skull. The skull pics were intended to be a visual about the location and size of the brain. Thus the blue ink. The large side openings accomodate the eye to the front and the jaw hinge to the rear. On a side profile shot the pellet needs to strike behind the eye.
Sorry that my bone pile doesn't currently have any matched beaver skulls/jaws. The critters pick through it and take what they like. Lots of complete coyote skulls down there but the beaver, possum and raccoon skulls seem to walk away. Probably due to pop a couple more out of the freezer and add to the pile.
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@Hal4son Thanks for the photos and explanation. You've been really helpful in this process. Since this hunt I've been looking over the video and photos trying to determine what happened and when. I've determined that the single shot on the right side of the head was the first shot. I also landed a decent looking shot below and behind the left ear. I didn't catch it at first until reviewed some photos today. I edited a post on the previous page to include that photo. I do need to learn to pull my shots up a touch. Although I have been working on it, I still struggle a bit there on these narrower targets. For practice I have some groundhog paper targets that have low-profile foreheads. The targets have face shots too. I think I'm moving, leaning into my bipod. I'm really not sure.
I've been giving a lot of thought to face shots on beaver since I took the first one with a single shot. I figured that there was a strong possibility I hit that one in the face. After listening to it expire I could tell it was going to drown. After that I gave a good amount of thought to the shot in terms of ethics. This is what I thought: if I can ethically shoot a deer through the lungs and by law have to give it 30 minutes to expire before going to look for or retrieve it, is it unethical to perforate an animal's airway causing them to drown on water and/or their own blood? Both ways they die from depriving the brain of oxygen. Personally it was hard for me to watch this process in the video. The reason I took so many shots is because she appeared to be suffering. Initially I thought I was watching her death throes, but remember I didn't see the first one die, I only heard it. In both instances I knew that they wouldn't be able to dive because I destroyed the mechanisms that enabled them to hold their breath. In the video I could see how quickly she dove at my first shot which was a miss. When I hit her with the second shot she could not dive. In fact she went belly up, then she started flopping and rolling. When I realized that she was going on like this for longer than expected, I was trying to find her head to take a follow up shot. I may have landed a body shot, but the only thing that makes me say that is the bruising on a lung reminded me of other animals I've double lunged. Thing is I didn't see a hole in the lungs or heart. I don't recall a hole in the ribs or shoulder and I stripped some pretty good looking meat from the ribs. When you see the video clips, I think what I'm trying to describe will be more understandable.
I've been giving a lot of thought to face shots on beaver since I took the first one with a single shot. I figured that there was a strong possibility I hit that one in the face. After listening to it expire I could tell it was going to drown. After that I gave a good amount of thought to the shot in terms of ethics. This is what I thought: if I can ethically shoot a deer through the lungs and by law have to give it 30 minutes to expire before going to look for or retrieve it, is it unethical to perforate an animal's airway causing them to drown on water and/or their own blood? Both ways they die from depriving the brain of oxygen. Personally it was hard for me to watch this process in the video. The reason I took so many shots is because she appeared to be suffering. Initially I thought I was watching her death throes, but remember I didn't see the first one die, I only heard it. In both instances I knew that they wouldn't be able to dive because I destroyed the mechanisms that enabled them to hold their breath. In the video I could see how quickly she dove at my first shot which was a miss. When I hit her with the second shot she could not dive. In fact she went belly up, then she started flopping and rolling. When I realized that she was going on like this for longer than expected, I was trying to find her head to take a follow up shot. I may have landed a body shot, but the only thing that makes me say that is the bruising on a lung reminded me of other animals I've double lunged. Thing is I didn't see a hole in the lungs or heart. I don't recall a hole in the ribs or shoulder and I stripped some pretty good looking meat from the ribs. When you see the video clips, I think what I'm trying to describe will be more understandable.
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Table fare for the evening…
Marinated beaver back straps. Didn’t follow a recipe. Just throwing something together.
Marinated beaver back straps. Didn’t follow a recipe. Just throwing something together.
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@Hal4son The meat didn’t seem bad. My marinade on the other hand kinda sucked. So it made the meat taste “meh” IMO. It wasn’t delicious, but it wasn’t terrible. I have more tender cuts to work with. I really need to find a solid recipe to follow. I was being lazy.
I basically cooked it medium well. The texture was fine. It wasn’t tough, but I prefer it a tad more juicy than mine came out. The meat retains flavor well. It was kinda sweet, but I did put a little honey in the marinade. I’m not sure if the meat is actually sweet or if it was just the honey I tasted. I didn’t pick up an any gamey notes - smell or taste wise. Hard to describe the texture. It’s not as coarse a beef, but not as soft as pork. It’s not like venison either. I really enjoyed the texture of the meat. One thing to note is that if you’re not going to slow cook beaver, I’m thinking that it’s better trim away as much connective tissue (tendons especially) as you can. It can be really tough.
Now while watching some YouTube videos, I did find this beaver cookbook that I want to checkout. I watched the author cook some beaver meat camp-style with beans and it looked interesting. I think the she or the publisher designed the book cover to where it also makes a decent and inexpensive gag gift as well. Look at the cover. Clever marketing to say the least.
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My brain just started to convert the lyrics from 50 Ways to to Leave you Lover to that book title.
You gotta cook up the tail Dale,
It don't come in a can Dan...
I can't understand how you're allowed to keep the meat but not the skin! I hope at some point you can keep one and get it tanned, they are beautiful pelts!
I've enjoyed the journey so far. Thanks for taking the time to write it up after what must be long nights of hunting.
You gotta cook up the tail Dale,
It don't come in a can Dan...
I can't understand how you're allowed to keep the meat but not the skin! I hope at some point you can keep one and get it tanned, they are beautiful pelts!
I've enjoyed the journey so far. Thanks for taking the time to write it up after what must be long nights of hunting.
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@AmosBurton Don’t take this as gospel, but I strongly suspect that because the beaver is a fur bearer with one of the longest histories on the North American continent connected to the European fur trade. The regulations are likely in place to curtail poaching. Wasting a few pelts to solve a larger issue, is a lesser “evil” than “over hunting” an animal. Simply put, pelts have a legal monetary value (currently low considering past trends). The meat has very little monetary value, if any. I’ve read of methods to sell fur bearer meat and from what I’ve seen the regs vary in different states. Generally speaking, to sell meat for consumption I believe that one has to have some sort of approval from the USDA. I’ve only worked around one family that was in the business of selling game meat (which I believe is legally different from fur bearer meat). I think this family also sold commercial beef, pork, and goat as well. It’s been a few years since I’ve interacted with them. My point is this - I think that it’s more beneficial to the beaver populations to keep the bulk of hunters and trappers active during designated season(s) so that they can make their money without over hunting and trapping which can adversely affect beaver populations as well as future fur bearer seasons. That’s not even factoring in the impact of changing weather, environmental conditions, and regional industry. Here’s where conservation efforts intersect with sport and business with the goal of maintaining what’s believed to be a healthy balance. At least it makes sense to me to think of it in these terms.
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Most recent photos.
I was sitting in this muddy area when I shot the last beaver. It was swimming beyond the tall pine tree jutting out into the water from the strip of land on the left of the photo below. Whoever gave me the duck hunter tip to sit on a bucket in the mud, thank you. Great advice!!
Haven’t seen any live activity since the last beaver was killed. Found some tracks though.
I was sitting in this muddy area when I shot the last beaver. It was swimming beyond the tall pine tree jutting out into the water from the strip of land on the left of the photo below. Whoever gave me the duck hunter tip to sit on a bucket in the mud, thank you. Great advice!!
Haven’t seen any live activity since the last beaver was killed. Found some tracks though.
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Serious dilemma. Going over my trail cam footage from this permission and I’m seeing a pretty decent variety of animals native to the region. Now for the last two nights a hog has been rooting on the bank of the pond. I’m debating on weather or not I should set up for hogs with a .357 Bulldog, take my Brocock and a .357 Bulldog, or stick with the Brocock .25. If I take the Bulldog I have to use spotlights, which I have, and I don’t know what the wind will be like, but I’d have to set up on the opposite side of the pod I’d planned for to get at another beaver now that I’m seeing activity again. I want to shoot this hog with an air bolt. Packing both guns may be difficult. The Bulldog is too bulky to fit into my Gunrunner scabbard and the Brocock will only slide down into it so far with the Pard attached. I don’t want to remove it and risk screwing up my zero. Decisions, decisions.
What are your thoughts? What would you do?
What are your thoughts? What would you do?
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@Hal4son What concerns me is that I am fairly confident that I’ll get one shot off with a Bulldog, even with my quietest set up. It also wears a 10x fixed mag scope that I haven’t shot much past 55 yards. I have to check my DOPE to see what my best option is. I may break out the Evol, but I hate that it has a SFP scope and I don’t have my holds memorized for this gun/scope combo. I’ve shot it enough to familiarize myself with the holds at one magnification setting.
No, I don’t think they will. That dam has been constructed pretty solidly. It took work to make narrow breaks with metal tools. They’ve been where I knew they would eventually come on the banks. I told the landowner they would come, I just thought they’d show up next month once it really starts getting hot and on the opposite bank. I saw signs when I went to break up the dam earlier, I but I thought armadillos had been in there.wonder if the hog will mess up the dam; ensuing a beaver vs hog fight
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Went out again the other night after breaking the dam in a few spots. A beaver showed up at the same break (to repair it). This is the same break in the dam that spotted the last beaver before I killed it.
As it entered the water and started swimming away, I shot my Brocock Bantam Sniper HR .25 once and missed.
Pre-shot lead on swimming beaver. I wanted to shoot the eye or behind it.
Here’s how the IR white wash looks in a frozen frame. You can barely make out what I previously saw before the flash on the upper right edge of this frozen frame.
I had a solid base seated on my bucket with my elbows resting on my thighs.
Here’s how my follow through looked less than a second before the tail flap/dive as the white wash abates.
After the missed shot the beaver did a tail flap, dove making a big splash, re-surfaced, and hauled tail back toward the lodge. As it prepares to stop swimming and slap the water with its tail, the beaver lowered its head below the surface of the water and moved its hindquarters toward the surface of the water as seen below.
Notice the water coming over its head as it flips its tail up and out of the water before slamming it back down on the surface. Beavers slap their tails loudly on the surface of water to warn other beavers of danger. They generally all vacate an area by diving into and under the water when they hear this sound or at the least they enter the water and swim away to their lodge. In years past, I’ve seen several enter the water at once after hearing a tail slap.
Beaver tail slap warning full-splash freeze frame.
This all occurred in a seamless motion. It’s actually interesting to watch. I wasn’t prepared to fire a follow-up shot for a number of reasons. Two of which are because the beaver resurfaced closer than it was when I took the shot causing it to be out of focus and I was still zoomed in and had a narrower field of view. The white spot on the lower left in front of the wave is its face as it began to re-surface. Notice that my reticle is still in place from where I shot before the dive. This is what I mean by follow through. I try to hold my position to allow the pellet to exit the muzzle and stay true to my POA.
The way the dam is shaped, the distance from the banks to some of the breaks, and the fact that the dam runs parallel to a road that it’s in proximity to, limit my options concerning shooting stations/directions (see photo toward the end of this post for context). It rained yesterday and the water level is down, odd. After checking the breaks after the rain, none of the breaches have been repaired.
I reviewed the footage and I cannot tell where the missed shot went. It was over 80% relative humidity the night that I went out to hunt. I continue to get a brief white flash from the IR (infrared) reflecting off of the water vapor already present in the air coming off of the surface of the pond water. The water continues to hold heat from the sun shining on it throughout the day. As the ambient air temperature cools after sunset, the air’s moisture content seems to increase at night, especially around the pond and even more so the day of or after it rains. These conditions combined with warmer air coming from my rifle’s reservoir out of the muzzle behind a projectile (think of steam coming off of a warm cup of coffee or from your mouth after exhaling on a cold morning) creates the white wash, at least in my mind this is what’s occurring. I hope this is a comprehensible explanation. The brief white flash comes at an inconvenient moment just after I squeeze the trigger. In my recorded footage I can only view my POA (point of aim) before the shot, the animal’s reaction to the sound (after the shot), my shot placement (via impact or splash), and my POA on my follow through (where the reticle is at the time of impact). As far as I could tell placement and follow thought looked pretty accurate. I took time to be sure I acquired an accurate range on a swimming animal, she didn’t remain at the break long and her head was not visible while she was in it. My best estimation is that I led slightly too far forward with my POA and shot too soon. I’m thinking that the pellet went over what I guess I’d call the “bridge of her nose.” I didn’t see a carcass the next morning and she didn’t react as if she’d been hit in the head or face. However, I didn’t see evidence of a splash in the water around her in the footage. I’m pretty confident that I loaded a pellet because the mag was full when inserted it before walking to the dam. I checked using my headlamp before loading it. I don’t recall hearing impact in mud or flesh, but she reacted so fast it’s really hard to say what happened. I’m kinda lost on this one.
So maybe you’re wondering, why did you lead so far forward? Well, it’s a little different shooting at a moving animal. When I shot beaver #2, noticed a difference between the POA and POI (point of impact). Look at the photos below. I aimed towards the corner of the eye, but hit below and just in front of the ear.
For greater context the photo below shows where I was seated, where the beaver was and the path that it swam away.
A lot of the water in the above photo has been drained since this was taken. I need to get more recent aerial photos. Despite that fact, I’ll try to explain this best I can. The circle on the right is now mud and is approximately where I was seated on the bank. The “L” on its side shape is the approximate location of one of the holes that I dug to breach the dam. The dotted line is my line of sight for my shot. The arrow represents the path that the beaver swam. What is not seen in this photo is the strip of land that now forms a little peninsula (jutting out from left to right) that runs perpendicular to the road. I only have a few of seconds before the beavers can swim behind it to escape my line of sight and fire (approximated by the broken line).
Edit 11/10/23 to add video clip that the still IR photos were taken from. Viewing this in real time should provide some context as to why certain things were and were not done as well as just how much time I had to make my decisions.
vimeo.com
So much activity has been going on around this dam I’m now focused more on trapping these beavers to cut into their numbers more efficiently. The property owner expressly requested that I kill the hog that’s been seen rooting up the bank recently. I’m opting for a larger caliber considering the variety of quarry, my skill set, and the circumstances. This is about to get more interesting.
This is the hog exiting across the edge of the dam after rooting along the bank.
As it entered the water and started swimming away, I shot my Brocock Bantam Sniper HR .25 once and missed.
Pre-shot lead on swimming beaver. I wanted to shoot the eye or behind it.
Here’s how the IR white wash looks in a frozen frame. You can barely make out what I previously saw before the flash on the upper right edge of this frozen frame.
I had a solid base seated on my bucket with my elbows resting on my thighs.
Here’s how my follow through looked less than a second before the tail flap/dive as the white wash abates.
After the missed shot the beaver did a tail flap, dove making a big splash, re-surfaced, and hauled tail back toward the lodge. As it prepares to stop swimming and slap the water with its tail, the beaver lowered its head below the surface of the water and moved its hindquarters toward the surface of the water as seen below.
Notice the water coming over its head as it flips its tail up and out of the water before slamming it back down on the surface. Beavers slap their tails loudly on the surface of water to warn other beavers of danger. They generally all vacate an area by diving into and under the water when they hear this sound or at the least they enter the water and swim away to their lodge. In years past, I’ve seen several enter the water at once after hearing a tail slap.
Beaver tail slap warning full-splash freeze frame.
This all occurred in a seamless motion. It’s actually interesting to watch. I wasn’t prepared to fire a follow-up shot for a number of reasons. Two of which are because the beaver resurfaced closer than it was when I took the shot causing it to be out of focus and I was still zoomed in and had a narrower field of view. The white spot on the lower left in front of the wave is its face as it began to re-surface. Notice that my reticle is still in place from where I shot before the dive. This is what I mean by follow through. I try to hold my position to allow the pellet to exit the muzzle and stay true to my POA.
The way the dam is shaped, the distance from the banks to some of the breaks, and the fact that the dam runs parallel to a road that it’s in proximity to, limit my options concerning shooting stations/directions (see photo toward the end of this post for context). It rained yesterday and the water level is down, odd. After checking the breaks after the rain, none of the breaches have been repaired.
I reviewed the footage and I cannot tell where the missed shot went. It was over 80% relative humidity the night that I went out to hunt. I continue to get a brief white flash from the IR (infrared) reflecting off of the water vapor already present in the air coming off of the surface of the pond water. The water continues to hold heat from the sun shining on it throughout the day. As the ambient air temperature cools after sunset, the air’s moisture content seems to increase at night, especially around the pond and even more so the day of or after it rains. These conditions combined with warmer air coming from my rifle’s reservoir out of the muzzle behind a projectile (think of steam coming off of a warm cup of coffee or from your mouth after exhaling on a cold morning) creates the white wash, at least in my mind this is what’s occurring. I hope this is a comprehensible explanation. The brief white flash comes at an inconvenient moment just after I squeeze the trigger. In my recorded footage I can only view my POA (point of aim) before the shot, the animal’s reaction to the sound (after the shot), my shot placement (via impact or splash), and my POA on my follow through (where the reticle is at the time of impact). As far as I could tell placement and follow thought looked pretty accurate. I took time to be sure I acquired an accurate range on a swimming animal, she didn’t remain at the break long and her head was not visible while she was in it. My best estimation is that I led slightly too far forward with my POA and shot too soon. I’m thinking that the pellet went over what I guess I’d call the “bridge of her nose.” I didn’t see a carcass the next morning and she didn’t react as if she’d been hit in the head or face. However, I didn’t see evidence of a splash in the water around her in the footage. I’m pretty confident that I loaded a pellet because the mag was full when inserted it before walking to the dam. I checked using my headlamp before loading it. I don’t recall hearing impact in mud or flesh, but she reacted so fast it’s really hard to say what happened. I’m kinda lost on this one.
So maybe you’re wondering, why did you lead so far forward? Well, it’s a little different shooting at a moving animal. When I shot beaver #2, noticed a difference between the POA and POI (point of impact). Look at the photos below. I aimed towards the corner of the eye, but hit below and just in front of the ear.
For greater context the photo below shows where I was seated, where the beaver was and the path that it swam away.
A lot of the water in the above photo has been drained since this was taken. I need to get more recent aerial photos. Despite that fact, I’ll try to explain this best I can. The circle on the right is now mud and is approximately where I was seated on the bank. The “L” on its side shape is the approximate location of one of the holes that I dug to breach the dam. The dotted line is my line of sight for my shot. The arrow represents the path that the beaver swam. What is not seen in this photo is the strip of land that now forms a little peninsula (jutting out from left to right) that runs perpendicular to the road. I only have a few of seconds before the beavers can swim behind it to escape my line of sight and fire (approximated by the broken line).
Edit 11/10/23 to add video clip that the still IR photos were taken from. Viewing this in real time should provide some context as to why certain things were and were not done as well as just how much time I had to make my decisions.
Beaver #3 Missed Shot
This is the 3rd nuisance beaver I attempted to take from this permission. This footage was taken on June 09, 2023 at around 11:30pm. My set up was a Brocock Bantam…
vimeo.com So much activity has been going on around this dam I’m now focused more on trapping these beavers to cut into their numbers more efficiently. The property owner expressly requested that I kill the hog that’s been seen rooting up the bank recently. I’m opting for a larger caliber considering the variety of quarry, my skill set, and the circumstances. This is about to get more interesting.
This is the hog exiting across the edge of the dam after rooting along the bank.
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I updated the above post.
Here’s a photo of the coyote I mentioned earlier in the thread. He’s currently not on my elimination list as it presents no threat to the property or property owner and is a part of the clean up crew. I take the offal to the edge of the woods for it and other scavengers, sort of like a rural Door Dash for animals.
For coyotes it’s around the time for denning season (to my understanding) and this one looks to be a yearling from last season. Or it could just be a poor yote. I really can’t say for sure, but it looks young to me. I don’t hear many of them in this area when I’m out there at night, so I’m not so sure there’s a need to thin them here. It wasn’t requested that I kill the animal and I let it be. Hopefully it’s hunting these beavers too.
Here’s a photo of the coyote I mentioned earlier in the thread. He’s currently not on my elimination list as it presents no threat to the property or property owner and is a part of the clean up crew. I take the offal to the edge of the woods for it and other scavengers, sort of like a rural Door Dash for animals.
For coyotes it’s around the time for denning season (to my understanding) and this one looks to be a yearling from last season. Or it could just be a poor yote. I really can’t say for sure, but it looks young to me. I don’t hear many of them in this area when I’m out there at night, so I’m not so sure there’s a need to thin them here. It wasn’t requested that I kill the animal and I let it be. Hopefully it’s hunting these beavers too.
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Excellent write up & photos. Seems as though you've become a one-man wildlife management agency.
Are you sure you're not hunting Nessie?
Are you sure you're not hunting Nessie?
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@TN_Yankee Thank you. I like animals and I like learning about them. To solve issues that some present, it helps me to know or learn things about their habits and behavior. So I’m learning. This is like a real-life biology and natural science course combined. When I said beavers are considered to be keystone creatures, I meant it. I’ve obtained great footage of a variety of animals that feed in this wetland environment. I also have help from some folks with experience in removing beavers. And if Nessie is in here, I’m getting paid.Excellent write up & photos. Seems as though you've become a one-man wildlife management agency.
Are you sure you're not hunting Nessie?
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Boy Ezana, you have beaver after beaver coming in! I hope you anchor it soon as well as that big ole hog! Be safe!
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