Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Europe beaver hunting ?

I took a trip on the Danube River and was surprised to see beaver cuttings along the shore as I had thought the European beaver was extinct. I understand that there were some still in the Danube delta and have since repopulated the river system.

I used to trap beaver a lot for both the WI and MN DNR. For 20 yrs after I left that country my dad would get calls for me to come out and trap some troublesome beaver.

They are very good eating, the meat is a lot like beef and we would make a lot of jerky(cut thin peppered and hung over the campfire) from it and the livers are huge for the critters size and is very mild like calves liver, beaver camp breakfast was fried liver onions and eggs.

I got a neighbor, at our P. A. Hunt camp trapping them down by the Conneaut Creak, on the back of our property!
He does well and we let him have at it, at his own pace and leisure!
Good guy!

Well, the spelling looks about right for Clay County.

There fun to watch work!

Very efficient little critters

He had me right up til pleas lets keep this clean.

We trap and shoot them on a small winding river that runs past my trapping/hunting shack. We get 30 bucks per tail for bounty, 100 bucks or so a pound for castors then use the carcasses for bear bait, then snare and shoot the bears. No limit on snared bears in my area.

Typically we'll keep between a few Belisle 330s out using H frame stands, and shoot between traps and on the boat ride back. Number of traps varies with how fast the bears are eating them. Rifles are whatever I feel like shooting and sighting for 50 yards. Bullets are usually NBTs or Bergers, something fragible at close range. Most shots are swimming; but more than a few are sunning themselves on the banks. It's not a money maker, but 70 to 100 a spring pays for lots of outboard gas, a semi annual order of commercially supplied bear bait, and a new rifle or chainsaw once in a while.

A key tool is a salt water gaff. Grabbing a moving beaver from a moving boat in running water isn't as easy as it sounds. Keeping a grip is even harder.

24/7/365 and I like the ones that can cook as well as clean too.

Yeah, we all know the jokes, though now days a little less ‘fur’.

Traps work best of course, in some areas the only ‘legal’ method. Then we get to nuisance beavers, no closed season, no illegal methods.

In the Spring beavers come out more in the daytime, checking out things. At that time, I like a 17 HMR or a 223.