GTA
General Discussion To Gateway To Airguns => Hunting Gate => : wahoowad May 07, 2010, 11:28:42 PM
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I was working my contacts to find new groundhog hunting lands and someone asked me to help remove a couple nuisance beaver. I checked my game and fish website and I can do this year round as the landowner's agent. I'm hoping doing a good job for him will help him distribute my name to others (he's a real estate agent for large country estates/farms). I usually see beaver swimming with just a an inch or two of head above the water...sounds like a challenging shot and might not hit his skull broadside and fully penetrate. I'm guessing I should stake out his beaver hut or a freshly chewed tree and wait for him to come out of the water? Anybody know the best times of day for beaver activity?
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Early and late in the day. But you might see one at any time of day. Very active after dark,
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In SC the beavers ard protected. Had several of them in a steam near my house and the fish and game people came and relocated them.
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Is a head shot with a .20 R9 suitable to bring it down? Chairgun says my energy is 8.3 ft. lbs. at 35 yards. I don't know how thick a skull they have. I'd put that on a possum, thinking a beaver is bigger but not necessarily a thicker skull. I don't know. My new .22 Trail XL isn't broken in yet and the Marauder hasn't shipped.
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Beavers have some thick skull's so I would go for a side profile shot in the sweetspot. The front of their skull is like armor considering that it has to hold those big tree choppers in. Ed
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What Ed said, they have very strong skulls, and like armor on a tank, the sides also slope. They are very strong and tough for their body size, which can become quite large.
Ex-brother-in-law had problems with them at his sheep farm in east Conn. He gave up trying to hunt them with his 22 rimfire and called in a trapper. Only place he could see them during the day was out in the water and with other houses in the area, he was afraid on a rickochet.
The girl friend and I watched a large one from the window table of a riverside resturant that used to be a mill. We were told the DEC estimated that one was in the 50 - 60 lb range. When it slapped it's tail and dove under in the mill pond, the splash was like a gun shot, and about the size you'd see if you threw a cement block in.
Since they spend so much time in the water, you'll be lucky if you get to see more than just the top half of their head. Plus, you have to beware of what's beyond them if shooting over water. They have good eye sight and hearing, it's very tough to get close to one. They are not easy to "hunt" - that's one of the main reasons they use traps to hunt them.
Have you tied Predator pellets in your XL yet? Good energy and much better penitration than a domed pellet.
Paul.
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slap an oar on the water at night a time or 2 and scan with spotlight
they will show sometimes thinkin another is nearby
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Beaver hunts are a blast! Wait in the parking lot about 3 am with a crown bottle full of tea. They'll never know the difference.
Seroiusly though we would have them come up and check out our lantern at night in the creeks back home. Had some really big ones come up so don't know if a pellet rifle would work unless it one of those full blown pcp's. Will atract lots of snakes too.
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You need to be very careful and find out if it's legal or not. It is also illegal to shoot an animal while it is in water in most states.
Other than that, I 'd wait until your Marauder arrives or you have the Trail XL sighted in :) I would not use an R9 on a beaver, especially from 35yds away.. and only 8fpe remaining.
Study the skull from Ed's picture and practice a lot at 35yd targets or whatever the distance will be, before taking the "shot".
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I would definitely check the regulations in your area first:) I recall being told that trapping and using a beaver lure is the best bet and if you are shooting near water then a .17 hmr is a good choice and less chance of a ricochet. BTW the guy that told me this eats the tails! All the beavers I have observed are very alert and always beyond 50yds.. IMO the R9 and not a good chioce.
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something went horribly wrong in this post! See below!
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I've checked regs. See original post. Landowner or agent can pop em at their discretion if they are being a nuisance. This is one I saw while fishing elsewhere...probably 40 pounds and the size of fat medium dog.
(http://www.earlysvilleironworks.com/link/AbelLakeBeaver.jpg)
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Using an air gun on a beaver may not be the thing to do. Just not enough energy. A center fire rifle would be the way to go. Also you need to verify with the DNR that it would be legal. Also you need to consider the surrounding area. Are there any land owners close enough to have the crap scared out of them by gunshots. Also is there a safe direction for shots/bullets to go. Don't assume there won't be any ricochetes. Now I am not saying don't shoot a beaver....just be careful. Cross the Ts and dot the I s.
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I wouldn't use an air gun on one. Heck a beaver is larger than most coyotes! I've seen some MONSTRO beavers in Tennessee and Kansas (yes I know, but they are everywhere out there along the creeks). With that said, I'd use the same stuff I used for killing coyotes. Might even consider a shotgun with buckshot to take them out. Less chance of it carrying a long way. I'd hate to have my .223 skip off a pond!
They are a nuisance animal in TN. You can hunt them any time of year with no limit just like groundhogs.
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There is no shortage of weaponry that I can employ. You are right, R9 isn't going to cut it. I'll either wait for my .25 Marauder or break out the Terminator class black guns.
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I don't know a lot about the Marauder .25 and how much energy it puts out, but if it's more than the .22 version, or over 30fpe at the muzzle, then it should do the job just fine, but only with a well placed shot in the head and not from very far away.
I would try and get within 30yds with the Marauder. The goal is to quickly and humanely kill it on the spot, and post the pics here afterwards.. like immediately :) But seriously speaking, this means getting close to ensure an accurate shot to the head but where it counts on the head, not its jaw, nose, or somewhere on the neck. It has to be its brain.
If you can get your hands on a powerful PCP like a Condor (.22 or .25), even better. You could take the beaver from 40-50yds easily but again, it has to be a very good head shot so it goes down fast and you don't just injure it and lose it. We had a kid here about 2-3yrs back (or was it on the Dianawerk forum?) that took a 35lb beaver with his 350 .177. A single shot to the head from 20 or 30yds I believe, and he said it dropped dead in its tracks.
Beavers actually get pretty large but many Coyotes (and plenty of fox) have been taken with mid powered PCP's and Magnum Springers. A beaver's head is probably slightly harder or thicker than a Coyote's, but it is just bone, not steel or pressure-treated wood. We are not talking about a bear or a wild boar here. Even if the beaver's head is equivelant to say wood.. that's no problem. My Condor almost goes through a pressure-treated 2x4" (or 2x8") from 25yds out. You can see the splinters sticking out in the back or part of the pellet. At 10yds Kodiaks go right through it as long as they go >1,040fps. I think the challenge here with the Beaver would be to get up close within normal "airgun ranges" (25 to 35yds), especially because it is a large one with a good size head. It would not be much of a challenge taking a shot at it with a 30-06 from 75 or 100yds out. A .17HMR or .22 WMR maybe, not not a centerfire gun.
If I had to use a powder burner, I would just use my .22LR (~125fpe) which is deadly accurate at 50yds.
You are only going to need about 15fpe on impact (to the head) to drop this beaver so an airgun will do. 15fpe is the same to shooting the beaver with a Diana 34 .177 or .22 at point-blank range. Do some of you think you cannot kill a beaver with a shot like that (900fps w/.177 pellet or 680-700fps in .22) betwen the eyes from 1" away? I know people (through other forums) that have killed feral dogs bigger than a beaver with the same or less "firepower" from 15yds out. It's all about shot placement. Forget the powder burners. You can take the beaver with your Marauder if you are patient enough and practice a lot until you can place that pellet inside a nickel-sized hole every time (at 30yds and beyond). Should not be too hard to do with a PCP like the Marauder. Good luck and let us know the outcome.
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take a P1 and a Buck knife and go after him after you sting him with the P1 he will charge ya then jump on its back with the knife and finish him off
lol
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I found that hanging a tree stand in a waterside tree gave the best result and the very top of a beaver skull is the best with lower powered guns hence the tree stand method and beavers can not look straight up while in water as well a elevated stand will be less likely a ricochet. I was taken on a few damage control hunts with a friend of my father when I was younger and this method for beavers was always the most successful.
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I think I'd still use a powder burner on something that big. However, I do like the tree stand idea and shooting straight down. I'm pretty sure you could take him with a dead on shot from above. Like you said his head isn't armored.
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A powder burner isn't needed for sure.
I have a .25 caliber PCP magnum airgun. At 10 feet from the muzzle, it sends a 43 grain pellet at 950fps. That's 80fpe. At 50 yards, that's cut in half to about 40. Still 3 times more than is needed to kill the beaver. I've shot a .25 cal hole just about (the wood splinters blew out the back and the pellet deformed into the size of a quarter) through a 2x6 at 20 yards with it. It is nothing to shake a stick at.
There is a larger cousin to my gun that shoots 9MM pellets at 700+ fps and one that shoots .45 cal blackpowder bullets at 550fps. That's almost 200fpe. If you don't think an airgun can take a beaver, you need to take another look at the latest airguns!
If you take a look at Dennis Quackenbush's website, http://www.quackenbushairguns.com/ , he makes .458 caliber airguns that have taken down bison.
Long gone are the days were airguns are childs toys. They are viable hunting tools for animals up to 2000lbs.