New Hampshire Trappers Association

Stories and Pictures

New Hampshire NWCO Catches 93LB Beaver

When Dan Siudut got a call from a neighbour about an animal that kept chewing through her electric fence, he didn't know he was going after one of the largest beavers ever trapped in the country.

The average beaver weighs about 45 pounds. When Siudut, a licensed wildlife control operator, went to check the traps he'd set in his neighbour's backyard pond, he was astonished by the size of his catch - two beavers, one weighing a whopping 93 pounds, the second at a hefty 60 pounds.

"It's just obnoxious how funny and huge this thing is," Siudut said yesterday, holding the beaver's tail from where it hung in his backyard.

The New Hampshire Department of Fish and Game doesn't keep statistics on the largest beavers caught in the state, but retired biologist Eric Orff said it's easily one of the biggest beavers ever caught here. "That's far bigger than anything I've ever heard of," said Orff, who oversaw the state's hunting and trapping department for 30 years before retiring in June.

Trapping season for beavers doesn't open until Nov. 1, but because Siudut is a wildlife control operator for Rockingham County, he can trap nuisance animals year-round. If it's out of season, which lasts until April 10 for beavers, he usually releases the animal in a state-managed wildlife area. But he's holding on to this catch because of its size

Winter Coyote focused on a mouse in an open pasture.
Photo taken by Jean Cole of Lebanon NH at her home.

Two for One

You've gotta hear this one! A true MB-750 foothold story.


My 14 year old son and I were asked to remove some nuisance beaver by a friend. After checking out the area, we decided to trap the spillway on the dam and set up a 330 conibear, letting a little water trickle over the dam to attract the beavers.

When we checked the trap the following morning, we found the 330 conibear slammed into the dam and packed with mud!!! This went on for two weeks - two weeks of frustration. So I called my good friend, Trapper Jeff for some advice.

My son and I have been trapping for 5 years and had never had this experience before. We got ribbed a bit about being outsmarted by a trap-shy beaver, and Trapper Jeff told us it was about time we set our first foothold set using a slide wire.

So the very next day, we headed back to the spillway and with a new MB750 Foothold Trap, a cement block and 11 ga. wire, we made our first foothold set. When checking the trap the next morning (1/9/2006) I noticed the trap was gone! I picked up the slidewire and started pulling. As I pulled and tugged, I realized we had caught something. We were very pleased with ourselves that we had a catch the very first time we used that foothold set. But soon I realized that we had not caught one beaver but had caught TWO, both by the rear toes in the same trap!!!

I couldn't believe it! One beaver weighed 30 lbs and the other 35 lbs. The pelt sizes were 55" and 61". You bet we called Trapper Jeff to let him know. He had never heard of anything like that in over 25 years of trapping. I told another friend, Harris, the skinner and he too had never heard of anyone catching two beavers by the toes in the same foothold trap. Harris has been in the trapping & skinning business for 60 years!

What luck! This is by far the best 2 for 1 deal we ever got and sure is a great way to start the new year. Of course we didn't have a camera at the catch site, but I will never go on the trap line without a camera again!

Mike and Dillon Brady
Proud trappers from Goffstown, NH.

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Robie Speed the Lady Trapper of Walpole

           
Is There A God?          

                                                      By Alex Troy

      I stood on the hill behind my home and watched the sun slowly sink from view. A Wood mouse scurries about the forest floor looking for a few tidbits of food carried there by the winter snow. The Thrush, the Robin, and the Towhee scratch in the leaves for a free meal or something for their nests. The Bees buzz around for some early summer nectar. In the distance I view the majestic forest in its delicate coat of early summer green. I gaze around and see blueberry bushes in bud. The early summer flowers prepare to display their beauty. This is Mother Nature at work providing home and sustenance.

     Behind the forest is a lake backed by purple snow-capped mountains, which are crowned by an awe-inspiring sunset. Its red, orange, and yellow hues extend their golden radiance across all that I see. Tears of love and joy flow down my cheeks and my heart throbs with every breath I take, absorbed with the presence of the Creator. I don’t ask or have to be told; I know there is a God.

Howl of the Wolf, Mourn of the Dove
Stinky Trapping Story

     Trapping Easter Bunnies

Beaver, Buzzards, and Bears                                   November 2003
By Mel Liston

Strafford, New Hampshire

What could these three critters have in common?  Last spring toward the end of my trapping season, there were just a few problem beaver yet to catch, skin, and stretch.  I came home one morning with the last three culprit beaver, which were causing problems for a local town road agent and his crew. (A long rap sheet for plugging up culverts and bridges, flooding the roads, and undermining the road base, all at considerable expense to the town brought about their demise.  These three problem beaver were finished in their careers of roadway sabotage.) As I usually do when we have warm sunny weather, I laid the beaver on the picnic table beside my barn.  I proceeded to brush the fur to remove mud and burs, first in the direction that the fur would normally lay, and then in the opposite direction which made it fluff up nicely for drying. Typically I would leave the beaver in the sun for a few hours to dry before starting the skinning process.  I got in my truck and left the farm for a few hours. Upon my return, I made the curve in the driveway going around the house bringing the barn and picnic table into view. I was presented with the interesting site of five buzzards standing on the big table contemplating the beaver carcasses, while others circled above.  Noise from the worn out suspension of my old truck was enough to scatter the buzzards and luckily they had not yet done significant damage to the hides.  This whole scene was quite interesting and I wish that I had a camera in the truck at the time. One of the beaver was pecked a little, but nothing as bad as some of the typical cuts and gashes normally found in spring beaver when they are fighting among themselves for territory.

Surmising that perhaps it would be better if I didn’t leave whole beaver unattended in the future, I got on about my business. I rough skinned all three beaver, and then removed the excess fat on a hardwood beam utilizing a knife designed specifically for this purpose in a process called fleshing. Next, I tacked each fleshed hide on a plywood stretching board. Concentric oval patterns based on size and form, are marked on each board to guide the fur handler when tacking the hides. These boards are referred to as stretcher boards. In reality their purpose is not so much to stretch as to secure the hide in the shape desired by the fur industry while the remaining fat and oil is air-dried from the tissue. Up until the event I am about to elaborate, it was my practice to hang my stretched and drying beaver pelts in the open machine shed on the backside of my barn. The machine shed provided a good and airy location protected from possible rain. Those three hides went up on the wall along with about fifteen others, which were not yet dry. The next day I went to the machine shed intending to put the rototiller on the back of the tractor and begin working the fields.  One of the stretching boards was lying halfway up the back pasture and another was about twenty yards outside the machine shed with the pelt ripped off and nowhere in sight. Several ragged or tattered hides were lying on the ground around the various pieces of equipment and a few of the hides were partially ripped off the boards hanging down off the wall.  It was quite a site of destruction but it didn't take long to realize what happened.  Some of the remaining pelts had claw marks as sure evidence indicting the large predator, which had been dining on my beaver hides.  Additionally the backside of my barn was covered with muddy paw prints, which identified the marauder as a fairly decent size bear.  There were tracks on the lawn tractor seat where the bear had climbed up onto the tractor to reach some of the additional hides.  Seven hides were consumed or otherwise damaged.  Three hides were totally missing, most likely consumed. Two hides were ripped to shreds and partially consumed along with the nails I used to tack them to the boards. I guess the bad bear got a little fiber in that meal. Two other hides were somewhat damaged and although significantly devalued still saleable, or at least I shipped them to auction.

There are a lot of lessons for a trapper to learn; when is the ice safe enough for me to go get those beaver out in the middle of the big marsh? Boy! Those big coni-bear traps can hurt. I guess we should have balanced the load in the canoe? How many critters do I have to skin before I stop pocking them full of holes? Maybe I shouldn’t leave beaver on the picnic table when the buzzards return in the spring, or hang hides on the backside of the barn when the bears are fresh out of hibernation?