To all of you who followed my exploits last April will be happy to know that I now have a beaver (or beavers) and/or nutria rats in my lake AGAIN. I first noticed that my spillways were not flowwing 4 days ago and that a log and some weeds had cloged them, thinking (hoping) that it was just run off, I cleaned the spill ways. The next day more weeds and mud. Now I know that I have critters in the lake. Tonight was the first night of Beaver patrol again and it turned into an electrical nightmare. I am armed with night vision lense, 1,000,000 KP flood light and a back up 2 cell flash light plus a 12 ga. pump with 00 buck. Everything works great at the house. I walk to the lake and try to turn on the night vision-the batteries take a crap, next we try the rechargeable 1,000,000 KP light. It makes 2 passes over the lake and dies. I take the flash light to the spillways and see that there are no signs of beavers/rats and figure to H*ll with it and go to the house for a glass of wine.
I guess I did not realize the full distructive power of the beaver until this summer. My dock had become very shakey and I could not figure out why. This year we had a bad drought and the water level droped about 4 1/2 foot, exposing the 4X4's that support the dock. The middle 4X4 had been eaten in half by my furry friends. The only consolation was watching last years beaver floating into my pond after I blew him out of the water with the 12 ga,

Mate, I would happily take over your Beaver patrol for you, But I am on the other side of the Pacific.

Here's an option......fence off the pond with a STRONG fence.....get your hands on a couple of Saltwater Crocodiles from over here in Australia.....put them in the pond. Our "Salties" are not at all like the alligators found in the US. They are evil, mean, wicked and nasty. They will chomp anything that they can get hold of. Now that should give the Beavers a bit of hurry up and stop them "farting in church".

Keep us informed on how things are going.

Cheers, Vince

Vince,

That would be interesting

Kbis,

Goodluck with them, and enjoy your shooting,

Dimitri

Two years ago I had a gator get into my lake, never saw it but the paw print meassured 8 inches across. It got rid of my beavers along with my large bass and catfish. I was also very nervous about fishing at my lake. I don't know what happened to it, but glad its gone.

I would set up a blind of some sort in a place (100 yrds or so from the pond) so that you can sneak into it early in the morning or in the evening without being seen. Then with your varmint rifle, shoot the intruders. That's how I would do it.....................

I would love to use my 243 on them, but there are several problems. One they seem to only come out at night so I need to hold a flood light on them. It is very dificult to hold a flood light in one hand and a scoped rifle in the other and hit any thing and second I have yet to catch them on land. So I only see their heads in the water. That gives me about a 2" X 3" target. Thats why I have gone to the shot gun with 00 buck. Which also means I have to get close.

kbis wrote:

I would love to use my 243 on them, but there are several problems. One they seem to only come out at night so I need to hold a flood light on them. It is very dificult to hold a flood light in one hand and a scoped rifle in the other and hit any thing and second I have yet to catch them on land. So I only see their heads in the water. That gives me about a 2" X 3" target. Thats why I have gone to the shot gun with 00 buck. Which also means I have to get close.

Damn fine idea 1985ss. A blind is the way to go. As for the spotlight.....we mount them on a gimble mount on vehicles over here in Australia for night shooting. I'm sure you could rig up something similiar on a blind. Have a look at this link for an idea:

Spot Lights

Set up a spare car battery in the blind with a cable running from the light to the battery for power. easy to recharge too.

Why not get the missus or kids involved...one of them could direct the light beam for you while you cap 'em with your .243.

Cheers, Vince

I just realized you said you had a Night vision Device, maybe try rigging it to the front of your scope as a "scope" set up ??

Dimitri

When I've been hunting in areas where there are beavers I generally see them early in the morning or at dusk.

I really don't want to use the 243 since I will be shooting into water and the chance for a ricochey is great. Even though the chances are small (since I am surronded by woods), I don't want to have to buy one of the neighbors cows :).

I would like to talk my wife into doing the spotting, but she has to be to work at 7:00 A.M. and with my wierd working hours I am out there late at night. One of my neighbors has his wife do the spot light thing. They have a small John boat and she steers and works the light while he shoots.

These beavers have not read the book on how they are supposed to act. They are suppose to be most active at sunset. I have seen them 2 times at sunset in 4 years. They are also supposed to come running when they hear the sound of running water and then fix their damn. It took them 3 days last time I unpluged the spillway before the fixed it.

They are quick to learn. In the past I would go down there about 7:00 P.M., see one , take a shot (usually missing). The next night I would go down there at 7 and they would not show up until about 8. this went on until I was sitting out there at 2 in the morning.

The blind may help, at least I could be comfortable while sitting out there.

I do think a red lens on the flood light might help. These things are not like deer, when you hit them with a light they don't freeze, they take off. A red lens may keep them from being so frightened of the light.

What would really help is if I could catch them on land. The only time I see them is in the water and that only gives you a 2"X4" target, not a lot to shoot at.

Unfortunately my night vision stuff is not near the quality of the Mil. stuff or the price. I would love to find an old Starlight scope, they worked great overseas.

I must say, Australia takes their spot lights seriously. I clicked on the link that Vince supplied, very impressive.

Since I won't get home until about midnight tonight, I guess we shall see if they are out and about that late.

I sure got long winded on this post, sorry.

Put your blind closer so you can shoot them with a 22 lr if nec. As long as you can get there without them seeing you. We did the same thing with a damn in our area.

FYI Lightforce also makes the Nightforce series of scopes

Dimitri

1895ss wrote:

Put your blind closer so you can shoot them with a 22 lr if nec. As long as you can get there without them seeing you. We did the same thing with a damn in our area.

Hey, good thinkin' 99...ah 1895ss.

kbis, what about putting a small light along the lines of a street light near the damn (i like that one 1895ss) ...dam wall so that they become used to having light around. It doesn't need to be big and ultra bright....just something that will throw enough light around for them to get used to it.

Then you can zap em with your spotty! That'll stuff em.

Putting a little thought into another idea at the moment. Will let you know all about it when I figure it out. I'm a devious little bugger.

Cheers, Vince

I would like to put a blind close to the spillways but the spillways are in the corner of the damn (the damn is 60 yards wide) and if I locate it there I will be shooting at my house and the neighbors. My wife gets real testy about bullet holes in her house or at least she has in the past, but that is another story .

I like the idea about lighting the spillways, but it is about 200 yards to the nearest electrical outlet. That would be one long extension cord. There are solar flood lights, I was looking at them at work, but I don't know if they would last all night also I don't know if I want to drop $55 on these beavers?

A night vision scope would be nice, but what is the cost of one?

It is now midnight and I guess beaver hunting is out, we are having thunder storms, not quite 1" per hour of rain and lots of lightning. I really don't want to be standing in the middle of a field with a 12 guage lightning rod in my hands . I guess you could call me a fair weather hunter.

Losts of night vision scopes avalible.

I've never used ATN but if it wasnt for the export restrictions I'd get one myself

www.riflescopes.com/de...vision.htm

ATN 3x Warrior Night Vision Riflescope
1st Generation NVD for $478.95

ATN 4x MK6600 Night Vision Riflescope
2nd Generation NVD for $1,394.95

There are others but I just wanted to show the price gap between Gen 1 and 2.

Dimitri