Update on numbers, statistics for perspective
As of this week I have personally taken 268 beaver in the swim through 12x18x39 wire triggered, powered door cage traps in my own ADC business, which puts me squarely in second place. A trapper in Massachusetts has now taken over 600 beaver in two seasons, 400 and 200, along with more than 100 muskrats and plenty of otter. I am still amazed that a trap this large with highly powered doors will also quite handily take small muskrats, even a couple of mink! The Massachusetts trapper and one Washington State trapper each broke their old conibear records with Comstock Cages, which speaks volumes, showing the practical effectiveness of the device.
In my own business, though I am permitted to snare, use both conibears and foot holds, along with live traps like Bailey and Hancock, even shoot beaver under permit, the trap of choice remains our own cage traps because of the versatility. They just plain work. Typically I will load the truck with 6 or 8 cages only and head out on a complaint. Setting from 2 to 4 is standard at a location. Last year almost 90 percent of the 129 trapped beaver were caged in Comstock Cages, 116. This year to date I have used the cages 100% of the time to take 23 beaver.
As with any device, at times there are “hang ups.” There is now one beaver that will require different equipment, which is always to be expected. Like any visible device, as in square shy beaver with conibears, beaver will at times avoid a cage once they have seen others captured, even without springing a trap. But, if the beaver is allowed to “calm down,” by returning at a later date, weeks later, a formerly hesitant beaver may be trapped first night.
