Last fall I made several 12x15x33 inch beaver cage traps to see how small I could push it and still catch in a trap with a large appearance. The height was the standard 12, while the width was in between the 12×12 and the 12×18 at 12×15. In an attempt to go as short as possible, the length was only 33, probably about as short as you could go simply because beaver are large, with a 50 pound beaver measuring about 32 inches head to the base of the tail.
It was a tough winter and not worth the fight, below zero many nights, lots of ice and a fair amount of snow. I didn’t set any beaver traps for the past couple of months, but break up is beginning. Finally I got a chance to experiment with the new traps and went two for two, not a surprise, a large beaver just under 40 pounds and a small one. This trap is only 71% as large when comparing the volume of this trap to the 12x18x39, while it has an opening 83.3% as large as the bigger trap. The new trap weighs only 17.5 pounds.