357 Henry's First Blood

[rickhem]

I have a problem with some unwanted critters on my property, and long story short, tonight I used my .357 Big Boy on a groundhog.

Now for the long winded flashback version.
Every year at about this time of the year, we end up with groundhogs under the garages or the porch for our house. We've also had skunks and possums, but they're not nearly as bad as the groundhogs. There was even a muskrat taking up residence by the pond this spring. I have a 1022 that I put together back in the early 1990s that shoots knots, and that's my usual tool for the groundhogs. I get an angle on them so that my backdrop is down towards the woods. I can usually get shots of about 40-50 yards and take head shots. They tend to poke their heads out of the holes they dig under the buildings, and that's their downfall. If you can keep the hits inside of a golf ball, you can head shoot groundhogs with the .22, and they're not running anywhere with those hits. I also put out live traps, and when I catch one it gets driven to the far side of the property and released. The trap is by far their best option. Lately they have been coming up on our front porch and chewing on the rockers we have out there. I put a trail camera on the porch, and they're on the porch more than we are! I'm not waiting for them to find the traps any more. I'll leave the traps out, but any groundhog out in the open is fair game.

So I'm also dealing with a beaver problem down on the lower areas of the property. They've been around for a long time, but since last fall, they dammed off and flooded another area, and now there's about 5 more acres getting flooded. My neighbor deer hunted in that now-flooded area, and the water is backed almost to the bucket where he sat. All the trees are chewed down there, and the beavers are now taking land I don't want them to have. I'm amazed at how they can do what they do, but at the same time, they gotta go. I filed for a nuisance beaver permit with my state, and that allows me to pull down the dams too. They approved the permit and I printed it out and signed it, then got my .22 and headed down there this past Thursday. Within 10 minutes, there was a big beaver swimming around about 40 or so yards out, just circling and tail slapping, so I waited for it to circle towards me and shot it. The head was much bigger than a goundhog, and only that head was above water, so with me leaning and resting up against a tree, not a hard shot. It started flipping and flopping like head shots do, then stopped. I went back to my SxS and put on my waders to go retrieve it, probably should have put them on first.

Now this area really wasn't dry before the beavers flooded it, but you could walk around on the humps and not get your feet wet. Deer trails were easy to make out through the softer, mucky areas that were now all submerged. I waded out to where I shot it and as dumb as it wounds, it didn't occur to me that it would sink, which it did. I brought my rifle, since I also wasn't expecting the water to be that deep. I figured the water was only going to be about a foot deep, but I was in water up to my waist and I guess the land wasn't as flat as I thought it was. The water was tannin stained from all the pines in the area, and all the pine needles on the ground as it flooded, so little visibility too. I started kicking around trying to find the beaver, and almost fell a couple times, and there were mosquitoes galore. I kept switching hands with the rifle so I could use the other hand to wipe all the bugs off my arms and face. Then, in the middle of that circus, I see a beaver swimming towards me, and doing the tail slapping thing again. No way this is the same one, I know I hit that first one good, but I wasn't above a target of opportunity. The problem now is that I'm almost level with this second beaver, waist deep in the water, and in no position to take an appropriate offhand stance. Still, it's only about 25 yards away, so I send one.

I'll add in here that this rifle has an older Japan made Tasco 6-24 scope with the dot reticle. I like the dot since the point of impact is very close to the reticle dot out to about 80 yards, so put the dot on what you want to hit and press one off. I like that "point blank" kind of setup. I keep it at about 20x since it gets kind of hazy above that. Now I am almost positive I hit that second beaver when I shot, but after a flip-flop or two, it started swimming towards me....fast. Well the 1022 still has rounds in the mag, but now the beaver is so close I can't find it in the scope. I'll admit I'm getting a little concerned now. The beaver is swimming like a zombie, just paddling like crazy, but it spooked me cause it was coming towards me. That thing was getting too close for comfort, so I just canted the rifle, looked down the barrel, and popped a few more off. One of those hit and after a bit more flipping and flopping, I reached out and grabbed it's leg for the last few kicks. I didn't want to chance this one sinking too. (not that it mattered, but I guess you had to be there) I was now far enough out that another bank was closer, so I headed for that. The water went deeper and shallower before that bank, but there were enough other trees to lean against that I made it without falling in, getting my rifle wet, or dropping the beaver.

I left the beaver there, on that far bank, and went back to the SxS. I rode back up to the house to get this rake/cultivator thing, and brought it back down. I waded out with the rake and searched for about 30 minutes for that first beaver, but never found it. I brought the second beaver up to the house to weigh it, it was just under 35 pounds. Somewhere in there I realized that while the .22 worked, it was not the right tool for that job. I either need to use one of my .223 rifles, or the .357 Henry.

So after getting all the other chores done this weekend, I loaded up some 158XTP bullets over a stout charge of Lil Gun for my .357 Big Boy. I have it sighted so that it's dead on at 35 yards, and again at 90, and stays within a half inch of that the whole way in-between. I didn't use a .223 because mine all have higher magnification scopes, while the henry has a 1-4x scope, much better suited to this task. Didn't want to learn that lesson twice. Took a few shots at 25, 50, and 75 yards this afternoon to get some confidence in the Henry again, and even with the crazy gusting winds, it was still doing exactly what I expected it to do.

I went back down to the flooded timber again and with the winds blowing from an approaching storm, the bugs weren't too bad. I did see the first beaver, all bloated and floating out a bit past where I thought it should be, so it definitely was a second one that I dragged out. Good to know that they do eventually pop back up, and felt good knowing I was right about that first one. I gave it about a half hour, and left when it started sprinkling, not seeing any more beavers. I found a good place to tear out some of the dam and start draining the area while looking around, but I know for a fact that there are more than just those two down there.

So to come full circle on the story, after the storm passed late this afternoon, and a little before the sun officially set, I see a fat brown ball roaming around by where I park my utility trailer. My first thought was to grab the .22, but after all I did with the Henry, and confidence in how it's been shooting, I decided to go with that. I slipped out the other side of the house and slinked around the side only to watch him scoot into his hole under my garage. Damn! But having dealt with this before, I knew what was coming. In about two or three minutes, a head popped up from the hole, and then he came out completely to look around. The XTP anchored him right there. That was the first time shooting my Henry without ear plugs in, and it's quite a bit louder than the .22, but it did the job, and now for me, it's a proven system.

[Sir Henry]

Great story. Are beaver pelts worth anything?

[Hatchdog]

What a fun story, thanks for taking the time to add all the details. Almost felt like I was there.

[rickhem]

Thanks guys.
NY has three different permits for nuisance beavers. One allows trapping/killing of the beaver, another allows that, plus deconstruction of the beaver dam that is no more than 2 years old. The third is a culvert maintenance permit, which seems to be more commercial oriented. The first two are issued to landowners, the third says it is issued to organizations. Once I am granted the permit, I can assign or hire out someone to handle the problem, but the permit is issued to the landowner. Dam removal is a bigger deal, and that has to be done without disrupting the ecosystem, but anything under two years old is covered by that second permit. Permits are good for the calendar year, so I'm covered until December 31st.

As per my permit, which is the second one that allows me to pull down that new dam, I can do as I please with the beaver if it is within the existing trapping season, which ended May 15th. Since it is past that date, they still allow me to address my "nuisance beaver" problem, but I am supposed to "dispose of the carcass appropriately". I imagine that makes it easier to enforce trapping seasons. I have a buddy that is a licensed wildlife control operator. He said that the pelts really aren't worth much these days, and he offered to help, but I wanted to do this myself.

[North Country Gal]

Gene, fur is good only in the winter when the fur is its thickest with its winter undercoat. Summer pelts have no value. My brother and I used to trap, back in the day. Most states, including our Wisconsin give landowners permits to kill or trap when beaver become a nuisance, though, same as rickhem. A few years back, one of our neighbors got a permit, because beaver were coming up on her property and eating her freshly planted trees.

[Sir Henry]

Gene, fur is good only in the winter when the fur is its thickest with its winter undercoat. Summer pelts have no value. My brother and I used to trap, back in the day. Most states, including our Wisconsin give landowners permits to kill or trap when beaver become a nuisance, though, same as rickhem. A few years back, one of our neighbors got a permit, because beaver were coming up on her property and eating her freshly planted trees.

It was the same in Washington with coyotes hides when the guards hairs were the fullest. December, January and February were the best months. By March they were to felted.