Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Best 223 factory loading for use on beaver's without pelt damage?

I'd pick up a 17 HMR with a decent scope and drill them in the head or vitals with a 20gr XTP, preferably the head. In a decent rifle, Savage or better, head shots won't be a problem to a 100 yards if you find a rest or are a decent shot.

The damns are just over 5 feet, the depth of the creek banks. There is no more than 3 or 4 inches of bank exposed on any part of our property so there are no burrows in the banks. From years ago, I know where the likely places for their lodges are, about 150 yards upstream is the first one. There is only about 1 mile of habitat upstream for them, above that there is no flowing water the vast majority of the year, and for a beaver to get there once the population is down to 0, would take a very very long walk. That is why when we got rid of them 10 years ago, it took so long for any to come back. The really good habitat for them starts just upstream of our property, and is pure heaven for a beaver for a few miles downstream. I don't know who/what keeps them from coming upstream from the downstream side of the property, but obviously someone downstream is and has been taking care of the problem from that end.

I'd go with the 40 V-Max or 40 Ballistic Tips. No good sized beaver will allow one of those to zip through on a solid body shot.

Nope. Free range. For a long time Mississippi had a $5.00 bounty on beaver. All you had to have to collect was a tail. We hunted them pretty hard through high school. the most we ever killed in one night was 11. we had it down to a science. Ride the river at night, shoot beaver in head with 12 gauge birdshot, beaver goes to bank and gets out, shoot beaver with 22lr. If the beaver was on the bank to begin with, skip the shotgun and shoot with the 22. Beavers can't take a 22 lr to the brain or throught the shoulders.

i own a couple farms and live on one of them. we have beaver problems every year. like your location, beavers dam up creeks, sloughs, etc. here which causes low lands to flood. remember that water held on hardwoods will not kill them during the short winter months. it will kill them if you allow it to stand on them over the summer.

i usually dynamite their dam and set a conibear trap or three (or a few foothold traps) and catch the offenders. if i don't feel like trapping them, i'll sit on a bank near the newly created hole and shoot them with a 12ga shotgun and #1 buckshot after dark. i've killed hundreds this way. i've also killed many with a .22 lr and a 243 win. you must shoot them in the head (using a single projectile)or they will thrash, swim, do all sorts of gymnastics and get away. were it me and i wanted to save the hide, i'd use some sort of soft point so it would do max damage to the head/brain. remember, they are going to be swimming (usually slowly as they work around the hole in their dam). i've shot them on the bank or putting mud/sticks in the hole in the dam, but they don't remain still for long. good luck

I use a .22 RF magnum with hollowpoints to shoot several beavers each year. Works perfect with head shots. A .22 hornet is even a bit better. But the .22 long rifle is a wounder in my opinion. Body shots can be taken with a Hornet and usually will not exit, but when beaver are in the water I always shoot for the head. It is the only good target anyway, since all that sticks out on the back while they are swimming is skin and fur. Consider also that your .223 bullet may go a LOOOONG way if it bounces off the water, maybe into the neighbours property. I feel better with a lower powered rifle. To recover beavers shot in water, I let my Pudelpointer retrieve them, but he can't lift them when he gets them to shore. A dog can get seriously bit by beavers, make sure they are dead before sending a dog to fetch!

These two were both shot in the head with my .22 mag, left dime size holes that you can see if you look close. That size hole can be sewn together with no problem.

Wow, so you're saying it's OK to deliberately shoot to wound, as long as there is $5 in bounty money? That's pathetic! Wounding is sometimes unavoidable, but I am very disappointed that you are promoting it on this forum. Even nuisance beavers deserve better. We use a salmon sized landing net when hunting beaver from canoes, with a proper kill shot they can nearly all be retrieved if you're quick. No need to "hurt" them first so they crawl up on shore.

Dober's right. WW 64 gr PP is almost impossible to beat for any target not sequestered behind tempered glass, and it's cheap.

Oh, and it's my personal choice for home defense, based on a lot of pretty good objective testing by credible LE and mil testing sources.

Daaaamnnnn all you people, I'm a weak individual. You about have me talked into a new rifle. I bought far too many toys this year and now I'm seriously thinking about a 17 HMR, 5mm rem mag, or 22 mag just to shoot the dang things in the head with. I might just try getting lucky on one or two beavers before deer season is up with a couple different rounds in my 223 and see what the results are on body shots. The 64 grain PP will not be one of the rounds, my rifle hates that ammo with a passion, probably can't group it 2.5 inches at 50 yards with a scope much less the Trijicon reflex sight on it now. Ricochets are not an issue, I will be shooting from a stand at a steep angle > 30 degrees, and the backstop is a couple hundred yards of reasonably steep thickly wooded hillside with a total rise in the area of 80 ft of elevation. I have a couple boxes of vmax's that shoot well and some 60 gr partitions that shoot well laying around. Guess I'll give them a try on body shots, and then finish talking myself into a new toy.

I'm telling you, see if the 36gr Barnes VG will shoot in your rifle. If they're accurate, use them.

If you want head shots with a 223 that you already own, you could load down with Blue Dot and most any softpoint bullet.

Your vmax ammo will work well with body shots in that situation. Tiny hole in, no hole out. Good luck!

I suppose you don't trap either?

330's would be my choice.

Almost everyone up here that I know who shoots beaver, uses 22 long rifle in the head. They go nowhere, and the hides are perfect.

Have a buddy uses 22 Hornet, but it pretty much destroys the head, so that is out for a full body mount.

Ted

I don't trap myself, but after I've had my fun with explosives on the furthest downstream dam and shooting what I want, I have a friend and his son that are going to come out and trap the rest. And I got permission for the neighboring land owner to go upstream on his property for trapping purposes in January.

I was asked to shoot the hell out em' by a farmer when I was about sixteen.

I agree they can be some tough SOB's. .22LR to the skull certainly works though.

Although if I were you I would do the reverse. I would use some waders and 330 conibears for the ones I want mounted and I'd use a 25-06 with 75gr. Sierra HP's on the rest.

Travis

C&B,

I got to get one of those varmint retriever's.

That's badazz.

Travis

That's what I was thinking of in a big time way!

Dober