Beaver Hunting Tips
Yes, beavers usually are hunt by trapping but it's possible to go out for them with a small gauge rifle or even bow and arrow, however to succeed on this type of hunting you need to follow a few tips that will make your life easier.
First thing to do, as usual, is scouting. But looking for beaver's signs is not a hard task. Keep near water courses and look for tree marks and beavers dams, those are feeding and housing areas, once you find a place plenty of signs just set up a stalk point and get ready to get back later, at dusk to start your hunting.
That's because beavers tend to be more active at night, thus setting up the stalking point near feeding and housing areas will allow you to catch them moving from one place to the other just at dusk, when their days really begins.
It won't be necessary too much camo since beavers sight is limited by night, in fact you may be as close as 5 or 4 meters and probably beavers won't see you, so it's not necessary to take too much care to get invisible.
But regarding hearing things are a lot different. Beavers sense of ear is quite fine that they may perceive even the smallest vibration on the water, so you must remain quiet all along hunting, otherwise beavers will detect your presence and will disappear on the water where you won't be able to catch them.
In addition try to avoid stepping on the water; walk on the riverside but never inside the water because even the smallest sound will be detected by beavers alerting them about danger.
Remember that these animals tend to life on the water but usually feed on the land, in fact their main food source is outside the water, thus try to spot them where they eat in order to make things easier, after all shooting to the water does not seem to be a good idea.
Finally a good trick to catch beavers is to find one of their dams and break it a little bit, just to create small leakages. Later at dusk just wait for beavers to come back to the dam to fix it. That will be your best chance to catch them easily.
A you may see trapping is not the only choice for beavers, so if you wish to perform a more active hunting of this incredible creature, try to go out for them one night following the aforementioned tips.