If you had to pick one beaver trap, would it be a coniber or a foot trap? I am writing an english paper on this question and I need opinions and reasons. I appreciate any and all feedback on this question.

You will not get consensus on this question. There are too many variables.

Tell us more about your English paper. Details might allow us to have a different approach to the question.

You really have two questions here. Your title says "What's best..." That largely depends on the situation. Different traps function better in different situations. That's why I encourage folks to become proficient with the three major devices, foothold, snare, and bodygrip (If you're writing a paper, make sure you have your terminology correct. Conibear is the registered trademark of Oneida Victor, that type of trap is a bodygrip trap.)

So, there is no definitive answer as to what trap is "best" for beaver.

The answer as to which trap an individual, me for example, would choose if he were given one choice is available as that is a subjective choice and is disjoined from the objective choice of "best"

What I would chose, given only one choice, would be the foothold trap. I would choose that because it's my "go to" device when I have to catch educated beaver. It will catch beaver when bodygrips and snares won't.

Hal

My main beaver trap is a 330 bodygrip, but I have learned the value of snares this year. I agree that the term "best" depends largely on the situation, and on the trapper and how proficient he/she is with each individual device.

Didn't the mountain men almost wipe out the beaver population with footholds? Foothold if I have to make a choice. Dale

I thank everyone for there initial reply. I am a rookie at trapping so I am not that great with the terminology yet. My english paper involves me researching a debatable topic. Since I am a rookie with a tight budget I could only afford one type of trap. In the paper I will explain the basics of each trap, involving how to set, the work required to make the set, the dangers of setting the trap, and its effectiveness.

I do understand that for different situation, the best type of trap varries.

So to rephrase the quetion, If you could only buy one trap for the season, you have not yet seen where you will be trapping, would you buy a bodygrip trap or a foothold.

wvrookie

Id venture to say that more beaver have been killed by bodygrip traps than even existed when the white man landed here!

For high volume, don't care if you get the last one or not beaver trapping the bodygrip trap is the trap of choice.

What about snares?

I am not including snares in my paper because they are so much cheeper than the other two.
wvrookie

wana talk about a question?? that stumps me. i would use a foot hold #3 offset because of cubby size

moslty what im saying is of the size and manouverability.