Beaver Bear Wolf & Such

[blake]

There's beaver everywhere in them there hills, their screaming take me Bill Tyler, take me!

Oh the days of running the trap line………I sure do miss them. I started trapping when I was in 6th grade. I found a half dozen rusty old #1 long springs hanging in the barn and I was suddenly Jeremiah Johnson. I had many rough years learning everything on my own or from what I read. Then I got lucky and an elderly respected trapper took me under his wing for a season. After that my trapping days became very productive.

By the time the fur boom came in the 1970’s I was an accomplished trapped. And I had shared all of my knowledge with my younger brother Patrick. My brother and I ran well over 300 traps for about 5 years.

Trapping is very hard work, but very rewarding also. With setting and baiting traps, checking and resetting traps all day. Then skinning, fleshing, and putting the hides on stretchers half the night. We usually managed 3-4 hours of sleep if we were lucky.

We got the following prices for finished fur from a local country buyer back then: I can only imagine what we would have gotten had we sent the hides to auction.

Mink
Male $70-$85
Female $50-$65

Red Fox
$65-$70

Gray Fox
$40-$45

Raccoon
XXL $65-$75
Medium $50-$55
Small $25-$40

Muskrats
XL $18-$22
Medium $15-$17
Small
$10-$14
A Kit would bring $4-$5

Beaver were demanding the same prices as Raccoon as I recall. Skunks and Opossums would fetch $10-$12, and a Civet Cat would bring $25-$35. A well furred Coyote would bring $90-$100 if you were lucky!

The key today to making trapping profitable is well handled furs, and sending then to the Canadian Auctions. At the auction your furs are graded and placed in lots for the buyers to look at and bid on. These buyers are from all over the world; China, Russia, Pakistan, Germany, and many more countries. The truth is furs are still in fashion and demand in these countries.

Here in the USA if we wear furs we can expect to have PETA throw red painted on our $1500. fox coat. /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/mad.gif

Oh well, I still have at least 250 traps hanging in my shed. They are dyed, waxed, and ready to go. I plan to retire in 3 years, care to take a guess at what I will be doing. /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif

My brother Pat to this day takes off work the first two weeks of trapping season and does very well. So when I retire it will be time for bro to assist me in learning all the new trapping methods. And I have witnessed first hand that things are changing.

This might be a good time to put in a "Shameless Plug" for the

ITA

The ITA is very proactive with legislative issues affecting wildlife in the State of Iowa, including deer related bills.

 

[moosehunter]

I remember back from my coon huntin days that almost all the hides go over seas so a big part of the price for hides depends on how the dollar does against other currency.

I rememeber averaging 45 bucks a hide one year. Pretty nice tax free income when I was making crap at a crappy job.

 

[blake]

<span style='font-size: 17pt'>PMA Memberships & Renewals </span> and <span style='font-size: 17pt'>IBA Memberships & Renewals</span>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: moosehunter</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Pretty nice tax free income when I was making crap at a crappy job. </div></div>

During the time I was trapping I didn’t even work a full time job for several years. I made a pretty income from selling furs, I would work and odd job or two in the summer and I trapped and sold snapping turtles. Oh yeah, I ran some Honey Bee hives too and sold some honey.

We had a huge garden, growing all of our own food, and we raised, sold, and ate broiler chickens, goats and rabbits. Also ate a couple of deer a year along with pheasant, ducks, and squirrel.

Life was good! /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

PM
Ron Wyllie
Southwest Iowa IBA Area Representative
rwyllie@iowawhitetail.com

 

[Shovelbuck]

"as many as stars in the sky"

I never got into trapping but I fear I missed out on some good experiences.
Now I'm going to have to watch "The Mountain Men"

 

[River1]

Ever notice how many dead animals you see on the roadside now a days compared to back then. If someone smacked something with a good coat of fur, there was gonna be someone picking it up shortly after. /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

 

[Skully]

We would have had pretty slim Christmas gifts if not for furs when I was a kid. My dad and uncle worked all day and ran traps all night then un-hooked the hounds for some hunting. I kept some of his old receipts and they were making some dang good coin back then. Wives didn't gripe about hunting to much either, since there was money involved. /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

 

[Alphamale]

Used to trap Alot back in the seventy My wife was nurse at the time, she would check some of the fox sets take care of the fox ,call me and i would reset the dirt holes. Our friends would ask her how can you kill a fox? She would say Sixty five dollars!!! That was a lot money in those days&gt; my two small sons and i had some great times.