blake
Life Member
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.
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