Markets

[6mm win lee]

How are the fur markets shaping up this year? Not ready to jump back into trapping just yet but want to at least get the brain cells in gear.

I think I will get to building stretcher boards in the spring.

[472x1B/A]

Hi 6mm. Well, I guess it is going to depend on what fur bearer you will be concentrating on. Like coons are just about worthless this year unless you have 2 or 300 3xl - 4xl hides. Super white bellied coyotes will be the money makers for the mid-west folks. If you know how to work skunk hides 'well', there is extra $$$ there too. Don't forget otter, if you are willing to do all the hoop jumping that comes with them. Good luck and be safe.

[6mm win lee]

Hi 6mm. Well, I guess it is going to depend on what fur bearer you will be concentrating on. Like coons are just about worthless this year unless you have 2 or 300 3xl - 4xl hides. Super white bellied coyotes will be the money makers for the mid-west folks. If you know how to work skunk hides 'well', there is extra $$$ there too. Don't forget otter, if you are willing to do all the hoop jumping that comes with them. Good luck and be safe.

So the market is going to suck, with a captial UUUUUUUCK, for a few years, huh? Dang. I would do the skunk thing but I need them to stop by in the summer to eat up the yellow jackets in the yard.

And I guess I could do the coon thing for practice. There are videos on how to fix them up for eating. I could fix up a Thanksgiving raccoon instead of a turkey.

Thanks for the reply!

[472x1B/A]

^ Now hold on 6mm. Not knowing your location, there has to be some fur to gain some experience/knowledge and a few extra $$$$. Even if you only put out 1 or 2 dozen traps till freeze up it might just pay off. With 2 or 3 dozen 110's and a good sized lake you might be able to pull out 50 rats. At $2.00 - $2.50 ea. that would be around $50.00. Heck, there might be a mink or 3 to go with them rats. It's worth a try.

[trapper9260]

If you are only in it for the money, do not trap.I had got new ground because of the person left the landowner/farmer stuck with a beaver problem. and I got 9 out of there and also getting other animals. So you worry about the money to make on fur, do not trap.

[southpaw]

If you are only in it for the money, do not trap.I had got new ground because of the person left the landowner/farmer stuck with a beaver problem. and I got 9 out of there and also getting other animals. So you worry about the money to make on fur, do not trap.

Yup, not much money to be made. That is offset by the joy I am having checking the traps with my boy. That and it is keeping outdoors instead on the puter.

If you don't enjoy it don't do it. At this market it will be about 10 years before I break even.

Jerry Jr.

[trapper9260]

southpaw you are so right on all you wrote, and yes it is a good thing to spend with your boy.start him young and you just going to make a good friend when he is older,It was that way for me for with my dad years ago.Also you are so right about if you don't enjoy it ,do not do it.

As for the place I got the 9 beaver out of I got my 10th one yesterday. That make a total of 19 since the open day of the 5th of Nov. and 12 coyotes and i lost count of the coon and possum and only a few rats. and some other things.

[ole 5 hole group]

Right now Minnesota coyotes in decent shape in the raw are going for $20.00 but mid to western North Dakota coyotes are going for $40.00. Prices are down and probably won't rebound until the economies of China & Russia improve.

Fur buyers around here want to do their own skinning, as that's where they make most of their money.

[trapper9260]

The one I sell to he had sold just about all his coyotes to a guy from Italy. He wants all my furs for how I put them up. What ever I come up with. Yes it is a hard market and ole 5 hole group you are so right about China and Russia they are the ones that buy alot of our coon and coyotes .The one I deal with told me that alot of small buyers went under because they sent there fur to Canada Auctions and lost too much and went out.

[6mm win lee]

Don't get me wrong fella's. It is not just about the money. I enjoy being out in the weather, good or bad, but new traps have to pay for their selves at some point. One of the other things I want to try is putting meat up in Mason jars. Maybe muskrat in barbeque sauce? Meh. Maybe next year.

Six

[trapper9260]

For me ,the years I been at this, all my traps are paid for. I also keep some of the meat to eat also.

[472x1B/A]

Not rippin your thread 6mm, but has anyone had a chance to sell anything yet? Dying to hear some results. Don't be shy.

[trapper9260]

Well I had got a badger that the buyer have other use for it that I did not skin and got $10 for it since it was a early caught but still good fur and about $3 for a rat that is large and $5 for a skunk nice strip and $1 for a red Sq. put up like the old way of a mink.I did not want to make the trip to off load the badger so i took at the time what I had done and needed some coyote lure anyways.

[472x1B/A]

Wow! A buck for a tree rat, must have been a huge one. Best I ever did was $.75. It was a on a large female mink board. Any way, thanks for the info trapper. Be safe.

[trapper9260]

Red fox tree rats ones gose more then greys.As for being safe almost bite it on the 8th of the month when a tree that the beavers was working on fell on me.I got the beaver the day before.but that is another thing.Hit on the back of the head and behind the back. Sore for a few days then. Still have traps out and working on putting up the furs.and still have some beaver to trap still.

[472x1B/A]

WOW Ouch! Would this be revenge? Hope you heal quickly.

[trapper9260]

I think you are right 472 ,it was the same tree he was chew on when in the snare and before I shot him.I all heal now and move on to others.Thanks also.

[Rally]

Watch out 9260. A tree took S.Stanley Hawbaker and a good friend of mine from Wi. just last year. Stanleys brother lives in Grand Rapids, Mn. and told me that. I'm not sure if his brother is alive now, it's been at least 15 years since he told me that.
Sounds like Coyote did better than expected last weekend in Blackfoot, Id sale. I heard averages around $60.00 to $64.00. Sounds like better sections of rats may make $5 after prices have been established at the FHA and NAFA sales. I sold a couple put up Otter to Wiebke January 7 th for $40.00 each (caught them both in the same 330 doing contract beaver work in early dec). Sold him just shy of 20 lbs of castor too. He paid $50.00 for #1 and #2's and $25.00 for shells. Real good grade on the castor. Doesn't sound like any interest in coon or beaver now but maybe some later for decent run of beaver. Mine are going to the tannery.