View Full Version : Any Trappers still here?
Trapper Phil
09-21-2002, 09:34 AM
Just checking in to see if anybody's gonna lay steel this season. Got a great river bottom farm back this year. Lost the land 2 years ago overa misunderstanding with the owner. Some guy's wanted to put in one of those Federal Duck Ponds.
I had trapped this LARGE farm for 6 years, Coyote, Reds, Beaver, Good Coon, and a few Cat since we got the Western Season. It's hard to find those good places. Also bad when someone else ruins your places. I'm a Duck hunter too, so that may be what caused the new guy to get me booted. Yet patience is a virtue and the Trapper is returning!
Multidigits
09-21-2002, 09:37 AM
What's the fur prices going be????
Trapper Phil
09-21-2002, 10:03 AM
Same as the last few years, Not Much...LOL...I never trapped specificly for money. I just Love Trappin' and the pay is all in running my line...Can usually cover basic expenses, and get out there and enjoy myself!
Xtreme
10-10-2002, 08:18 PM
Glad to see you get to return Phil. I haven't strung steel in years but boy did I love it. Is there any thing better than a big male Red on a frosty morning in the handcuffs? Or how about a double on Greys. Heck, my heart just pounded when i saw the wire out in the water and knew I had a good "rat".
I guess that's why I love bowhunting so much. Us old trappers had to get REAL close to critters[;)]
Wont be long and fur will be prime, LOL....[:)]
I was reading Fur, Fish $ Game tonight, looks like prices may be up a little this year. Seems like everyone is predicting Russia will be buying coon this winter. I for one hope so. I have not run a trap line in years and I miss it.
Xtreme
10-11-2002, 09:53 PM
Once upon a time when Europe/Russia bought"coat coons" the market was strong. Russia's economy is not that great now though. Did the FF&G mag. give predicted $$ numbers?
duckdawg
10-12-2002, 01:05 PM
I have not trapped for 9 years or so. I used to run trap line while i was in High School. boy that was a blast. sure miss setting those dirt hole sets.
Semi-heavy coons @ $10-$12. Coat types $8 or better.
Not hardly worth the trouble, but it is something.
Xtreme
10-13-2002, 09:23 PM
Those prices will be worth skinning road kills. Beats a waste of a precious animal[;)] Looks like the ole Xtreme man may skin a few this year. God , that will be a trip down memories lane[:)]
They stil have the fur auction at the Pritchard Center in E-Town so I may be "in the chips"[:D]
I wuz thinking the same thing!
Multidigits
10-13-2002, 10:13 PM
Do they buy green fur at the E-town sale now??? Last time I sold there they had to be dried.
duckdawg
10-13-2002, 10:47 PM
what are the highest prices you ol' timers remember? lol
When I ran lines with my brother as a younger pup I remember him getting like $25-35/coon and $45 and up on foxes. loved going out at night and calling fox with my brother and dad up in ohio. wish we could call em here at night and shine their eyes with the ol'red light. how many fur buyers are still left in kentucky?
Multidigits
10-14-2002, 10:19 AM
Called foxes many a night. My brother -in-law and myself killed 14 in one night.
Best prices--Red fox $70, 'coon-$45, mink-$32, rats-$8, possum-$7. Hell, I even skinned a skunk once and got $6 for it---that was the last one though. My best year, I caught 105 mink out of the ditch that runs behind the Ford plant in Louisville. Lot of rats too.
Xtreme
10-15-2002, 09:04 PM
Don't know about the green hides Multi. Eddie D. was there last year and he said all fur was stretched and dried.
My best year. I had a few dog cherry reds go for 11o.oo$ Greys 75.oo$ Coons[no.1's]45 bucks. Rats 8.00$ Mink 40.00$ possums 8.00$
My best night ever....Out of nine dirt holes. [It rained me out from setting more but these were pre baited dirt holes] Anyway, out of nine dirt holes I had 3 greys and one monster red. Also had two possums. I was 18 years old and after that you could tell me nothing about fox trapping[:D][:D][:D].....I made a little over five thousand dollars that year on trapping alone. We also treed a little over a hundered coons that year. I have a few pictures.
Damn, I'm sure glad to have these memories and I have tears in my eyes big time that these days are gone. God, back then when the alarm clock went off I flew out of bed to go check my trapline before school. It would kill me now to do what I did back then[:0]
My parents told me as long as I had no D's or F's on my report card I could hunt and trap till I fell over. Well really it was my dad that made that rule. My mom wanted A's and B's but Dad knew better[;)]
My first fox was an accident. There was a lot of snow and possums were eating the frozen persimmons that were falling to the ground and I had a no.1 Blake and Lamb long spring set between two little piles of persimmons.
Some how Mr. Grey had managed to have a bad day and stepped in my little no.1 long spring. That was it. I was a predator trapper for life!! Stanley Hawbaker, the great Russ Carman and Jim Helfrich were forever my idols not to mention the old "yote" long liner Ray Milligan and the venerable A.M. Grawe.
God how I miss the smell of Carman's Red Fox Matrix and the anticipation of what lies ahead on a clear calm frosty morning!!!
Folks, by loseing the battle of the fur trade we lost a huge battle. We cannot afford to lose any more outdoor memories.
Sorry to ramble here but I could write on this subject forever[:)]
Keep a rambling..... I love the memories!
My best fox has a good story, it wasn't shot or trapped. My cousin from Ohio and her boyfriend (now husband) and me and my girlfriend (now wife of 20 years) decided to go to dinner at Natural Bridge Lodge. We took my dad's truck and on the way, a car in front of us hit a big, male, cherry, red fox. The front tire just clipped his nose and broke his neck. I locked up the brakes, jumped out, leaving the truck in the middle of the road and picked up the fox. Everyone was giving me the, "what are you doing with that nasty thing". I threw it in the back and the next morning we stopped by the guy I sold fur to. He came out, looked over the fox, offered me $70 and he would skin it. I got the money and we left. As soon as we took off my cousin ask me, "you think we can find anymore of those things"?
Now I am thinking back. Did anyone here ever sell house-cat pelts?
They were at $3 apiece for them in 77-78. They used them for glove liners. Talk about helping the quail and rabbit populations.
I hope like h$ll PETA sees this post!!!!!!
duckdawg
10-16-2002, 09:52 PM
Does KDFWR offer Trapping Education Course? Ohio has requires taking one before buying permit...at least they still did several years ago.
RutNBuck
10-17-2002, 04:18 AM
some of my best memories were from trapping without a doubt
...i was a pretty long liner on fox...but most of my lines were spread out thru what seemed to be the biggest,tallest hills,ridges...man those climbs on those frosty mornings in hopes of having a big ole fox..
i bought my first dozen of traps from a fur buyer and my grand daddy about fell over for what i paid for them...his words to me were you dont know what you are doing and you are wasting your $$ ...
he set me up for a challenge he said i bet you dont catch a single fox...if you do i'll but you another dozen of traps and give you a $50 bill....
so i set off with 6 traps in hands since it was rather late in the evening....to make a long story short the very first trap i ran in the moring held a very pretty red...
i dont think anything could have made this then 14 yr old any prouder...
i did get my $50 and more traps...not to mention
grand daddy bought him some too...he did manage to catch him a few fox and some coyote
boys those days were the best....its a shame with the antis and such they will only be memories...
also how many of you would see those nice bucks running your line? i sure saw some dandy's..
ALSO how many of you ran into (well not literally) a trap thief
i had several traps stolen good thing i didnt run into the culprit for i am sure a # 1. 5 would have left its name sake in his forhead..
"A wise indian once said,the more you move the less you will see,the less you move the more you will see"
" I live to hunt, but my wife says i may hunting a place to live"
Xtreme
10-21-2002, 12:42 PM
One good thing about high fur prices. You did not see all of the dead animals on the road after fur got prime. Somebody always picked them up.
We used to go on "fur drives". Meaning we drove around the countryside looking for road kills to skin. We did this on nights not fit to coon hunt. Back in those days I had a lot of money. I wonder where it all went[?]
Multidigits
10-28-2002, 10:11 AM
I hope your right about the prices. I've got a good red fox and a jumbo coon in the freezer. Road kills! I'll only the good ones tillI get a price quote for sure. I hope they still buy green???
TripleBlind
10-29-2002, 08:41 AM
Multi, I've wanted to get into trapping for several years now, but don't know where to start as far as preparing and selling the pelts. I can trap fairly well (as far as coons and rats go), but I need to know if I just case them out and put them on a form after fleshing them and thats it, or do I preserve them in some way? Why are some animals formed with the flesh on the outside? How do I go about selling these pelts, and how many should I take in so I don't look stupid? Can I save pelts for a couple of years and wait for the market to pick-up? Any info you can provide would be appreciated, I've got a year before I'm gonna drop $17 on a trapping license, and need as much info as possible!!!
--P.S. What is a "green" pelt?
Green pelts are pelts that have been skinned, but not fleshed, streched or dried.
Pelts are streched skin side out so they will dry faster.
As for "how many"? Buyers want quality over quantity.
Multidigits
10-29-2002, 12:02 PM
Depends on the buyer, but the people I last sold to preferred them green and unfleshed. They gave the same money for them as they did dried so that was better for everybody. I don't know how long you could keep them froze without them frezzer burning??? There should be a sale in E-town each year(???) and it normally would pay you to sell there. You have to be a member of the Ky. Trappers Assoc. to sell there. The man I sold to is now dead. You might try F.C. Taylor in Louisville?????
Valley Station
10-29-2002, 12:26 PM
F.C. Taylor of Louisville sold out and moved their Trapping supply and fur buying bussiness to Ohio a few years back. Goodman & Sons( Steve Goodman) of Louisville, no longer is in the fur bussines, but he still buys seng & yellow root.
Ky F&W should have a list of legal fur buyers in Ky. Get on Internet and search for fur buyers.
A Word of Caution, it is not legal to keep fur or fur bearers in freezer , beyond (30) days or so after trapping season in Kentucky.
TripleBlind
10-30-2002, 07:48 AM
If you guys find out when the fur sell in E-town is, I'd appreciate you posting it on here. I'd like to go and check it out. So if you trap and only keep them green (I assume you skin them and freeze them fur side out until they're sold?)what is the price difference usually..1/2?? I'm not going to do it necessarily for the money, so if they buy green it might be good for me to do that for a year or so. I tried looking up the KTA on the net, but couldn't find anything. So are all pelts that are fleshed and dried taken to the market inside out, or are they rehydrated and turned fur out?
PhilpotTrapper
10-30-2002, 05:04 PM
All you trappers out there, this is a post from Trapperman.com worth reading, all of you help would be appreciated!
Dave Sollman sent this to me and asked if we would help out. I think we should let them know what we think!
CNN is conducting a poll on consumer interest in fur. In looking at the initial results I have NO doubt that the animal activist groups are sitting at their computers and voting to skew results.
CNN may very well report these results. Please take a few minutes to log on to this website (see below) and vote.
Get enough votes in to show CNN that consumers do want fur.
Thanks!
http://asia.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/10/29/design360.mccartney.fur/index.html
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">CNN may very well report these results. Please take a few minutes to log on to this website (see below) and vote.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Thanks for the post Philpot, I'm don't think we'll see the results on CNN if we win though. Good luck and good trapping to you.
PhilpotTrapper
10-30-2002, 11:47 PM
They might not report the results if we win, but if you look, we are winning by a landslide! And if everyone points this out to other sportsmen, and maybe a few politicians, and maybe even a few anti's out there, it sure can't hurt any! Thanks to everyone who took the time to go and vote on this CNN poll!
Any trappers on this forum who haven't checked out Trapperman.com should give it a look. If at all possible I would love to see the same type of response on this forum from trappers in Kentucky. I love talking to the guys on the other post, but it would be nice to talk to all the guys here in Kentucky about it also.....
So any advice you have on trapping, lets start posting it here on this forum!
Thanks everyone![:)]
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