Fur Prices

[jigginjim]

I just drove past small swamp today, muskrats house all over, would it be worth it to trap or not. Saw some coon and mink track by the creek. I could use the extra cash?

I also guide but with no ice, and cold weather nobody willing to fish from a boat.

[frabillfisher]

Muskrat i think are runnin at about 5$ for top furs and mink about 20$

[WalleyeWeasel]

you think they are about 5$ or are they 5$ there is a difference

[protrapper]

Two bucks for stretched and dried rats if your lucky. Fifteen bucks for stretched and dried MALE mink if your lucky. Half that for FEMALES.

The days of 5 dollar rats are over. If there is I would know. I took over 200 last year.

[The Grebe]

Jigginjim...The December fur market report in FFG states the following...Rats from the better areas, in the $3.00 range and down from there.

Mink, $15.00 to $20.00 and down from there. Coon, $20.00 and up for the better pelts.

The houses are an indication that the rats WERE there and if no one else trapped it, they may still be there, but maybe not? Good Luck.

[protrapper]

THe FFG report is B.S. I sold fur today. Those prices are tops from the best sections. Few and far between. Those prices are inflated to to sell advertising and supply sales.

[psegriz]

I havn't had the same thaughts with prices being inflated. The prices they quote are tops. Usually on mink I've gotten a few bucks more than they quote. The biggest facter in my opinion is the grading. Some yrs are tougher than others, Example would be when grading mink if I see them pull out the ruler I know it's not good for me. The check is much better if they leave the ruler in the closet.

[abens1078]

How many 'rats to buy a gallon of gas or two that it will cost to get out to the swamp. You'll have fun but it probably won't be the cash cow trapping was 20+ years ago when $5 rat meant $5 rat.

On the side, what does a fur harvestor license/tag cost up in MN?

[The Grebe]

abens1078...I was trapping pretty heavy (As heavy as a city boy could trap) before and after work, depending on my shift, week-ends and what little vacation time I had, during those past times of high fur prices.

I've sold Red Fox at $70.00 a pelt, $7.00 on rats, $45.00 on coon, I can't remember what I got on Mink, but I'm sure it was high, was'nt much of a mink trapper and only had afew I had gotten accidently, in rat sets.

The pelts were'nt all like that, but a good portion of them were! I do recall that the low I got on the coon at the particular time was $32.00.

There was a down side to this boom....lots of stolen critters and traps! Even heard of people killing and skinning the warm critter right at the site and leaving the carcass!

The greed it brought out in others, cost me a friendship with a fellow trapper that could'nt resist relieving me of a double I caught on Red Fox one morning. Long story, sad ending, lost friendship.

Times have changed, prices on everything have went up, but it seems that raw fur prices, after the long ago boom, have never rebounded to anything near what it was then. The market seems to have little upward movement and stays static for the most part.

If a fella wants to make any $$ in the fur business, they have to really do some steppin!

[abens1078]

I hear you Grebe,

20 years ago I was about 6 and I can remember Mom going along to help Dad on his small crick lines and a few fox sets. She drove the truck on the high edge of the dredge banks and Dad walked along below in his waders pitching the critters on up. Now, what would possess a 30 year old woman to go along on that trapline in the freezing cold in an old truck with no heat?

The folks are still together so I guess it must have been quite romantic

Dad only traps the occasional pest now and likes to give the coons a hard time in his sweet corn patch but like you said, there was a time when letting them eat your sweet corn was only an investment in a nice healthy coon when November came.

[protrapper]

If you want to make a buck in the fur trade now, it's about quanity. The more you catch the more you make. Time is money and you gotta pile the fur up quick. I just got done skinning 115 mink. Caught them in a week. And to some guys thats slow.

Some furs are worth skinning and stretching others are not. Ask a fur buyer. I sold some beaver the other day and got as much for a beaver unskinned opposed to a put up one.

And with the slow prices we get the few guys that are out trapping are good ones.

Right now I know several buyers are not buying anymore coon. Simply because the market was flooded fast. Magazines PREDICTED good sales that turned out false for a number of reasons. The high harvest being one, and buyers bidding under the table at major auction houses. That's a great one the FBI is involved as we speak.

The fur market has always been a shady trade and always will be. The trapper is the one who puts in the hard work for the least reward.

So if your looking to make a fast buck get a second job. And not to discouarge you trappn rats through the ice and there huts is REAL HARD WORK.

Good Luck,

Trapper

[WalleyeWeasel]

Protrapper, when i was a kid (late 70's/early 80's) my g'pa and uncle Vic taught me the tricks of the trapper trade. I too can remember getting big $$ for fur especially for a young kid ($1 an inch for beaver!) man those were the days. The first year you where able to "legally" take a fisher i caught a beautifull female and recieved $460.00 for it. I was 15 i think ( because i had to make a tag outta cardboard) and $7.50 for rats, best mink was $60.00, smaller "north shore" mink were alot less, and beaver $1 an inch. One day 15 years or so ago, i went to check "the line", first set i caught my first bobcat, a huge male, i made a call to the local fur buyer to see how much $$ he said $25 i couldn't believe it ,THATS ALL THIS ANIMAL IS WORTH, i ended up selling it to a family friend for $35 who had it made into a rug , a week later sold all my traps, stretchers etc. and gave it up. And every year since then around Oct. I think about how much fun trapping was, and it was a blast. Thinking about maybe next year.........(i say that every year). G'ppa used to say,

" trapping is a sickness "

maybe he's right !!!

[The Grebe]

Protrapper....115 mink, now thats a catch! One of the last years I trapped, my nephew and I ran a fox and coon line up in the Little Falls and surrounding areas. There was a trapper there that had stripped out an old Vega to nothing but a drivers seat and all the rest of the space inside was for trapping.

This guy would long line Mink and the fur he would pile up was unbelievable, like he was performing magic? He was no magican, he just knew what to do, when and how to do it and how to be efficent...he was certainly a meistro though!

My nephew and I did 150 fox one season and 160 Beaver in another. Good times when they are looked back on...maybe better then they were when they were actually happening?

One case in point, we got caught in that Holloween blizzard many years back, as did alot of other unfortunate trappers, that certainly was no fun, but we got through it! Trapping is alot of work no matter how you look at it!

[muskybuck]

Do they pay anything at all for Coyote?

[protrapper]

Weibke Fur Company is right in LaCrosse. They are big fur buyers. THey could tell you more. It all varies on size, color, stretched, dried, green skun, or on carcass. 25 to 30 bucks tops that I know off. And thats stretched and dried.

[The Grebe]

abens1078....Maybe a couple running the trapline together has some merit? My wife would come with me on alot of occassions and we celebrated our 26th anniversary last October.

She has also gone out tartget shooting with me on occassion, she likes to shoot the pistols.

Ice fish, Summer fish, Snowmobile and I even got her out chasing Grouse a few times!

Not bad for a gal that can't swim and is deathly afraid of water, and grew up in the city, just like I did.

She would even come to the fur buyers with me and if you have done any business with the fur buyer, you KNOW how those places smell!

Might have some merit?

[abens1078]

By gosh man, That's what the 1078 stands for, October 1978 is when I was hatched. The 20th to be exact. I think that was a weekday though, kinda hard to rememeber.

I think it deinitely has merit. Mom has her own .410 and also chased the phesants from time to time. She fishes a little when it's nice out. She wraps the line around her finger, opens a book, cracks a Diet Pepsi and puts Dad and I to shame.

It was great to grow up in that type of environment, some guys really catch the grief when they spend hours outdoors. Mom was cool with it when Dad took me out. I guess Mom and Mrs. Grebe have you guys where they want you though, if you stop walking the line...you get whacked by your own guns.

[The Grebe]

aben1078...theres another way of looking at the 1078 thing...it's the code name for the stuff they used to use to knock off Coyotes out west! 1078 on a carcass, or in a getter gun and it was goodbye Coyote...and anything that fed on it's carcass! I'm sure we both like the birthday thing and the anniversary thing better, so we'll stick with that.

My wife does'nt ride shotgun on me very much, she pretty much lets me do what I want, she knows I'm gonna keep my nose clean!

I work a pretty demanding schedule from late March until about late November, I take a break before the winter season kicks in full swing and that includes hunting and fishing, (Was out Grousing today up by McGrath).

Then I squeeze in a fishing trip here and there, between the snow falls.

I do short trips close to home in the summer, and hour here and there and her Grebeness has never once complained.

[The Grebe]

abens1078...you know, the more I thought about it, the more confused I became, now I'm not so sure 1078 is the code name for the Coyote stuff? It might be 1180, or WD-40, or 1041EZ, 759-6...wait, thats my phone number? At any rate....

[psegriz]

Grebe

Not ya got to me.

Got me thinkin about the stuff and the getter guns. I'll eventually think of it.

[DanS]

Grebe, I think your right about including your wife in your outdoor activities. I've always included my wife in all my out outdoor activities and it worked for us. Were still going strong after 24yrs.

I started trapping during the big money days of the 70's and early 80's. A guy could do ok when a muskrat pelt would buy a lot of gas at 80 cents a gallon. There were a lot of people out there then and not all were honest. Nothing trashes a day on the trapline more than checking that set you know will connect only to find that it did and someone else felt entitled to help themselves to your fur and trap. I liked trapping a lot more when the markets dropped and those out for a quick buck stayed home. Its hard to make money at trapping today when gas sells for $1.85/gal and pick up trucks are over $30 grand.

That being said I consider this season to be a complete success. I've posted before about my boys talking me into setting up a line again. Last year was a dozen rats , couple mink. This year we mixed it up and ended up with fox, coon, rats, mink, beaver and our first fisher. Did we make a bunch of money? Not really. Did we make memories that will last a lifetime? You bet! Checking the trapline after a fresh snow when all the animals are moving and leaving tracks was priceless. Teaching the boys how to identify tracks and sign, make sets, read habitat, skin, flesh, its all priceless. I went in knowing we would'nt get rich in dollars but the payback in other ways was even more valuable.

[The Grebe]

DanS...Hi, how ya doin? My sons used to come with me on the trapline, (Not all at once, of course) and it has seved them well in more ways then one.

They don't trap and I doubt they ever will, but they are good woodsmen, fisherman, tradesmen, husbands, citizens and good people all around.

The outdoors teaches things, intangibles that help shape lives, not in all instances of course, but nothing is 100%.

Trapping instills a sense of responsibility, running and maintaining those sets in just about any kind of weather, early up and late to bed. Maintaining the equipment and the hours and hours of planning and scouting.

Taking care of the pelts and being proud of the fact that you can produce and have such fine pelts, pride in ones self, promotes pride in others, in all walks of life.

Just about any desireable trait, or virtue that one has even an inkling of, can be inhanced by the ongoing outdoor experience, however it is administered, weither it be bird watching, trapping, fishing, hiking, whatever.

But alas, as more of our young loose the connection with the outdoors and become more urbanized and get caught up in the technological part of our society, the impact that the outdoors has, is diluted.

Those that have the know how to administer the true knowledge, become fewer and fewer...the old boys, dads, grandpas, uncles and the moms, grandmas, aunts, move along and a large portion of outdoor and old time lore and expertise, moves along with them! Thats to bad, I'm sure a large portion of our society could benifit from that expertise.

Oh, oh, wifes calling I guess I better quit, I can get pretty nostalgic about this stuff and I can definately be long winded....must be the French in me? (Always thought I must have come from Voyageur stock?)

[abens1078]

Was the getter gun the contraption that had the bait sitting on top of the 'muzzle' connected to the trip/trigger mechanism? Animal moves the bait and triggers charge to blast a face full of poison at him?

I don't know the code for it either but I thought it was something to do with cyanide.

Anyway, I probably have the whole cocept mixed up.

Grebe, that's not just nostalgic it's flat out true. A videogame doesn't teach a kid much about life. I have a two year old nephew and he already enjoys bluegill fishing. I can't wait for him to turn 12 and he can take the hunter safety course. That means his Dad and I can go on youth phesant and youth deer season . My sister just rolls her eyes and asks that I wait as long as possible before introducing him to the wonderful world of deer scents(Lucky for her I don't trap anymore). We aren't experts but his Dad and I will make sure he gets some good exposure, besides someone has to carry my tacklebox.

[The Grebe]

Thats the getter gun! They tug on the bait and set off a charge that shoots the junk into their mouth...very nonselective!

[protrapper]

Just a update on some fur sales. Coon market is very soft. The highs that where expected never showed up. Greece is sitting on a bunch of coon from last year waiting for Russia to buy them. And the Greeks know our market is flooded with coon. Many country buyers are not taking in anymore coon. At a recent Fur Harvestors sale stretched and dried conn sold for a little over 12 dollars. Now put in shipping fees and a comission for the seller. You get very little in return. The buyers are looking for the 30 inch plus coon. Now that was a December sale which means there where some holdovers from last year and some early goods. I'll watch the NAFA sale coming up soon and post more.

Just glad I dumped my coon once a week. Looks like there is going to be some mad trappers out there..