Okay, It’s On!

[Devan S.]

my heart see's $$ there....my mind knows better.....shame the fur trade has gone downhill.

[jdmidwest]

2 hours ago, BilletHead said:

                You need a new pellet rifle. I have dispatched many.  It is the angle that counts.

I do it with the loudest gun I can find at 6 am in the morning.  All the neighbors start calling their dogs and kids in when the coon dies.

Cats get the silenced stuff.

[jdmidwest]

7 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

Had the pellet rifle to his noggin but cut him some slack......

Missed a few pages before I posted.

Buddy of mine in the city, STL, had a squirrel that made a den in his crawl space above the ceiling.  I taught him how to trap it in a live trap, caught several squirrels in it.  But never caught the one in the ceiling.

I asked him one night, "What are you doing with them"?  His response, "dropping them off in the park a few blocks away"!

He painted the next one with spray paint and proved me right.  They come back.  He started painting them blood red and they quit.

[tjm]

13 minutes ago, Devan S. said:

my heart see's $$ there....my mind knows better.....shame the fur trade has gone downhill.

Still $$ there if you skin and prep the meat the last I knew, lot's of cities have buyers, St Louis used to have. For several years the baculum had a good market, not sure if that's still true, I see home tanned pelts at pretty steep prices in flea markets and such. You don't have to sell to the Chinaman if you are willing to work a bit. That market may be gone for good this time. I haven't looked lately, but til Russia has money to spend 'coons won't be much of an export item. 

"shame the fur trade has gone downhill."  Trappers and hunters wearing plastic hats and synthetic clothing sets the example not to wear fur or goods made from fur. I stopped by the National Trappers big show at Springfield last summer and saw no trappers or their ladies wearing fur.

[Devan S.]

7 minutes ago, tjm said:

Still $$ there if you skin and prep the meat the last I knew, lot's of cities have buyers, St Louis used to have. For several years the baculum had a good market, not sure if that's still true, I see home tanned pelts at pretty steep prices in flea markets and such. You don't have to sell to the Chinaman if you are willing to work a bit. That market may be gone for good this time. I haven't looked lately, but til Russia has money to spend 'coons won't be much of an export item. 

"shame the fur trade has gone downhill."  Trappers and hunters wearing plastic hats and synthetic clothing sets the example not to wear fur or goods made from fur. I stopped by the National Trappers big show at Springfield last summer and saw no trappers or their ladies wearing fur.

Yeah for me it was a hobby....I have a full time job that pays enough even in prime the fur trade never would have competed....but now it just costs me money.....too much really......trying to run meat or flea markets only makes it worse as a hobbyist. I agree there is still guys/gals out there making it work on razor thin margins with other side deals going but its not for me. Effectively I've got too many hobbies as it is....adding in running meat, castor, fleshing, tanning, cleaning skulls and marketing small time really cuts into my other play time. 

I long for the days of catching 30 or 40 coons a year, a couple cats, several dogs, and some foxes and taking them green to the buyer......Never get rich but buy some gas and new traps. 

As far as the practicing what you preach....not much difference than the American consumer vs. the American worker....everyone wants American made at China prices. I'm certainly no better than anyone else.  

[jdmidwest]

When I was a kid, a green coon hide that size would bring $30 to 40 in late 70's.  One night we took 17 with the dogs.  No more.

[BilletHead]

11 hours ago, tjm said:

No I don't, I have six or eight hammers.

            I have two large safes overflowing with powder burners and know a couple on here that might have triple of that but am enjoying the quietness of air gunning. I wasn't saying you need to get into the hobby just relaying you need to upgrade your red rider.

[snagged in outlet 3]

After sleeping on it if I was at the farm or someplace like that I would've just dispatched him right there and been done with it.  If I do that in my yard I will end up in the pokey. 

[Quillback]

8 minutes ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

After sleeping on it if I was at the farm or someplace like that I would've just dispatched him right there and been done with it.  If I do that in my yard I will end up in the pokey. 

Which is something to consider.  You can get racked up on some serious charges if you get caught dispatching somebodies cat or dog.  Had a guy here in Bella Vista that was charged with felony animal abuse for shooting a neighbors dog with a pellet gun.  

[tjm]

1 hour ago, BilletHead said:

need to upgrade your red rider.

I am saving up for either a B52 or an F16.  I think the F16 is more concealable.