Which do you use and is there any hard evidence that wood brings more money? I use wire mostly but am considering making the change to wood. Just wondering if it would be worth the extra time and effort when you have 150 coon to do.
Any pro's and con's would be appreciated.
Chad

I like wood cause you just pull; the hide down and tack it out and it holds it's shape and size. My main problem with wire was were the coons are so greasy it would cause the hooks to slide up thus causing loss of inches and making em too wide at the base. I can tell a big difference in my wood stretched coons versus my wire stretched ones.

i seen it and have had it happen coon on wood brings more than wire most of the time . if you want speed then wire is the way if you want more money and take a little more time wood is it .
just my 2 cents
threestud

i thinked wire stretched coons look terrible compared to wood. wire isnt consistent and makes them looked oddly shaped.

wood is also easier to work with

Look down toward the bottom of this forum page and read the "wood or wire conversions" thread...

I like wood because everything is uniform. To each their own. I guess it depends on the time frame you need the 150 done and how many boards you have. I have 48 boards and like to flesh 5-6 a night after skinning and freeze. When things slow down I flesh or put previous ones done on boards. I keep them on boards for 3-4 days and then placed between cardboard, compressed. I use wood for everything aand the cost wasn't bad because I bought when a good deal presented itself. Can't tell you if it makes me more money or not but I would like to think so, always had buyers appreciate well put up fur.

I'd say it does for sure. If nothing else, it lets you get another couple inches of length on most pelts, and like you said, wood or wood-wire just makes 'em look better than wire.

As this question was just asked this morning...here are the responses it got...

http://www.trapperman.com/forum/ubbthrea...ood.html#UNREAD

Tom

How many who use wood have sold millions and millions of coon to foreign markets?

How many of you have split your coon from end to end fleshed them on a machine and then zip tied them to a wire streacher? Now Isn't that a pretty picture.

So Dave your saying that coon put up on wood bring less money.

sometimes coon in S.E VA. are a little flat a lot of times they are semi heavy so you are saying the flat coon will bring a coupla more dollars a pelt if I put them on wood ????

Nope, I'm saying that there is no advatage. Now your going to tell me that you can gain length on wood and if you pull you can, but is it true length? The reason Groenys prefers wire is because they like to keep their customers happy so they come back year after year. Take a 29 inch coon on wire for instance. That coon goes through the dressing proccess and comes out a 29 inch coon. Take that same coon and pull him on wood to 31 inches. Coon gets dressed and comes back a 29 incher. Don't know about you, but when I buy something it better be what I paid for. Foreign buyers are no different. When a guy that has sold more coon over seas than any other buyer tells me to put my coon up on wire I'm going to listen to him. Beav, you have not.

If you have some coons to put up put similar amounts of each that are similar to each other as possible and either take to your buyer or ship and try to use different accounts so you can follow which are which and make your own choice.

I have used wood then wire back to wood then wire converted to wood and now all wood. Do I get more I don't know. I prefer wood.
Some people are happy driving a certain car for the same miles and job and others want a different ride experience, neither probably impact your hourly wage but may impact your attitude when you arrive and leave.

Bryce

you would think all that pulling would make the fur look weak

Beav, I figured you knew that coon get split up the middle before dressing. Groeny's just saving them a step.

I have done this!! I still use wire.

Well I hate to dissagree with you. when anything Is dressed It loses size. You ever send In any furs to be tanned does It come back the same size as when you shipped It streached and dried? No IT dosen't.

I'm not a fur buyer. I'm a trapper I want to get as much out of my fur as I can.
In reality If you use the money cut and use wood you are giving the fur buyer MORE fur for his buck. If the money cut Is done right you don't have to do any trimming to form a Inspection window. So all the fur Is retained. And most guys do a fair amount of trimming when cutting windows.

The guys that put up fur for NAFA In In my area all use wood.

I just take pride In my work it looks good I feel good about It and I get top dollar.

I like wood bring more than wire stretched

No Dave he's doing It so he can machine flesh them. Does he split all the streached and dried fur he buys just so he can help out the buyer? LOL

wire here, I would not dream of wasting all that time putting them on wood.

beav, my wire coon look very good as well. Shrinkage after dressing depends on the species of animal, the condition of the leather among other things. My walls are lined with dressed (tanned) fur that I have trapped. Items like beaver and rats do shrink to some degree. Coon, otter, yotes for example shrink very little to none. The proper way to open a coon is from heal to just below the vent to heal. Some like to cut way into belly fur which is once again ripping off the end user. They must than spend extra time and resources trimming un-wanted belly fur. I know you say they have to trim any way. Well not if the opening cut is done properly they don't. Beav, as soon as you have sold millions of coon directly and dealt with foreign buyers for decades I will listen to you. Until than I will listen to Groeny's advice.

Well I guess that goes for me too I'll listen to NAFA who has probably handled more fur and sold more fur over seas then most.

I sold some fur to groeney last week and told him I was thinking of switching to wood. He laughed at me and told me to save my money. Some buyers my prefer wood, others don't care. Check with your buyer, then decide. He's the one paying for it.

Since when does NAFA buy and sell fur? They are nothing more than a middle man. They provide a location for buyers to come and bid on a product. In turn they charge a commission, tumbling fee for certain items, shipping charges etc.

Hate to say it but thats not how bussiness works i dont care who forgien markets buy from its a bussiniss. They will buy thoses 31 knowing that they might be 28s or for most cases maybe knowing they will be 26in just to help there books with stop losses. So all your doing by keeping the foreign guys always honest is padding there pokets. When your spening millions and millions of dollars you dont trust anyone they will be what you told them you put in a stop loss so you KNOW you will get your money out of them and if that means paying 2 bucks a hide less and getting all 26in or 2 bucks less then really getting 31in

btw i use wire its easyer for me and i dont have any wood to put my coon on

Yes, I agree with that to an extent but if in multiple business transactions they are short changed repeatedly they will turn to other avenues to fill their needs.

thats what i am saying when you have the clout and money of these Million dollar fur buyers you DONT turn to other options in less there cheeper you just put bigger stop losses in. and that drives down price. As far as an in here in there i really dont think the fur companys car about in here and there. I am into bussiness world all over and i can tell you that ins dont matter its number of hides and cost of production. Look at the russian oil giants they were keeping there budgets based on oil selling at 45 DOLLARS A BARREL! and it was at what then? 135 a barrel so i can almost assure you that the fur buyers really dont give a rip about in here and in there they are probobly buying every coon out there at hopes of getting 20in and everything else is profit!! as far as whatever his name is wanting wire thats im sure just EASYER for him so HE can get more PROFIT. the end buyer with millions of dollars cares to little about that stuff its us little guys that need the extra ins to keep our poket boxs full not the muti million dollar giants past the local fur buyer

I beg to differ, I have been at Groeny's and watched large foreign garment makers inspecting lots of coon and they are very particular about size, grade, color, and the price they are willing to pay for such product.

Good info guy's. Hope I didn't start any arguments. LOL
I have access to a few boards and I only have 25 coon left to do so I am going to do the last 20 on wood and send them up to nafa on separate invoices and see for myself. These 20 will be totally random, whatever is left in the freezer some big some top quality some average etc.
I personally do think they look really nice on wood. I just want to see if it is worth the extra time and work. BTW I am also very proud and fussy about my coon put up on wire as well.
Thanks Chad

Good luck with that. Wood is a waste of time if you catch more than 3 coons per year.

never liked the wire stuff-- funky,execpt for rats. you see we need to be more greenand wood lets us do that-- lol .

If NAFA prefers wood then they must see an advantage in their revenue stream and if they are working on 9-11% of the gross every penny counts to them as it does to the trapper as they don't earn fur the market fur. I have never read a statement where FHA prefers wood or wire. Both do have good pamphlets instructing their shippers how to make the wood strethers they use.

The wire thing versus wood from some of the statements on here is more of a past the trapper deal than a trapper deal. It would be interesting to know how many buyers are discounting coons on wood because they feel they are over stretched. Those are firms one needs to avoid even if you don't over strech your coons.
I can't see how this discussion gets all about length. The base of the tail is the end of the coon. The skirt that comes around to the back to make the bottom flush allows one to NOT have to stretch the H out of the coon to get the full length. So to me from the way I put them up the guy that is going to dock me because I have pulled too hard on my coons either does not know they were not over stretched or is just making a downward price projection based on an assumption. There are other marketing options for me and him. I see the similar situation is rats as well.

Bryce

Wood is alright for the guy putting up a few but wire is the way to go when a bad year is over fivehundred. As far as stretching coon for a longer length in my opinion that is being crooked. A 26" coon is just that. So why try to make it anything else. But I guess if y'all feel good about it then have at it. I'll just stick with catching more and makin my money that way.

EXACTLY!!

i dont care what any body says .coon rats every thing ive checked says wood.i have a lot of times done them on wire .then measure them.take them off and put on wood .i always get 1 some times 2 sizes bigger

I was being a bit facetious. I use wire ain't apt to change. I have some pictures to ask you about when I get them uploaded kina a duck shore bird ID later

And you can sleep at night knowing your giving someone a product that it isn't? I guess I wasn't raised that way.

Dave I don't understand why you think using wood is cheating, if anything I beleive it is more consistent. You always get the same width unike wire were I see people all the time squeeze coon down to 6" to get an artificial length. As far as time, I handle a lot more then a hand full of coon and I don't beleive wire would speed up my operation, I can board 40 coon an hour and take off, wipe down and brush the same 40 an hour. You can get a nice coon on wire Ijust don't see any advantages to it. When the difference between sizes can mean 4-5 bucks you better believe maximaizing length is important.

I agree with the width but you are creating FALSE length.

I have easily wired 70-80 coon an hr. and taken off, wiped down, and brushed the window of 100 in an hr.......I will happily race anyone, any day of the week boarding versus wire.

Yes you can make the belly cut to low but that has nothing to do with the stretcher, if you take 1000 random coon with sizes M- 5x, and put them on wire you aregoing to get coon as little as 5.5 inches wide up to 9 inches wide, to me that is inconsistant and not a true representation of what the coon are. On wood ALL coon will be the same width and I don't think you can cheat the length near as much as you beleive. If you use cloths pins on wire you are doing the same as wood, just squaring off the skirt.

So in essence your telling me that Groeny is willing to lose money by not boarding? If boarding would increase his profit margin and was truly what his buyers want he would urge everyone to board when in fact just the opposite is true. It wouldn't cost him a dime to tell trappers to board their coon but in fact he urges not to board for the reasons I have stated before. As I also said earlier, no one on here has dealt with the volume of goods nor the amount of foreign garment makers they have, therefore its only logical to abide by the most experienced advice given.

If you wire a coon and try stretching it then yes you are going to be inconsistant on the width but if you put it on properlly then your not going to differ that much. So if you have a 30" coon and put it on the wire properly you are going to have a nice finished product same as wood in a 1/4 of the time. Two hooks versus 30 pins no contest. I not only put up hundreds of coon for my self a year but also skin for a fur buyer. I use wire for all my coon and never have I once recieved any negitives on my fur. This is a no win argument. Yes wood will let y'all stretch ur coon a size or two without loosing width and if your good with that fine. Dave is saying that when you use wood and do that then that's not right! Take two coon the same size put one onwire and one on wood properly and the only differance is that wire is faster. That's it! I've been handling fur for over 20 years and have done it with both and if you do it properly time is the differance.

Dave your only person i have ever meet that would be willing to NOT try to maximize profit just based on fact that you think its not right. Not to mention you keep bring on groeny there are alot of other fur people out there that may be what HE likes but it is not the whole idusty. If anything consisency is more of a money maker then anything and wire canont provide what wood can. I am not a huge trapper but i do know how to do coon but i will tell you i dont strech them same as guy down road. BUT when we use wood we are identical so there is where your helping the whole traping world is by consitency. Not to mention a standerd you keep saying the fur buyers can get use to and if there use to it then they will NEVER think they are cheated. And as far as his profit margin no he is not going hurt it and wire may help him BUT IT MIGHT NOT HELP YOU!

Groenwald buys boarded coons so he must be able to sell them and that may be to different clients. When he buys at NAFA he buys put up lots of coons and probably does not sort for put up choices. He has established a preferred market for his customers and he is promoting that advantage to his fur harvesters. That is a good business practice. Obviously the buyers at NAFA buy many boarded coons. If my coon are in lots of say 200 I wonder which ones they select for a ssample of the lot and do the buyers make bidding decisions based on put up choices? I am thinking not but I don't know.
I sold Groenwald boarded coons and wire coons and green coons. I can rember one year in the late 90s I took about dozen December wire stretched coons and they were really excellent quality and the buyer stated I should had several that were just short of the 3 xl size and with that quality it cost me 5-6 bucks a piece.
Next year I had them on NAFA sized boards and they were too narrow was the comments. I don't know if it hurt my prices but confused me enough to explore other options.

Bryce

i never said its better i said i can take a coon thats 34 inches and put it on wood and get 36 or more inches out of same hide .and no im not over stretching .i push a push pin and pull tight on the sides .i never said your way is wrong .but you sure think your always right and every body else sucks.i told the guy to try both and see if it worked like it did for me .i dont care wire or wood 3 inches longer brings me more money .so yes my wire are rusting away.and dave i dont care nafa fur harvesters local .ive never sold any where with out being told how nice my fur is.if i make more and buyer makes money i dont care what you think about my fur if i was screwing my buyers .whould they be so excited to let them bid on it every year.

as far as locals go maybe they dont sell on nafas scale.i know several buyers that only grade beaver and coon on 3 sizes.some years .depends how there getting paid.thats what my local that gets most of what i sell local told me he dont use wood cause that extra size makes him nothing .i put up my fur to nafa if i dont like local prices .i can ship and its there specs.

BTW when i strech on wire i use cloths pin pull them down even on wire so if you think that wood is only way to get that lenth you can get it with wire as well just have to know what your doing

Groeny is making the profit off the no value-$2 pile.

Groeny is making the profit off the no value-$2 pile.


There you go the truth rears It's ugly head.

Yep I can see a pile of groneys zip tied finished coon next to a pile of my boarded coon and I can see why he dosen't want to display them to his buyers. LOL

And the next time he down grades you for a nick or cut In a coon ask him how his machine fleshed coon come out. It's not pretty.

I just might take you up on that race dave.

When you use wire how do you do the tail or do you just let It roll up and never dry?

For wood users. Do you use staples or push pins to anchor your hides? Every one knows what a pain It Is to pull stapples and push pins are bad to. I have a system that eliminates the use of staples and 95% of the push pins.
PM me for a huge time and money saving tip.

Beav likes wood and so do I

WOOD BOARDS thats all I use lol

Exactly!

Than why have you sold to Groeny Bankrunner?

My coon averages on wire are right in the ball park with those using wood so I'm not losing a dime.........Like I said before, if wood is better why isn't Groeny urging furharvesters to use wood? Because wire retains a truer size where as many using wood do not.

Seems to me a lot of people here are only looking at the length and how much over strethcing and thinning of the fur that does. Well to my way of thinking over stretching is a two directional thing, sideways as well as length ways. If you don't have wire bent correctly the wire puts constant tension on the pelt at all times and thus to my way of thinking can cause fur density loss from the sideways tension. Wood does not put pressure on the pelt until it drys from the sides. As it dries it should have a tendency to shrink tighter and remain as dense as it was when it was put on the board.

It was interesting the last years I used my # 5 wire I bent them so they were the same size as the NAFA and or FHA dimension wood boards and held them together with strapping tape and thus they functioned almost exactly like wood. I did not get told they were too narrow but the ones on wood were?
Everyone has their own idea of what someone is trying to pull over on them. Maybe we as trappers have earned that status. Hopefully through our Trapper Ed programs we can work to minimize that culture or thought process.


Bryce

From what I have read hear it doesn't seem fair to say one way is better than the other. I'm going to see for myself and send in some of each on different invoices and compare the averages.
Thanks for all the opinions guys.
Chad

stretcher.wont get you any more. like i saidstretch one on wire .then measure it.take it off stretch it on wood .then measure it again see if you gained length or the next size .and to make sure you dont over stretch like so many on here are worried about .when you pull the sides down grab about 15 or 20 hairs and pull them down surely 20 hairs will not over stretch the leather.if you gained a size in lenth its worth more money .if you didnt gain a size put it back on wire.no the same sized coon on wood does not bring more than the same size on wire.but if the wood makes that coon the next size bigger yes you get more.one more thingfor all you guys that say im over stretching my fur.please explain to me how im over stretching the hide any more than you do pulling it off the carcuss or the presure on the hide from scraping.i think my thumb and one finger on the side pulling straight is not putting as much torch on that hide as grabbing the hide and using 200 pounds of your weight to rip it off does.or a skinning machine

Sounds like your one of the guys boarding coon the right way Mark. I know of guys that use vice grips and pull down as hard as they can and staple in place with a staple gun. That's NOT the right way to board a coon! Also know of guys that make their opening cut way down past the penis into belly fur. That's also not the right way to do things. The more we can do to handle our wild fur the right way maybe we can slow down buyers from turning more and more to ranched goods.

Dave Plueger, do I have to go to confession and confess to putting up coon on boards and getting extra length and profit?

Does Groenwald feel dishonest for all the profits he's made on fur he's bought over the years? Especially those he made huge profits?

Yes, yes you should. Now for repentance you might as well just send all your coon to me. LOL

Your right. Silly me. Since when should a business man like Groeny make a profit? Here I thought he was just buying fur out of the goodness of his heart to help all us trappers survive.

There Is another thing that should be considered when we are talking wood versus wire.

When I take a wire dried coon hide and heft It and bend It back and forth you will get that crinkly sound and feel. On wood you don't get that sound or feel. Does the heavy fuller hide mean It's better?

Did the wire dried hide dry out to much where the quality of the leather will be compromised when being tanned. I know when a hide Is dried to fast with to much heat that the leather will be harmed.

When it comes to groney It probably makes no difference. But If your fur goes to the auction house It just might.
I know for a fact that It makes a difference when rats are graded. A rat that Is marginal as to making the next grade size It just might make it If It has the heavier feel.And rats are graded by weight.

In my opinion and that of some top graders In the Industry tell me that you can't over stretch a hide. And I think I'll take their word for It since they actually physically handle Millions of hides per year.
Lots of things to think about.

i like both ways but i think the wood does a better job an a nicer pelt

You make some very valid points beav. I just don't know how a rat could possibly weigh more boarded versus wire. Mass is mass unless the moisture content is higher with the boarded rat in which case one could have slippage and taint if not dressed in a timely fashion. Interesting to say the least.

I have seen rats scraped too hard and turned into papers kina in what beav is talking about rats and weight and all. the humidity is so bad here depending on the temperature I either have to use a window unit or electric heat to dehumidify with . the possums have been really thick nice leather this year on a side note.

I agree with the scraping but if two rats are scraped the same and they weigh the same before wiring or boarding they should weigh the same after being removed from the stretcher or board. The only way one can weigh more than the other is if one isn't as dry as the other.

The problem I see Is one hide being TOO dry.

Funny thing about dried fur. My son In law hung two stretched and dried beaver hides on the cabin wall (outside) and they have hung there for over 4 years and shoew no signs of sliping or rotting. Go figure.

I stretched a bunch of rats on wood the other day I ran out of wood so I did the last few on wire. After 4 days of hanging In the same area the wood rats look and feel way heavier then the wire rats. I haven't weighed them.
Is It maybe because the wire creats a constant pressure on the drying hide while the wood dosen't creat any tension.Does that thin the leather while drying? I know that happens on edges of a beaver hide.
It's the same with coon hides when you compare them.

Interesting.........Wouldn't logic than tell us that the wood rat has a higher moisture content than the wire rat, espeacially if they both weighed the same before being put up?.............I know what you mean with the beaver. When I trapped the higher humidity of the deep south, beavs always dried differently than the ones finished up here. Up here they tend to crack along the edges as they dry but in the south I didn't notice it happening. Humidity obviously plays a roll too.

This doesn't have as much to do with wood vs wire as it has to do with putting up fur in general. Here's my story:

back in the season of 2007/2008 I trapped 217 coons. Put up every single one except for 1 (a fisher coon). I waited to sell at the last Missouri trappers association auction. Figure I could get a good price and I'd get a picture
with all my fur put up. I did get the picture but didn't get a good price.

Coons went well all day, when they got to mine the bids were real low. I no sold alot of stuff and ticked alot of people off. I was devistated all my hard work had ended up like this. I talked to alot of guys and they told me it was my put up job and that it was just ok.

I kept my coons and a few weeks later went to see a friend in the black hills of south Dakota. I brought those coons with me and showed them to 3 different buyers along the way. They all said two things.

1. You have a lighter coon than we do.
2. What a great put up job you did! Your coons look great!

So this is what I figured happen. Missouri buyers see more coon than south Dakota buyers. So they see more coon put up jobs than sd buyers. But they're still selling coons to the same foreign buyers aren't they? In the end I question if the put up job is that important? Obviously you need to meet the standards, no dirt, ect. But you don't have to be able to eat off of them, though the coons at the mo auction going for top price were this clean. I question how that was working out for the buyers.

I don't under stand how a coon dried on wire can be taken off and pit on wood and it instantly grows another size. And from what I've read so far wood gives a more uniform look due to it not bending in like wire. So if a pelt is narrower on wire due to the wire bending in then you put it on a wider wood stretcher you can gain length? If you take a sock it is long and skinny and put it on a basket ball it will loose length not gain it same as a coon. If you have your wire stretchers properly taken care of the pelt will be uniform as well. The only time my pelts are not the same is when I have differant lengths to gether. When I bag my coons to sell I keep them with eaqual sizes to make it easier for the buyer to check them.this argument is pointless it's personall pereferance when ya get down to it.

THIRSTY I ran that MO sale for 9 years. Might not be the heaviest coon but the PUT UP was amazing almost seemed like a contest on who had the best looking PUT UP coon.

Tim Reed

Thirsty,
The quality and appearance of a persons put up is very important at the Missouri auctions. When the buyers stand there all day and see several thousand coon come past them the ones that look the best are gonna get the most attention. The Missouri auctions are known for well handled fur, especially coon. We were at a NTA convention a few years ago and we were having a cold one late one night with a well known Iowa fur buyer. He had never been to one of our auctions. He said that Missouri auctions are well known for it's high percentage of "perfectly" handled fur. Kinda made us feel good.
Back to the original topic. I switched from wire to wood last year. My wife, who knows nothing about fur, came in the fur shed last year and said that my coon looked "different". I asked what she meant. She said, "the skin looks thicker". I have to agree. Same coon, better appearance. I sold coon at 2 of our auctions last year and I topped both sales. I never did that with wire. You can argue the wood/wire thing forever. Trappers are independent folks and each has their own style. To each his own I reckon.

I was putting up some coon last night and came to this conclusion. I like the uniform shape of the wood but the speed of the wire is hard to beat. I am going to try to make a board that will slide up in the wire to keep the Nafa or Fha form but still have the speed of the hooks. This will allow you to get the max length without overstretching and sacrificing width.
When I come up with something I'll post it.
Chad

I confess I am a vise grip using staple gunner!

Simple math: 200 coon catch, the grade drop is $6 (xxxl $24, xxl $18, xl $12)you get the idea, and 4-6 bucks is the typical grade drop

if you boost 25 percent (50 coons) of your catch up one grade in size using wood over wire (very typical percentage)you net 50 coons x $6 = $300

I have sold more coon than the average trapper and more than some of the above average guys. I have sold locally and shipped to the Canadian auctions back before it was cool (early 80's)

I have put up fur this way since 1978 and have never over stretched a coon even using a vice grip. You can't make a XL into a XXL, but you can get a coon that's a 1/4" shy of a XXL into that lot.

I have never had a buyer look at one of my coon and say "that's overstretched" and down grade it. And the stuff i sent to auctions i again never had any down grades for overstretch or anything other than pelt quality. Had enough of them go thru in the high end lots to also tell me it's not an issue.

Dave, you are someone I very much respect so don't take this as an inflammatory post! But you are over analyzing things and trying to be way too good of a guy. I lay a product in front of a buyer, and i want top dollar for my product. It's up to him to offer what he's willing to pay for it.

He can see the pelt, he can see the put up, there is no such thing as false length. It is what it is.

He will make his bid accordingly, and again i've not sold any appreciable numbers of coon the last three years, but i don't think the market's changed that much.

it's just too cold out side and we are all playing on the computer.

Hope you all have a great 2010, i am going to check my two mink traps and three snares i have set!

LH

Larry, I also have a great deal of respect for you as well but what I am portraying is not my thoughts but rather those of a man who I am sure has handled more fur and dealt with more foreign markets than anyone on here hands down. If he tells me a coon can be over stretched there is no one else with the experience to tell me differently. The man has been doing this since before most of us were born and knows the ins and outs of the fur industry as well or better than anyone. I have personally been at their facility and watched foreign garment makers going through lots and trust me they are VERY particular about what they are paying for.

Cool

I just want every dollar i can get when i put up my fur, and i'm going to put it the way it takes to do that. if i thought for an instant putting them up on wire would gain me a dollar i would do it.

I know i gain a grade on 20-30% of the coons i put up on wood over wire. When there is some money in the coon game that really adds up. And if i have to push a few to get it so be it. I am going to put out the best, most marketable product i can.

Fur is no longer a significant portion of my income (o last few years) and hasnt' been for several years, but i still remember sweating that fur check! I wouldn't be sitting in the living room i am today if it wasn't for my fur check from 1986, check came in from the Auction house with two days to spare or the deal was going to fall thru!)

They are too much work to let go for a penny less than you can get for them as no one would know better than you.

Far too many buyers come up with a story to knock a percentage of coons down a grade, that's how they make their money.

Nothing wrong with that it's business. If i have a good idea of what tops is, i will know my average before i walk in the door to sell. If he meets my average i'm going to sell. If he down grades a bunch of hides to lower the average we are going to negotiate or i'm going out the door.

And i have never had a buyer look at me and say "these are overstretched"

Different perspective, you care about the Fur Buyer and respect him. Must be a good guy, and i have never dealt with them or know the folks you do. But based on your statement i would definitely check him out if i was marketing fur.

I always looked at the situation and still do as an adversarial situation. He wants what I've got (hides), i want what he's got (cash) and both of us want the best deal for each of us

Just perspective, keep warm!

There is no reason you cant get that extra 1/4 or 1/2 in to make a coon the next grade on wire stretchers. All it take is a couple clothes pins, simple and easy. I am a rookie coon finisher but have already figured that out.

BigT

I respectfully disagree

you are on the right track and that clothespin trick is a good one

I wish you lived closer so i could hands on show you what is being discussed and it would make a lot of sense to you.

Where you at in NW IA? i pheasant hunted Storm Lake area last year

Looked like good fur country out there, there were traps at quite a few of the bridges i checked out (can't resist that)

Saw rats swimming in the daylight at most of them to boot, i was surprised at how many. Didn't come out this year, went to KS instead

Hi Larry, I am just North of Storm Lake about an hour. Same looking terrain though. Not great coon country but good water trapping in general. I have had to put a couple coons on wood this year due to torn bellies and such and I will agree that they do look better on the wood, BUT I do not want to take the time to put them all on wood. The wire is very fast and no messing around with pins. We are a Groenewold buying station and wire is good with them so it is good with me!!

I was just south of you hunting last year

Not much wood out there, i can understand the lack of coon!

Each to his own, that's the beauty of this great land!

Keep warm.