First check yesterday morning, and wife's first trap.




Jack

Awesome

Cool!!

It's always fun to take a daughter trapping !!

ROFLMAO!

Jack

Lovely shot !

Great marten , Miss Lisa ! Love all that necklace bling !

Very nice.

Awesome!

That "White" can be a funny guy! Nice picture and very nice first check...

Do you have a special market for marten like the fox? Any idea what the commercial market will be for your marten?

Right on!

Marten are easy to tan at home and get as good or better product than the commercial tannery,and at 20 buck avg at the auction I may tan up a bunch to make hats down the road. When the price goes back up in the future I will have some on hand for a while.
Marten are a bit tricky to work with when it comes to matching skins.I work with half skins to keep things symmetrical at least.

martentrapper -

Yes, I have a small niche market for red fox, striped skunks, badgers, and marten. If no blemishes (that is, bad feet or faces) I get absolutely exorbitant prices if they are prepared for the taxi market. On the marten I expect to get $60 nose count. The other species bring more. Spilling the beans on who's my buyer would be very counterproductive for me. It's a small market anyway, and I only sell 50-70 pelts annually through this outlet.

Boco -

I agree with your assessment. Trappers should be looking at alternate ways to market their goods. I've been working with various buyers for 40 years and have developed my own, very limited, niche markets. I actually like the poor fur markets, as the theft of fur and gear goes way down, and my prices seem to hold or incrementally increase.

Do you have to taxidermy skin the niche ? Dorsal or otherwise ??

You are fortunate,Gulo! The one critter I could not find a regular taxi to buy was marten. But that was quite a few year’s ago.

More POWER to you Gulo and Good for you!. Good Luck with your Trapping! Please post more catches when you get them. Marten are Beautiful!

white17 -
No, regular cased skinning on the niches. The ones that my buyer prefers as a dorsal skin is the naugas. He says the naugahide market is more picky than other outlets.

martentrapper -
Yes, very fortunate, especially with these inferior marten. Compared to what I caught in Alaska, these are junk. However, I still really like chasing marten. I've worked many years to find good "niche" buyers, and it's finally paid off.

MINK I LOVE -
Thanks man. Here's another...



Boco, and others -
Forgot to mention. Also, current buyer wants muskrats round-pinned like miniature beaver. Say's he'll pay a premium (I don't know what the bottom line will be, but it's sure inefficient and time-consuming to skin and stretch 'rats like beaver)...

very nice , always great to have the better half with

Great thread.

thats really cool. keep sharing love seeing pics of great catches and good stories. I tried putting up rats that way last year just cause and you aint lying about how much more time it takes. but I think once tanned its easier to use the pelt. good luck the rest the year!