You want the big bucks, trap him, kill the bugs, skin, flesh and dry.

We had a "local" buyer around here that was paying a couple different kids about half what the guys that where coming through on a route were paying for coyotes last year. kind sad in my opinion.

Pretty low quality pic so it's hard to say if it was a fair price or not. Way to many unknown variables. And the fur buyer takes all the risk. Who knows how the hide will turn out until it is skinned and fleshed. Also if I remember from skinning out the last shot gunned coyote I did there was risk of BBs in the leather tearing holes while fleshing. The scale should always tip in favor of the buyer when buying in the round. How many of us have taken an average Pelt and made a mistake skinning and fleshing that cost us significantly. Selling in the round eliminates risk, so you forfeit significant reward. Just the way business works.

[quoteI assumed the aerial gunned yotes would be hit with #4 buck or something similar, seems like a couple bigger holes would be eaiser to fix than 50 pellets of #6 birdshot (or similar). Am I wrong? [/quote]

Yeah, I don't think they were shooting them with pheasant loads. Your 4 buck theory is probably about right, although if you only hit with a couple of pellets even out of 4 buck, its like hitting them with a .22 round.

The guy I knew was Joe Foss' brother, I think his name was Cliff. For those of you that don't know who Joe Foss was, he was local Sioux Falls farm boy who went on to be a Marine Corps fighter ace out of Guadalcanal still flying old Wildcats against Japanese Zeros. Joe Foss won the CMH and after the war, started the South Dakota Air National Guard, was a 2-term governor of SD, and later the first AFL commissioner in the 1960s. I don't know if ole Joe aerial gunned predators but his brother Cliff did. I think he used a Browning 5A out the window. I wish I would have asked him a lot more questions about it when I was a teenager. I suspect Cliff Foss has been gone a long time...

Yeah, probably so, but I wonder why the buyer told the kid about the $40 potential and the mark down because of the "lice" ...? If buying a bird shot yote is so risky, why not just use that point to offer the bare minimum for price?

Yeah, could have just been some excuse. A better quality pic would have helped explain things to.

You don't have to sew bird shot holes. I skinned a lot of coyotes that were shot with copper or nickel plated lead BB's, shot from the air. You had way more holes from scabs and scars opening to sew than from being shot. A needle with a cutting edge on it makes about the same size hole as six shot would or larger. I can not remember sewing any holes from BB's.

I would think a good BB goose load would be a decent aerial shot load. More chances of numerous multiple hits than 4 buck, unless you'd center a yote pretty good. When Cliff Foss was doing it in the 70s, there was a lot more reddies than yotes in much of east river SD. Probably didn't need as big of a shot round then.

Can a person aerial hunt in North Dakota??

You have to get a permit from the G&F and it has to have the land owners name on it. It is not a blanket permit. I was skinning in MT, and at that time you could fly or run coyotes with pickups or snow machines, with landowner permission.

If the kid wanted top dollar he should have properly skinned, fleshed, and dryed the pelt. No excuse if you take a lowball offer on something in the round and then complain. Although the kid doesn't seem to be the one complaining.

Its not the bb holes you have to sew its the big holes left in the hide when you cut out the long streaks of clipped fur before blocking.Similar to repairing fur clips in spring beaver hides.

Yeah, timbremn, I'm the one "whining". The kid is not a trapper and is clueless about fur. If it would have happened 200 miles closer to me and if he would have called me, I would have paid him $20 and took my chances with the pelt. Next time I talk to him, I'll ask him how he felt at the fur shop. If stiffing clueless people is what you think is cool, be my guest, but that's not how I roll. Now, if the fur buyer would have explained the risk he was taking by taking a bird shot yote on a warm Saturday, then I'd have no problem with it. I hope at least the fur buyer (who I haven't named here) gave the kid a free pop as he walked out the door.

Well, I'm a fan of giving kids a little more when possible to keep the industry healthy and next generation enthused about it. Also, really hard to grade a yote from a picture as you are aware. Might be some caution in early buying too before the market has some legs under it. Who knows. Carcass anything is of course something in itself to discount on for starting point.
Tell the kid congrats either way, he looks proud of it in the picture and that's worth something.
FYI had a friend sell a pheasant load killed fox on the carcass and taken early november last year...$1.00 was the exchange and seller took it. I told him before he made the drive dont expect much and he was not disappointed. He had to lay out some cash for trapping license and he commented how he lost money on his "fur" venture last year. Welcome to trapping was my response. He still thinks my hobby is weird. I see what he spends on shotguns, dogs, bird gear, and I find his hobby weird too. We are best friends and its fun to jibe over our respective passions.

Jim

Boco, I am quite sure I have looked and handled more coyotes than you that were aerial shotgunned. I have a pretty good idea what they look like. You don't get long streaks of clipped hair shooting down, near as much as shooting from the ground. I am not saying there is no clipped hair ever, but there were a lot of coyote that float through in any market. The coyotes were not shot for fur anyway, they were shot to cut down on livestock damage. The fur was sold to help pay expenses. Have you ever seen piles of shotgunned coyotes?

"Coyote tails
L/XL size
#1 quality
$9.95 /ea"

Looks like it had a $10 tail.


tails for sale

and probably a $10 skull cleaned up, although I guess the anchoring shot was through the melon going away...

Had a fur buyer friend that had a young customer come in with his dad. The boy had 75 or so rats and a mink. The mink was cotton, my friend bought it for full price. I questioned him on the mink after the kid left and he said, “ I probably made $40 on the rats and lost $20 on the mink, but I made a customer for life. That’s my kind of businessman.
Some fur buyers need to learn that lesson.

I have worked all kinds of fur.
There are damages in fur that have to be cut out and repaired that trappers dont see.
Yes I have seen piles of coyotes and every other type of fur at the auction houses.Shotgunned fur has the same damages no matter what species.
22 bullets clip a lot of fur also,but it is much more noticeable and is a much less extensive repair(as long as only a couple shots) than birdshot.
straight on shots from the side do not cause long streaks of clipped fur like shots at animals quartering away or toward the shooter.doesnt look good in a garment.
Of course you can use fur that has been clipped and not repaired,but it doesnt look good.If it is a utility piece for your own use it wont matter,but I wouldnt pass it on to an unsuspecting customer without pointing it out and discounting it.

I have no idea what the kids fur looked like just pointing out some problems with shotgunned fur that is likely not known by most producers.

Shotgun is ok, ive used it a lot years ago.
In the carcass hurts, if its got lice, lucky he even bought it
It does look good in picture

You can have them yotes with lice I’ll work on my Pepes this year, as much as I love trapping the song dogs the skunks are looking good this year.