It seems that the coon market is not affected much by how many are put into the pipeline. Looks like they're gonna be cheap even with very low harvest. Just not much demand for them and many other articles.

In my area and many others as soon as the number surpasses the holding capacity distemper moves in and knocks them back down to near nothing. Trapping is the next best thing to keep populations healthy. LLL

I home tanned mine last year and sold em all for $20 each. I paid about $80 for chemicals and equipment, and sold 30-something tanned coons. I'll probably do the same thing this year, and try to .make a better product that I can sell for more.

Also, I just love trapping coons, so I'll do it even if I have to keep the tanned furs and make things out of them.

X2

houndsmen used to kill a few all year round . were not supposed to but they did. So many deer leases now and everyone afraid those dogs will make the antlers leave, cameras everywhere, they are insisting on tickets for trespass. not many houndsmen left. turn loose where you have permission but inevitably your dog will be someplace treed its not supposed to be.

not many trappers either. we dont have the trespass problem but how much money are you willing to spend to trap? a few sets just for fun wont help much. need to kill thousands and it isnt going to happen.

I plan to hit them twice as hard as last year!

not sure I will be able to give coon away this fall.

Tom Oar prolly gets $500.00 a piece! Lol, I'll skin em iffn I get em!

Ill release every incidental i get unless i can find someone to give me 5 bucks apiece in carcass, then ill go catch a few hundred. Doubtful, so they can walk.

A guy at church has been bringing 2 or 3 dozen eggs every Sunday for anybody that wants them. They go fast. This morning no eggs, coons got in his pen and pulled the heads off all 14 hens. So maybe if disease don't wipe the coons out first they will move into town and lodge their. Let PETA deal with it they created it. Some where down the line maybe people will see the damage done by the idiots and learn that starving and dying animals is not the humane way to deal with it. And maybe even realize wearing fur that was going to rot in a ditch isn't so far out after all.

In the mean time fight on our home front. Last year some people moved in here from the Chicago area and was going to raise chickens for some of those free eggs. The coons got a couple hens and she was asking me for advice on what to do. I told her the remedy and she said she didn't want to hurt the poor little coons, to which I replied "then you need to buy more chickens" and walked off, lol.

Going to hit them hard here, haven't been trapped much in a few seasons on some of our farms.
Made 2.5 gallons of DP baits this weekend and have a whole bunch of DPs, 1.75s, 1.5s, and 160s with stands ready to go.
Jim

And keep buying chickens...

So what we are saying is we will let Mother Nature kill the coons with diseases as it is not good wildlife management to harvest animals that we lose money on. I know I have read many posts that would claim otherwise but I have not seen any as of late. I guess long term low prices changes ones wildlife management practices and maybe just maybe Mother Nature has it right. I am sure most antis would agree as well.

Bryce

bblwi, how hard and how much are you going to spend coon trapping?

Gas cost lot more

I'm moving to Wyoming and switching species.

Industry, business, labor, any professional services all get paid for their services. Even in the dust bowl days they realized that only if gov would compensate the land owner then he could be trusted or enabled to do the conservation needed to preserve the land. Its been in the cards since the days of Joseph in Egypt. Its not been until times of late that such a great natural resource as fur (which by the way opened this country ) has been turned over to the hobbyist to maintain its well being !

If i had land i was managing to bird hunt on i would without a doubt trap coon. I am primarily a road trapper though, and while i enjoy the heck out of it, im not gonna go broke on 3 dollar plus gas and bust my butt for 100 bucks/day in fur if im lucky. If a farmer i have permission on for coyote asks me to take coon, i will. Otherwise, no go.

X2 here. I start later in the season than most do in my area so if I get incidentals they usually run more to the larger size.

We have mostly pine trees in this area, so very little coon, most of the time you couldn't buy a coon track along a creek or swamp. I'd be pretty happy to catch some big UP coon.

Everything has a price/cost. I will work pretty cheap at times but Im done paying to harvest fur. As much as I love to do it what do I do with cheap PA fur?