My bad. I used the 3800 as income and not total expenses. We will have to wait until his catch is sold to see.

Bryce

Against my better judgement I am going to clarify some things here.

1. I was a beginner trapper, the only traps my hands ever set were 2 duke dogproofs in my back yard. I caught some raccoons, a few possum, but that was it.

2. Money WAS NOT and IS NOT the goal, nor did it play any sort of factor into me doing this. I did it because I LOVE nature, and wanted to see what I could do. For those who are referencing ADC, beginners who don't have the same path in life in me would be good to follow that advice.

3. I am not selling my pelts at all, I am going to tan them, make clothes and other stuff and just keep them. I love the pelts, I feel like I have dragons gold with them.

4. I had over 100 refusals in all types of traps combined, I just think sometimes animals are going to do whatever they want.

5. No gloves, I only washed 1/4 of my traps, the rest I just put them to work straight out the box, I used raccoon grease for my water sets, tried it on land kept getting dug up traps. No dye or wax on my traps. I have probably more boots than a man should have, but I would be barefoot if I could. I tried this, but my feet kept cracking due to getting in and out of water. My lure/bait combo could definitely be improved, again even though I have more time than some posters have said, I am a beginner trapper who only knows a small amount of this fascinating world.

Lastly I am going to be doing this again, always and forever until the day I die, or my body is too weak. Books range from the AR Harding ones, Musgrove and Blair, Walter Chansling, Owen Tytegraff, Carhart, Edward Kozicky, FFG Professional Trapper Series, E. Kreps and many others. The only books I have not been able to pry from hands are the Lenon Books.

Didnt you get an otter and a bobcat also? Or was that last year or something.

Those older books are good reads and are full of good nuggets but something a little newer will line up with current methods and gear.

If you are intentionally not making any money trapping then why are you concerning yourself with listing expenses?

What you are doing is just expensive hobby trapping. Your gonna kill the mood if you keep calculating how much your "fun" is costing you.

@Swamp Wolf This is for beginners or others who may be interested in doing what I did, and what it may cost if you wanted to go all in for a season. I don't keep a running tally at all, I had to go back through receipts and such to see how much I actually spent, but I wanted to be honest and as accurate as possible. Lots of beginners, myself included wonder "if I go balls to the wall, can I make money during trapping season to make it worth my time?" For me that answer was easy because my definition of worth is not based on money, but the experience, knowledge, meat and fur I gained during this season.

@USMC, Yes definitely some newer techniques will help me out 100%. I have to go back and get the actual breakdown, but an otter, few beaver, 1 bobcat, 2 gray fox, tons of raccoons, tons of possums and a deer mouse in a dogproof. Still hunting for the coyote, red fox, and more bobcat and beaver, but I am limited in area right now, we will see what it looks like in the next few weeks.

Just some clarification for the beginners reading this, running an average of 30 traps a day isn't "all in" or "balls to the walls" trapping.

Thats a good point. And 1700 dollars worth of fuel from Nov to March is under 300 dollars a month or 75 dollars a week right? Kids driving to school with 3.25 dollar gas will spend that per week ! LOL!

This may be difficult for you, but you need to try and think about it as if you did not have any prior knowledge of trapping. That was me, and likely a good number of other beginner trappers who are just trying to go out there and do it and learn. However, looking through your past threads you started, I saw zero threads that would help a beginner understand what running a trapline was about. Since you were quick to make a comment trying to lift yourself up, would you mind to make a thread that details what going "balls to the wall" is so myself and others can have some sort of baseline? Thanks

@steeltraps That was approximately $100 a week, driving my 2004 f350 CCLB diesel at 16/17 MPG. Not sure how far your kids live from the school, but if they drive a vehicle getting that poor of fuel mileage, I would recommend investing in a car that gets 30+ mpg. Like the previous person, none of your threads you started are aimed at helping beginners, only questions that satisfy your own requests. Here, check it. How much did you get paid for each coyote killed on private land? How much was your total expenses? How many hours did you spend? How long have you been trapping? Feel free to elaborate, thanks for the information.

Where is that sun dryed possum tail when you need one.
WOW

Tofan,
If you dont like the critique, maybe you should consider your posts more carefully. You are spouting back at trappers that trap for a living and have more experience to share on Tman than you will be able to provide in 20 plus years.

So much for turning over that leaf, I thought life was too short? Again I am guilty of the same thing, but lets try to stay on topic here. Feel free to add/criticize any part of my posts, but if you criticize, I would ask that you offer up the relevant information so that beginners like myself can learn. Thanks

Was I wrong or right big boy? It was nothing against you or your post. I just wanted to let the beginners know there is more potential for bigger catchers and longer lines. I said zero about myself or trapline to lift myself up. I do like a good debate though. As far as me sharing info to help of trappers you have no knowledge of what you speak of again sir.

And someone mentioned that this forum doesn’t discourage or bash others…

The bolded portion is more information than your original post provided, there was no clarification, and still no clarification as to how, why, or any explanation as to why "30 traps is not going balls to the wall for a beginner trapper." I am still a beginner trapper who is interested in all the information that is out there to help educate myself and others about this world of trapping.

Tofan. Happy to answer any questions I can ? Been trapping 34 years. Jobs. Per animal is ALL Ways different from state to state. 75 - 100 per aniaml in souther states. New Mexico And West Texas 35 - 50 dollars per aniaml. More coyotes = less per coyote pay. Ok. High fence work is by the day. From south Alabama to South Texas. 200 - 350 a day. A large high fence in = South Texas will pay more than a 500 acre high fence in Alabama. Total expenses? Sorry I dont keep up with them my accountant does. = I keep all gas and groceries store bills in a zip lock bag for end of year taxes. How many hrs do you spend ??? It varies BUT the first few days of a 14 day job = I will work day light to dark. So 12 hrs the first 3 days then who know??? To be honest I have NEVER factored in hard work. Average of 8 hrs a day maybe?? I have posted lots of sets up. As in before. After on flat set. I will try to answer an questions anyone on here has. So ask away

Tofan

You said you averaged 4 to 5 hours a day trapping. Beginner or not that just isn't balls to the wall trapping by anyone's standards. I'm not a long liner myself but I've road with a few and they would have that many hours in by somewhere between 8:30 to 11:00 in the morning and not stop until it got dark.

Thank you very much for the nice info, very appreciated. Also, you are talking about the first 3 days going in 12 hours, this helps me, ill explain why. So I did not have a line set, nor did understand that I should have spent the first part of the opening season getting ALL the traps out. What I did was say I had a good area for 4-6 traps for a beginner, an experienced person would put maybe 12-15 in the same area. I would carry 6 traps with me while checking my previouslt set traps and if I saw a good spot, I would set it. To elaborate, I knew animals frequented creeks, and so that's where I naturally went for my sets.

@Yes, I understand what you are saying now, but I just want to say that I truly had no idea what I was doing and still don't have the full grasp on it. I read, read, watch maybe if available, and then I have to go out and try to emulate. Something I was not able to find a lot of, was how many traps in an area. I think had I saturated some of the earlier lines I would have caught more animals more efficiently. So to clarify maybe an earlier comment, in my mind as a beginning trapper I did not know what going ball's to the wall meant. Like 4-5 hours is what I spent checking traps, it was another 4 or 5 taking care of the furs. Hindsight Def would have done something differently, but in my beginner mind I said "What would I need to do in order to take care of the furs if I ever got multiple 5 catch+ days?" Embarassing or not it was taking me around 40 minutes to skin and butcher the coon and other animals, then another 30-45 minutes easily to flesh and board.

So if you could ask the long liners you know if they go from 4 am to dark that day checking traps, how did they do the furs after? If the answer is you just get it done, Ok no worries. There may be a routine though that they have or you have which may help. Thanks.

First 3 days. I work 12 hr each day. Is what I meant to say. I am old. So my Iphone typing is not so great. And I get up once a night to go to bathroom ! LoL!

@steel, let me ask this then. Next year I am planning on carrying all my traps out to the locations where I am going to bunch them up, in small cubbies along the line, that's day 1-3. Days 3-6 will be setting those traps and the rest of the time will be checking and reset. How often do you move traps if a particular area is not performing well? Thank you for the info again and also do you split up trapping land animals and than move to water animals?

Tofan

I'm not sure exactly how it is in Louisiana but if you are trapping areas far enough away from a vehicle that you are spending 3 days carrying traps in you may be wasting time unless someone is paying you to trap some really remote property. Might need to invest in a four wheeler to help. Try to stay as close to your vehicle as you can. For me with very limited time most all my coyote sets I can check from the road. Sometimes with binoculars. But all of them I can drive to. Beaver and otter trapping maybe a little different I don't know anything about them. But coon and predators you need to stay close to a vehicle to but up #s. Might require more time finding more permission but one thing I see different about the guys that make good catches is how much effort they put into get spots that will produce the most critters with the least amount of work.

What is your ultimate goal for trapping, catch most critters you can, make money or just doing it for fun?