Mitch L if you dont care about price then dont sell. Trap hard. Catch a bunch. Just dont sell any. Why cut the throat of your fellow trappers?

The problem.is if trappers don't trap the beaver..even in a down market ..the people will get adc or usda trappers to kill the beaver.. and then there will be no beaver to trap for "dumb" or any other kind of trappers.

Jerry said he laugh all the way to the bank with a 20.00 beaver.

Trappers that don't trap are playing right into the hands of the antis. They're winning..because they don't want trappers trapping.

I didn’t see many say they ain’t trapping, just that they ain’t skinning.

I just don't want to waste my freezer space for 10 dollar beaver. Ide have to plug an extra freezer in to store fur this year and electricity isn't cheap.

The powers that be could hit us with new "wanton waste" and "seasonal possession limit" rules and regulations in order to "manipulate" the markets to suit their desires.
Its within their power and can happen.
I wouldn't be surprised.

Calling Jerry dumb would never be a good thing.

It Costs him less to catch and process a beaver than a 6 pack of beer or a pack of cigarettes cost..and hes getting return on the money he spends to cacth the beaver..which is more than I can say for the guys who bought the beer and/or cigs.

The difference between making money trapping and not ...in a depressed market..boils down to how hard you work at it..a guy catching 5 beaver isn't ever gonna make as much as a guy catching 300..even in a depressed market.

And a guy who's only trapping on a high market will eventually sell his traps.

When the markets down by half all you do is trap twice as many..that's the mentality that will make you money..that and your own will and willingness and want ro truly trap.

Longbeard12..I'm not very good at biting my tongue.

Cathryn
I am not either, had a big page wrote up then decided to delete it. Was not worth getting any madder than I was.
Tell Jerry to keep up the good work!! Really enjoying the pictures and write up!

For me Beaver is always a moneymaker.
It seems a lot of people who trap find beaver trapping difficult,and have a hard time skinning and putting them up-takes them too long and they dont do a very good job of it.There are many ways to trap and put up beaver.I think a lot of trappers work far too hard at it to enjoy it.
Myself,I can trap as many beaver as I desire whithout much effort or expense,And I really enjoy clean skinning beaver-its very relaxing physically and mentally.If you know how to sharpen and maintain a good edge on a good big skinning knife,skinning is effortless and fast.I think when it comes to processing beaver,many trappers have never really learned the proper techniques that make the job fast and easy,regardless of what method they use.
I skin and hold the skins.I put most of them up in the winter.Putting up beaver are about the easiest pelts to put up when you have a system in place for doing a lot efficiently in a short time.
I do a lot of fur handling while watching hockey etc on TV,or listening to the news etc.

Plus-what looks and feels better than a nice floor to ceiling stack of nice prime grease free fluffy beaver pelts?

Although I won't dispute the "dumb" moniker much, I almost always make money trapping beaver. Last year was an exception because I had some large unfortunate capital expenses related to my trapping. But if I amortize those expenses out over time I show a profit.

This season may be a tough one because gas prices are still sky high here. At the moment $5.60 a gallon regular.

Geez.....You're more like Jerry than I thought.

He has said the same thing about his stacks of beaver.lol

He actually takes the shop vac to every beaver before he sells them.

It might hurt him by the pound but it makes them look better and that's important to him.

I almost trust that you actually figure in all your costs. Not a normal trapper. However $1 is a profit.

I probably pay more for gas than most people on here and that is not even the big cost. What is the value of my time?

You would be correct Dirt. I do a schedule C for my trapping. Usually the main expense every year is fuel, but there is licenses, repairs, supplies, etc as well. I generally show a profit of around 3-5 thousand for my 2 month season. Not great but something.

Right now It costs jerry right at 10.00 a beaver to trap them( he drives 360 miles round trip a day on his wv beaver line) but all the other fur he sets for and catches while trapping them... Coons yotes..rats ect..pays for all the expenses and then some.

So All jerrys beaver money is profit. OK... plus beaver is a nice chunk of change and at 85 a pound straight for castor...he's doing ok.

We or he..depending if I get to to that day... leave the house by 5Am. And back about 7 pm..then he skins while I cook supper.

I get up at 4 to pack his lunch and make his tea..even if I don't go.

He averaged 25 straight on 300 beaver last year and he didn't sell any of them to groeny.

Wow $10 per beaver cost. Goes to show things are different in other regions, and although I consider myself a proficient beaver trapper, I am still at under 2000 beaver caught since I started tracking all expenses and time about 5 years ago. My cost is much higher, but it is not apples to apples because I am not fur trapping. It is whole different world when you are bound by contract to solve a problem, meaning get them ALL in most cases. If it takes me another 5 visits, 75 miles each time, to get the last one, I have to do it. So my costs dont count for this discussion.
Now I am curious what fur trappers (other than Jerry) who are running and gunning AND actually tracking expenses have for production costs. Maybe I am wrong, and $20 beaver is “laughing all the way to the bank” for others who are under different conditions and population levels, (and maybe much better beaver trappers than myself). Apparently that is the case for Jerry! Sometimes I am wrong.

Jerrys best year he caught right at 1000 beaver..565 in Mississippi and 330(I think) in wyoming..that was before hw trapped beaver hard in wv.

He's caught right at 12500 beaver in 33 years

Profit to one guy is a loss to another simply because they could make more working a job.

BINGO!

Dang..we agree..if you look at it that way.

How much do you charge yourself an hour to watch a ball game or a race or whatever on tv?