I first started to hunt and trap in the 1960's At that time the state of PA had a bounty system .They would pay a set amount for gray fox, red fox and great horned owls .For the 1963/64 fiscal year $108892.00 was paid . The following year the payment for 1964/65 was $144057.00 That was quite a lot of money during those times Grays and Reds paid $4 each and owls paid $5 .And if I remember right you could sell the fox pelts after you received the bounty payment .

That's a little before my time West side. I started hunting in 1969, towards the end of the small game heyday in PA. I don't remember the bounties, when did they stop them?

A local farmer used to give me a quarter for every groundhog I shot off his property.

I am not certain when it was stopped but it was during the 1960's I remember and older brother of mind getting $4 for a gray fox I started hunting just a few years before you .I had a older trapper that I would take with me for 4 or 5 years ,He was missing a leg due to diabetics But he had an artificial leg and he had no trouble getting in and out of my truck . He was about 15 years older than I He had some amazing stories of he and his trapping partner digging out fox climbing trees to catch owls etc .They made some good money as kids collecting bounty money . But it was a dangerous way of getting it

Pa Game Commission trapping book has a set for great horned owls. If you wanted to save the pelt, I believe they split the nose so you could not reapply for the bounty.

$144,000in 1964 would be $1.3 million today. A lot of money.

1966 is when it ended. It's in the April 66 issue.

Don't forget $5 a head for goshawks.

I have some old books around here someplace; I think PA also had bounties on wolfs, mt lions, wildcats, mink & weasels back in the day.

Finding a den of pups was a big payday during the bounty system.

I believe the bounty on goshawks ended in 1951. There also was a bounty on weasels ending in 1954.

I have a 1907 Pa game law book.
You could use deadfalls and poison back then
The fine back then for cutting down a neighbors tree was more than violating any hunting law
Now I have to look for that book

Read all about it here: https://www.pgc.pa.gov/InformationR...20Bounties%20The%20Rise%20and%20Fall.pdf

William Penn landed at Chester
in 1682. Within a year, Penn’s
Woods had its first bounty: 10 to
15 shillings for a wolf; females
paid more.
Bounties would go on to become a staple in
Pennsylvania’s attempts to civilize its outdoors,
to put an end to agricultural losses, to save game
for hunters. They’d last centuries.
It was hardly new thinking. The Old World
had cultivated the practice for centuries before
it surfaced on the other side of the pond. Think
Big Bad Wolf. Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing. The
Boy Who Cried Wolf.
In 1802, Pennsylvania’s bounties extended
to mountain lions, or “panthers.” Why it took
a century longer to reprimand the big cats is
unclear. Maybe their uniqueness to colonists
bought them some time.
But don’t for a second think that bounties
were for only big beasts. Add to the bountied
animals list weasels, foxes, bobcats, minks,
hawks, owls, even squirrels. All at some time
in Pennsylvania’s past were considered vermin
worth paying to have killed.

A sympathetic General Assembly tried
to save game, livestock and songbirds
through the Scalp Act of 1885, which placed a 50-cent bounty on weasels,
minks, gray and red foxes, and all hawks
and owls, excepting saw-whet, screech
and barn owls. I

Wouldn't hurt to bring something like that back around here, for hawks especially. (IMO)

$4 then would be like $38 in todays money.

In 1960, the first year I trapped in PA and caught 6 fox for the bounty. No wonder this 13 year old lad at the time was a very happy youngster!

Yes That was what my friend that rode with me told me .

The southern half of PA was a lot more farmland and woodlots in the 1950's thru the 1970,s Many farm kids had some traps and it was expected that he would use them to keep the varmints under control around the farm buildings .Fifty cents or maybe even a dollar was a lot of money during those times My one grandfather told me a story about how he tracked a skunk to a couple of groundhog holes . He covered that hole with rocks and went to get some traps .After checking those trap for a number of days he finally had a skunk .And than he explained how he caught a skunk there for he next 6 days .It was like winning the lottery in the 1920's and 30's

When I was a kid, I trapped Owls & Hawks at the Union Beagle Club, Lewisburg, Pa. I started trapping there for Weasels when I was 8.
Dad & Smitty (another member of club) made me poles with platform for trap. I recall a couple of roofing nails to hold trap as I leaned pole upward. Chain was stapled to pole. These pole traps were roughly 10' high, placed in open fields. I had 6 pole traps.

When Raptors became protected and ban from trapping, I learned of Federal permit to trap. I applied and received a federal permit to trap Raptors on the Beagle Club.
There were strict guidelines for this permit. Changes I had to make- use rubber jaw traps, run a wire to bottom of pole from end chain so raptor could rest on ground (instead of hanging upside down) then relocated raptor unharmed. Plus, at the end of the year I had to submit a list of raptors, birds & songbirds captured, and location released.
As I got older, with kids, work and other interest, I didn't renew raptor permit.

I do recall digging a Fox den with John Atkinson, on his farm. Seem to take us all morning to get 4 Fox.

Do you mean this one Mike? I think I tried every set in this book when I was a kid.

Yes, that is the book.

I made my first set of stretchers from the specs in that book.