You always had to make a business of trapping in order to make money, but you could make a lot more money back then. You can catch a ton more fur these days. These guys catching a 1000 or more coon a year are amazing, but back in the 1980's you would have been competing against 100 other trappers in that same trapline, every farm kid, dozens of hound hunters, and any thief that had the ambition could steal $1000 worth of fur every single night, enough to buy a brand new pickup every week. In 1987, there were 480,000 raccoon caught in Iowa. Wonder what it is today.

You could never make a living wage trapping today by the sales of fur alone. There's no business that can survive losing money.

Everything you stated is so true Bernie I remember getting hit for nearly twenty sets in one night back then,traps and catches gone.Three or for coon a night were better money than working,ahhhhhhh those were days to remember