Finally got started with our trapping season.
Caught our first problem beaver, looks like a nice one at 40 pounds. Bridger #3, four coiled trap.
Put out 20+ sets for coyote and bobcats too.
We'll have a short break at Christmas for our trip down to Texas then back at it until about mid Feb or so.

Well done!

Bighorn sheep rut is ongoing, rams are travelling and hoping none get taken out on the highway.. This nice young ram has been pretty visible lately.
And of course this nice 4x3 mule deer buck is hanging around the ranch since season is closed.

nice mulie

Wytex thanks for posting, that's a stout ram, and beautiful buck. Always enjoy y'alls posts

Great pics, thanks for posting!

Drew a blank on our coyote and bobcats sets but had 1 more beaver, smaller female about 30 lbs.
Saw another good group of bucks.

Good work
Those ragged aquatic feral hogs will sure mess
up a tank dam or a levee really quick, and any
plantings you might have nearby

Very nice.
It’s seems to be somewhat of a market up north, down here our market has been destroyed by the animal rights loons.
When I was in high school back in the 70’s that was the only way to make money in the winter time, we could get $30 for a coon, $2 for a possum, gas was $.50 a gallon so that was worth skinning.
That’s was before 4 wheelers were heard of, we had to walk, but I liked it, I always wanted a line as long as I could get it.
I still trap for predator control and I do still enjoy it, there are so many coons now.
I miss those days, I was young, an athlete and I really enjoyed trapping.

Same here. My family had a lake house on Lake Whitney when I was a kid and my brother and I trapped untold numbers of coons and grey foxes. As Tx452 said, raccoons brought about $30 each back then (early 70s) so they were worth the hassle and foxes brought even more. I would ship my furs to Eddie Bauer in Illinois and would use my earnings to buy more traps, scents, etc. I read every issue of Fur Fish and Game cover to cover. I never could bring myself to skin a possum or a skunk though. Just too nasty for me.

We had local fur buyers back then in several different places in surrounding counties, there never was any problem selling furs back then.
1 possum was almost 5 gallons of gas, as poor as we were I would gladly skin one.
I never have skinned a skunk.

We still have a few fur buyers around up this way and Petska does have routes in North Texas- panhandle.
We plan to send our hided off to Canada to FHA this Spring. They auction off furs to folks all over the world and prices can be good.
They have a positive outlook this year compared to the last 2 years.

Beavers are looking pretty good this year, $25 +.
Our bobcats can bring hundreds of dollar's but hoping for at least $150 this year if we get some good ones. Best bobcat we sent to Canada brought $350.

Snow is our limiting factor, none right now but that may change at Christmas.

My brother has shipped hides for auction three or four years ago, but the last couple years it hasn’t been worth it.
He shipped bobcat and coyote, coons weren’t worth the trouble.
I’m glad things are looking up for y’all up north, y’all do have better quality than we have down here.
Hopefully our market will come back some day.
This is a good thread, keep it coming.

Getting back at it this weekend. We're taking the time to hit it hard for about 3 weeks or so.
Bitter cold snap coming so we should get some animals moving before that hits and hopefully during it.
Need to get another couple of beavers, and hoping the bobcats are moving.
A few snow flurries for Saturday or Sunday so tracks will be easier to find we hope.
Have a coyote on camera at the bone pile, hope it is still around- nice looking fur on it.

We have snares for deeper snow and lots of wax dirt put up and ready for use.
Hoping snow doesn't limit our access but we'll see.
We do set along the highway going in too and that is always accessible if the road is open.



A pair of Golden eagles claimed the beaver carcass we had staked down. They are impressively big birds.

Good luck.

Very cool, ma'am. Good luck and safe trapping!

nice pictures

30 sets out yesterday, includes about 5 snares.
Promptly got a good inch or 2 of snow over all of them.
Hoping we at least see some fresh tracks for sign if no catches.
Wind will pick up this week so drifting can be a problem for some sets.

Beaver sets have no action so we'll have to move down the creek it looks like for them. Not much open water left but some, that will change this week though.

Saw a couple of nice young mule deer bucks too, 3x4 and 4x4, in the meadows.

Looks like I snared the coyote from our trail cam pics, nice pretty female.
We'll get her put up and see what she's worth and maybe just get it tanned to sell.
Dusting of snow and windy today, tracks all over so we have multiple targets to catch.

Very nice. Well done! Keep at it.

keep those pictures coming

Cool

Love this thread

Went up and checked and decided to snap the traps until Sunday or Monday, when we may be able to get back up.
We have high winds and snow with the bitter cold for the next 2 nights, roads may not be passable until Sunday or so.
Had a nice crisp morning to check, no real wind and about 11 degrees with a dusting of new snow.
Last 2 days were very windy so not much moved, very few sets of tracks.

Couple of pics of set areas and sets.
Did snare a coyote, nice fluffy female. We have to adjust the deer stops on the snares though.

Cool pics !

Keep coming with updates.

Went up Saturday and spent the night.
Set a few traps out, snares too.
Fed the horses a bale of hay.

Had to use the winter gate to get in, we drive across an undrifted pasture, the driveway has a huge drift across it right now.

Just enough snow to blow around and make access a pain in the you know what.
Plenty of coyote tracks around and finally some bobcat sign.

Nice week ahead with warmer temps and no snow, we hope.
Back up tomorrow to check and then again on Thursday to stay a night or two.

Hoping to have some catch pics but our season has been iffy to say the least.
Had to dig out the side by side from the garage.

good luck

Well no catches. Going to pull on Tuesday.

Had some coyotes just pass right on by some sets so snares are going out along their trail, ha ha !!

We think these are mink tracks but not sure.

Spouse got the driveway plowed out so we don't have to drive across the pasture til next big snow.

Enjoying reading your story, thank you for sharing.

Good times but sure looks cold!

More pics later but 2 nice toms this morning.

Good looking cats and a lot better coats than the one I watched in a Mississippi swamp a couple weeks ago

Huge cats! Congrats!

These 2 toms get a free trip to Canada for the fur auction.
30 and 27 lbs.
Spouse will flesh them tomorrow and I'll get them boarded by end of the day.

Set pics where we caught them.

Spouse's cubby set had a miss but I got him on my trail set by a log.



MB 550 with Wind River trap pans added held tight.


Spouse's cubby was successful in the meadows. Another MB 550 with the oversized Wind River trap pans.



Lots of fur on these cats.

Great job, and two beautiful cat's. Thanks for posting !

very nice cats

Had a little adventure this morning.
No traps catches so we decided to try and call a bit. Spouse had his pocket calls.
Had this mt lion show up, about 75-100 yds.
I had a tag and the quota is still open.
105 lb male.
We should get an age from WG&F, not an old tom though for sure.

That's AWESOME! One of my bucket list animals for sure!

Dang what a nice surprise

Congrats to yall….that’s fantastic!

Wow , that’s awesome.

Got our bobcats tagged and now they are ready to go to the shipper for the FHA auction in Canada, June is the auction.
We'll see if coyotes are worth sending or if he wants to just buy them, they may get tanned for sale.
Bobcats stretched 44 and 45 inches to the base of the tail, good sized.

Sent our mt lion, a badger, a coyote and spouse's moose waddle to Moyle Monday for tanning. Now the wait, probably 6 months or more.

Bobcats this year were caught late January so they are nice and furry, just have narrow bellies.
The coyotes have nice guard hairs and are pretty danged furry too.

Congrats! Nice pelts!

Beautiful pelts

Yup! Very nice.

keep those great pictures coming

Looks like we may go up and put out what we can for the weekend along the highway property.
Bobcat season ends on March 1 so this weekend would be our last for them.
No snow up there thankfully, we got about 2 or 3 inches last night in town.

Put out 12 sets today, 3 snares and 9 coil spring traps.
Lots of coyote tracks, we're mainly hoping for bobcats, but some cat tracks as well.
Windy as heck, made the road sketchy in a few spots because of blowing and drifting snow on the Laramie side of the highway. Sybille Canyon where we have our sets is pretty clear, small drifts in spots.

We'll go up Sunday and pull everything and check on the horses at the house. Supposed to be windy but warmer all weekend.

What do you expect those bobcat pelts to sell for?

Hard to say this year. Market is up on cats and beavers.
They will be auctioned off in June up in Canada at an international auction.
Past years our cats brought up to $375 but we've only sent about 5 cats up there, our best was sold to a buyer- should have sent it to Canada.

Best price a buyer has paid us is $250.
Buyer gave us $125 each last year on 2 bobcats with ok bellies.

We hope these are worth at least $250 each. They have an auction coming up next month that will be telling on prices, not a ton of this years cats will be in it though.

Last year, still down year on prices, Western bobcats (linx cats) averaged $250 at the auction and highest paid was $1000.
Our trapping mentor, passed now, once got $1,200 for a bobcat at the auction. Those were the glory days for trapping, about 10 years ago or so.

Pulled our traps for the season this morning.
All my snares had blown down, winds were gusting over 60 mph in the canyon..
Had a nice surprise, a pretty female bobcat in one of our new set spots for this weekend.

She's getting fleshed today and I'll get her tagged and then boarded tomorrow.
She tipped the scales at 19.5 lbs.

Excellent thread Wytex.
I sure appreciate you sharing your trapping and great pictures with us.
I love when I can get a few weeks to go after critters at my brothers. We had a old timer teach us the tricks and methods of foot traps and snares, a dying trade and skills that are no longer taught or passed down. There it is just varmint control, but we have to stay on them.

Very nice, ma'am. Thanks for sharing.

FHA had their 1st auction this past week and some furs are looking up price wise.
Here are results of bobcats( lynx cats) and coyotes. Beavers did well too.
We'll take $25 for our coyotes and hoping we get at least average for our bobcats in June.

Lots of muskrats left over. Is that season ended, just beginning or is the inventory already very high? Beaver does look good. Huh, no southern possum? Got to be worth something. What about Texas rat? I can find a bunch of those.

Rats did not do as well as others from what is talked about online.

Here is FHA's take on the auction and final results for all species I think.

What's the difference here between a Lynx and Lynx Cat? Lynx Cat = bobcat?

Yes, lynx cat is a bobcat. Have no clue why they are called that at this auction.

Finished up our season on 2 more beaver. We think we put a big dent in our problem family.
Big 48 lb female this morning and a medium sized male yesterday.

Woke up to fog and about 25 mule deer all around the house this morning. Had 1 1/2 inches of snow yesterday morning.

4 beavers, 2 coyotes and 3 bobcats off to the shipper this morning. They are headed up to Canada for the fur auction in June.
Might end up with the coyotes at the tannery instead though, market is not good on those.
Beavers turned out pretty nice.
Keeping one beaver hide that has a few fleshing holes in it, going to get tanned.

Just got word our hides at Moyle's are tanned and will be shipping out in a week or so. It will be a coyote, badger with front feet, spouse's moose waddle from 2021 and my mt lion I got this winter.
Hoping they turned out great but will be surprised if they didn't, Moyle's does good work usually.
I'll post pics when they get here.

Nice, I used to trap Beaver, Nutria, Coyote and Coon down here in Texas. Never gets cold enough to make really
thick fur this far south, always wanted to try my hand at trapping in the north country. Back in the 80's and early 90's though we made a decent price on big fat mamma coons down here.
Those were the days...