Predator hunting/trapping

I have been living in Texas for 9 months now and have been looking for a lease within a couple of hours drive. Have not found one yet, but the thing is that I really don't want a lease to hunt deer.(I know crazy right?. Back home I live to deer hunt but the size of deer in TX does not really interest me) I really want to hunt / trap predators. Has any one ever heard of someone that gets on a lease just to control the predator population and stays away during deer season?
If you have do you have any suggestion how I would go about finding such a place?

Hit up local land owners. Pitch your wants and most, especially if they have livestock and more so if they have sheep and goats, will let you do it for free if they don't already have a predator control program in place. Make sure you talk about any lease hunters on the property and have a face to face with them and get the understandings in writing. You never know what you can come up with until you ask.

I'm a very strong believer in the idea that hunters would be much happier with their hunting grounds if they worked with good trappers.

Do you keep the pelts and what kind of predators are you looking for? Coyotes?

Yes, i keep the pelts and usually ship them to NFTA. However I am not sure if coon pelts are worth anything from TX or not, especially after the flood of coon we had last year. Regaurdless I would tan and am interested in making hat's out of the tanned hides. I do all the fleshing and preperation myself to sale. Tanning is something I would have to learn but am interested in doing so.
It really bothers me to let an animal got to waste if there is something I can do with it. if not then I don't usually target them.

And yes, I love trapping coyotes, they are very challeging and I get pride out of knowing that I have saved several fawns by taking out each yote. I would also like to get a big Tom Bobcat to have mounted. They are protected where I am from so we can not keep them, even though there are several caought in yote sets every year.

I would go to local feed stores and ask around. They might let you post something there for landowners that might be interested in speaking with you about it.

One thing you really need to get straight with everyone on the land you end up trapping is what to do if someone else finds a live catch in your traps. Over the last couple of years I've had to remind everyone about mine, even had to chase a few hunters down to get my traps out of the back of their trucks. Also make sure they know not to shoot anything with a 7 mag from four feet away...the hole left in the trap can't be fixed; trust me I know.

This happened to us as well. A paid trapper on the ranch made part of his income from bounties. A few kids found an alive coyote in a trap one morning before the trapper got there. They shot the animal and drove back to camp with the trap still attached. The trapper found where his trap was and a fresh pool of blood. He put two an two together and went to the camp house to recover his trap and a coyote for bounty. It wasn't a pleasant situation.

I have never had any one shoot an animal in a trap yet, But where I am originally from there are not near as many people around as there is here.
I am a little relunctant to advertise because I can not say for sure I will be able to trap a large number of predators as I have a very demanding job and can only "oportunity trap". I just hope I can find a lease within the next few months. I am sure something will come up.
I will definetely visit feed stores to the south. When I go to the archery range I pass a couple and will stop in next time.
Thanks for the suggestion.

Your location says San Antonio. I manage a ranch in Pipe Creek which is about 45 min from you west towards Bandera. PM me if you want to talk further. The ranch is 5000 acres and we have plenty of coyotes and a confirmed pair of mountain lions. They have probably separated now because we have seen a set of cub tracks walking beside an adult set.

PM Sent.