I would really like to start reducing the number of turkey nest robbers on my farm. I found evidence last season of a nest that had been destroyed and it was quite a let down. I would enjoy trying to catch some of the little buggers but my question is what do I do with them. I have no knowledge about prepping a hide to sell and I don't really want to deal with that. I killed a raccoon this fall with my bow and the arrow made a real mess on both side of the hide. I donated it to the local coyotes and moved on. But what do you guys who are also trying to reduce your nest bandits do with them.
"buzzards gotta eat same as worms"
Quote from: sswv on January 31, 2023, 06:57:39 PM
"buzzards gotta eat same as worms"
"I've seen him do some things".
The Outlaw Josey Wales. Love it.
As ugly as it sounds, throw them in a ditch for the buzzards, or learn to bbq coon.
pile them up for the Yotes and set up right there and kill the Yotes, then let the buzzards and worms eat!
You find the right furriers* and you can sell the hides untanned. Just make sure they have not been around long or have been in a freezer or they get mighty rank quick. Or go to your local gun or fur convention and find somebody to take them from you in the future. I hate to see them wasted.
Coons, possums and skunks are insulated ditch liners.
Coyotes and foxes, I'll have tanned for a neat wall hanging in the garage.
My opinion:
If you feel you should process the coon/possum/skunk or give him away get in touch with your state Trappers association for advice. That advice could bring you to work shops. point you towards a local to you trapper, or turn you on to a new great sport. It is good you feel you should do something with this critters life. I commend that.
Today, I think the most profitable thing to do with fur would be to sell at local or regional Craft/Hippy/Redneck fairs. "No Offense meant to any" I call them as I see them. If you learn to process and tan the fur yourself you will find the most profit here. If you decide to finish/process a "Nest robber" fur and ship it to NAFA or sell to Greenwald you will burn more money in gas than you profit.
Regardless of profit, Its a great hobby if you have time to do it and enjoy it. I enjoy trapping and need to get back into it and stop making excuses.
Quote from: 3bailey3 on January 31, 2023, 07:21:54 PM
pile them up for the Yotes and set up right there and kill the Yotes, then let the buzzards and worms eat!
X2
I have a friend, who's Black, and he will take every raccoon that I can put my hands on. Especially this time of year. Superbowl parties. I eat them as well and I like them!!When my son was in high-school him and a buddy trapped a pile of coons. Sold for $20 a piece, 20 of them. This one fellow bought every one of them.
Have a good one and May God bless y'all
Bo
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Quote from: WV Flopper on January 31, 2023, 08:32:59 PM
If you decide to finish/process a "Nest robber" fur and ship it to NAFA or sell to Greenwald you will burn more money in gas than you profit.
NAFA dissolved a couple years ago, just an FYI. Beaver caster and skunk essence is about the only game in the trapping. Northern plains coyotes were high $ until Canada Goose cut wild caught sustainable harvest fur and went "green" to use a petroleum faux fur
I've eaten them smoked before. Tasted just like ham. The old trapper who was showing a buddy and me the ropes had a bunch done up for a DU wild game feed. Came into the fur shack one day and said I need some coon for eating. Showed him the fresh ones and he grabbed about 6 of them. Smoked em up. Let me sample them before the feed
Quote from: Yoder409 on January 31, 2023, 08:23:33 PM
Coons, possums and skunks are insulated ditch liners.
Coyotes and foxes, I'll have tanned for a neat wall hanging in the garage.
They (Coon) do not bring what they used to, but if you know how to tan and sew then you can still make a lot of money selling tourists coon skin caps and so on. Even if you send them out and have them done there is money to be made if you are in the right area. If my hands were good it is what I would do myself.
Raccoons have a gland in their legs that must be removed. I boil them with seasoning, onions, bell pepper and garlic. Once tender, I put them on a pan with sweet potatoes and bake until Taters are done. Or when they are boiled with crab boil, then put on barbecue grill!!! Only thing I ain't eating is a possum. Draw the line there.
Have a good one,
Bo
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Quote from: runngun on January 31, 2023, 08:43:15 PM
I have a friend, who's Black, and he will take every raccoon that I can put my hands on. Especially this time of year. Superbowl parties. I eat them as well and I like them!!When my son was in high-school him and a buddy trapped a pile of coons. Sold for $20 a piece, 20 of them. This one fellow bought every one of them.
Have a good one and May God bless y'all
Bo
Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk
We know people from about every race that will eat one form or another of trapped critter. We can't sell them as that would be illegal. (As a meat animal) as I understand it. I know of some white guys from NYC that just love their coon and woodchuck. I could not eat a woodchuck myself, I could not get over the smell and the ticks they have all over them and that was before ticks got bad back in the 90's. My problem with coon would be the worms, I guess it is the same one black bear have, I do not recall the name though I know I know it. I have heard of people eating them that say they are not bad but you would be eating them and every now and again you would get a part that would kind of crunch and be chewy and you know you were eating one of those worms. NO THANK YOU
Sir-diealot, you are absolutely correct!!!! I know the worm you are talking about but I can't think of it either. Squirrel in the south can get them. That's why I don't hunt them until after our first frost. Cold weather will get rid of them. We always called them "Wolves". Some type of parasite.
I am thankful that I live in a free part of Our Great Country. I could not imagine living in New York or California.
Have a good one
Bo
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Quote from: runngun on January 31, 2023, 09:10:48 PM
Only thing I ain't eating is a possum. Draw the line there.
I hear they taste just like ticks.
LoL 409, that's a good one delivered at the right moment.
Squirrels get warbles. Bears can have a worm that causes trichinosis, same as pork. Cook your meat well and avoid.
I will admit, when I shoot a squirrel with a warble I chuck it.
Quote from: runngun on January 31, 2023, 09:32:13 PM
Sir-diealot, you are absolutely correct!!!! I know the worm you are talking about but I can't think of it either. Squirrel in the south can get them. That's why I don't hunt them until after our first frost. Cold weather will get rid of them. We always called them "Wolves". Some type of parasite.
I am thankful that I live in a free part of Our Great Country. I could not imagine living in New York or California.
Have a good one
Bo
Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk
I have been in many states and will tell you New York is one of the most beautiful, our government absolutely sucks though. I dream of a day that NYC becomes it's own state and "Upstate" can govern itself.
Quote from: WV Flopper on January 31, 2023, 09:43:12 PM
LoL 409, that's a good one delivered at the right moment.
Squirrels get warbles. Bears can have a worm that causes trichinosis, same as pork. Cook your meat well and avoid.
I will admit, when I shoot a squirrel with a warble I chuck it.
Yes, trichinosis that is it, thank you very much. I hate it when I know something and can't recall it.
Quote from: runngun on January 31, 2023, 09:10:48 PM
Raccoons have a gland in their legs that must be removed. I boil them with seasoning, onions, bell pepper and garlic. Once tender, I put them on a pan with sweet potatoes and bake until Taters are done. Or when they are boiled with crab boil, then put on barbecue grill!!! Only thing I ain't eating is a possum. Draw the line there.
Have a good one,
Bo
Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk
BBQ coon is very good and I 2nd drawing a line with a possum.
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Quote from: Cowboy on January 31, 2023, 10:33:20 PM
Quote from: runngun on January 31, 2023, 09:10:48 PM
Raccoons have a gland in their legs that must be removed. I boil them with seasoning, onions, bell pepper and garlic. Once tender, I put them on a pan with sweet potatoes and bake until Taters are done. Or when they are boiled with crab boil, then put on barbecue grill!!! Only thing I ain't eating is a possum. Draw the line there.
Have a good one,
Bo
Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk
BBQ coon is very good and I 2nd drawing a line with a possum.
Sent from my SM-G990U2 using Tapatalk
I refuse to eat a rat on steroids!!!
Take em to the train station .
The fur market is pretty much extinct. especially for southern fur bearing animals . I used to sell to market ,but trapping is a hobby and second job of its own. I used to sell the meat as well, to some natives that prefer it , but that ship has sailed as well. It took weeks of my time to run trap lines , reset, skin animals , clean the carcasses. It was a pile of work.... And in the end just a few coins for your time. So that aspect of trapping is valueless in todays world . Coon ain't bad to eat when prepared right , but I'm not putting 40 coons in my freezer to eat. It's already full of deer meat, and other stuff . So what robbers get killed by me , get thrown out unless I happen to kill one I want to skin to keep the hide for myself . But, I just don't have the time anymore . If you set traps you are legally obligated to check them, and timely.... And I don't work a job conducive to do that effeciently, and if you can't do it effeciently and effectively what have you gained ... and no trapping a coon is not like conservation groups preach where every penny counts, that ain't how it works.I used to run traps hard for about 14 days every February. The saddest part of this comment is guess what "it won't save your turkeys"......
I know it seems wrong to just leave them in the woods for scavengers to eat, but that is exactly what will happen to them if you don't kill them. It is a natural process and not one we should guilt ourselves over. As stewards of the land we manage what we take, that is our responsibility. Our society has mismanaged the resources and thus we have a surplus that is detrimental to the balance of the ecosystem. I am a Christian man and follow my conscience as strictly as I can. Even Biblically we are told what we can take and the shepherds killed predators. The Bible tells of King David's ability to kill predators. It is when uneducated misguided virtue signalling sociopaths insert their ill-informed conscience into something they have no understanding of that causes a greater crisis. Once they have crashed the plane they go off all puffed up and proud of the wreckage. They claim they stopped terrorist from flying on the plane, but they ignore all the innocent people they harmed. while the wreckage burns, they go on with their life to another self-glorifying crusade having never done one single thing for the actual resource. For the most part they never spend a dime to manage, they are are not stewards they are wreckers and tools of the devil. One other thing, I have never met an anti that professed a belief in God, they think they are God. Sad thing is these people have gained a large voice in the US, Washington is full of them
OK I am done ranting, but I don't apologize. As an old trapper and fur auction grader they put out out of business I do harbor some resentment, but I hate more what it done to nature. Throw those carcasses in the woods and let the ecosystem work as it was designed.
I'm with GosserBat, to the ditch!
Unfortunately they get left for the buzzards!
Eggshell, VERY WELL DONE!!! WISE WORDS!!! AND I THANK YOU FOR THIS.
Have a good one and May God bless, Bo
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I clean them the same way I do wild hogs. Leave them there.
Was a time I never killed something and let it go to waste. But these are different times.
Python, pigs, coyotes and lionfish are destroying the balance of nature. We need to kill them off to give native species a fighting chance. Let 'em lay where I shoot them. I include raccoon's & possum in this.
Don't even want think about what we'll be killing off in 20 years.
from one old trapper to another, thx runngun
Quote from: Crghss on February 03, 2023, 10:03:12 PM
Was a time I never killed something and let it go to waste. But these are different times.
Python, pigs, coyotes and lionfish are destroying the balance of nature. We need to kill them off to give native species a fighting chance. Let 'em lay where I shoot them. I include raccoon's & possum in this.
Don't even want think about what we'll be killing off in 20 years.
the only thing that has affected the balance of nature is us.......
I personally never ate raccoon that I know of. I ate my share of groundhogs in my day and they aren't bad if you get a young one. The older ones seem to be a little tuff.
We have a gun club here that has an annual groundhog feast which people seem to enjoy but alcohol does come into play on their assessment. They shake and bake them and end up pretty good I thought.
Heck with the right BBQ sauce even a flip-flop might taste good! Bon Appetit!
I would give groundhog a thumbs up over the escargot
(Snails) and or Rumaki ( Goose liver rapped in bacon) that I had at some fancy restaurant. There isn't enough alcohol or bacon that could save those two dishes!
When the wife asked, " How do I like the escargot and rumaki hon" my reply was, " I wish I was a dog about now, that way I could lick my butt and get the taste of that escargot and rumaki out of my mouth".
Needless to say the wife wasn't too happy with my assessment!
Quote from: Turkeybutt on February 15, 2023, 02:43:09 AM
" I wish I was a dog about now so I could lick my butt and get the taste of that escargot and rumaki out of my mouth".
Sounds like how I feel eating anything at McDonald's.
I put them in our "bone yard" where all the deer and turkey carcasses go. Over the years it has turned into quite the bone studded patch of woods. The vultures and scavengers make quick work of them.
If you don't have the ability to establish your own bone yard, one could leave them by the side of the road and everyone will assume it was roadkill. The local/county dead critter collector will fetch it or it will be eaten.
:TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny: Im loving this thread!!!
Buddy of mine ran coon dogs and sold his catch for dog food. Don't know if it was commercial or local, but they used to buy all he could bring 'em.
Jim
Quote from: Cut N Run on February 15, 2023, 06:44:16 PM
Buddy of mine ran coon dogs and sold his catch for dog food. Don't know if it was commercial or local, but they used to buy all he could bring 'em.
Jim
X2 on the coon dog approach if you think your conscious might get the better of you. I've raised and hunted hounds for several years now and you are rewarding the dogs with killing the coon while eliminating a predator. It's getting really hard for people to run hounds for any type of game now and I can about guarantee a coon hunter would be glad to help out. If letting someone run their dogs on the property is not an option, then give the trapped coons to someone with dogs. Live coons are the best for training puppies
Not sure what region of the country your in, but those Florida blacks loved coons! I used to sell em when I was in high school for 15-25 bucks cleaned. Plenty of beer and tobacco to go round for the boys from the coon business.