|
Author
|
Topic: Season sucked, best prices ever
|
Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
|
posted February 10, 2019 05:48 PM
Sold what I expect to be my last hides of the year today. Three coyotes and a 'cat we got last weekend. Only had time to skin 'em and wash 'em (the coyotes) and blow the blood out of them. Earlier batch of 18 coyotes sold 15 for $45 each and 3 at $20 each. These three fetched $50 each for the pair I got as a double, and $45 for the single because it had a fist sized hole between the shoulder blades that I didn't repair because I didn't flesh them.
Overall, this season just plain sucked. We currently have 46 dead, which is about 40 under our average, and only 21 of those were sellable due to mange. Other guys I spoke with were worse - one crew just hit 70 and only sold 9. Kansas and the mid-part of the country have been in a drought for the past several years. We have had several decent snows this season and multiple heavy rain events to where the mud is so bad you can't even access a lot of our normal country. I took ten days in January to hunt and the weather was chamber of commerce perfect. No rain. Great temps. Nothing dried at all because the water saturating the soil profile just kept percolating to the surface. Six days into that week, I was lying on a side hill calling and my left elbow got soaked. Looked down and all around me, a steady stream of water was coming out of the soil and running down the hill. That water was maybe 1/16" deep but everywhere around me. Never seen anything like it. This past night, we had a system pass through. At 9 pm, after about three hours of freezing rain and ice glazing the streets, it started to sleet 1/4-3/8 inch diameter balls of ice for about an hour. Right in the middle of all this, there was a pretty impressive episode of thunder snow with huge booming flashed of cloud to cloud lightning. To the south of us just below the front line, SE KS and NW MO had tornado warnings while it was only 35-degrees.
I fear this Spring. Rivers and reservoirs across the state have never gotten down to normal levels. Gonna be a lot of flooding, I'm betting. That means rain, which means storms, which means tornadoes. Didn't have a tornado close to me until about 10 years ago. Have had three in that time. Hoping my luck isn't running out. I guess if it does, y'all can say that I predicted it here first. LOL
For those who got out this season, I hope you took advantage of the great prices on coyotes. Buyer today said he felt that Kansas' weather shorted us due to access problems and that next year's prices will likely be as good or better. Fingers crossed.
--------------------
I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
ATexan
Knows what it's all about
Member # 6799
|
posted February 11, 2019 07:17 AM
Sorry to hear about your less than average season. Down here in the tx panhandle mange is really starting to take a hold. Coyotes I killed in the early winter were full of fur, nice pelts. Now fast forward a few months, everyone one I see or shoot is ate up with mange. We have had no rain or snow in quite a long time. Seems like everyone around my area is having a cold wet winter while its just windy here at home. Send some of that weather my way.
I don't sell pelts so the price aspect doesn't affect me. Luckly there are ranchers around my area who pay a nice lump sum for coyote removal. That's hard to beat in the land of pay to hunt(Texas). 100$ a coyote pays for my cost of fuel, food, and ammo. Winning!
Hope spring treats us well. I hate tornados!-tex
Posts: 112 | From: Texas | Registered: Mar 2018
| IP: Logged
|
|
Eddie
Knows what it's all about
Member # 4324
|
posted February 12, 2019 05:27 AM
Mange is coming back in NE OK. Shot one at the frist of January already losing hair. Called one in a week ago buddy shot it, almost black from lack of hair. Talked to of friend of mind from out in western OK. He said there was a few starting to show up with mange. Coyotes around here have a lot of red in there color most I every got was 25 in the round. Now cats when the price is right can bring good money. My best cat was 360$ but that was 4 years ago.
Our ground is like Cdogs land, no where for the water to go. Everything is full and it's still raining, I bet we got another inch last night. Spring might get alittle wild this year.
Posts: 275 | From: Oklahoma | Registered: Feb 2013
| IP: Logged
|
|
TRnCO
FUTURE HALL OF FAMER
Member # 690
|
posted February 12, 2019 04:56 PM
was another good season for me. Sold 13 more today and as expected this time of year, they didn't avg. what I've been getting all season. Been holding real close to a $40. avg for the season, in the round with a high of $70.
Fewer with mange this season then the last few years.
Fur buyer will make one last trip through in two weeks and that'll wrap up the season for me. If I can get into em decent in the next two weekends I could break 100 for the first time ever. At 88 now.
--------------------
Is it hunting season yet? I hate summer!
Posts: 996 | From: Elizabeth, CO | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
|
posted February 12, 2019 05:06 PM
Impressive! I don't think I ever did a hundred? But there were lots of reasons. Like self imposed, only once a month, new moon and long drives.
Good hunting. El Bee
--------------------
EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
|
posted February 12, 2019 06:16 PM
Five years ago, we got 105. Next year, we took 65. 101 the next. 63 last year, and 46 so far this year. That 105 year was brutal. We were on a mission and my gawd, I was tired and sore and beat to hell from pushing myself. I jokingly said I was going to pen an article on what it takes to hit the century mark, and item number one was a good health insurance plan. If I recall, as soon as the season was over, I had my third knee surgery and Kevin had surgery on something in his shoulder. We put off getting things fixed until we were done killing for the year.
We had pretty much started slowing things down getting ready to call it a season when we got called by a guy who was getting ready to calve. He had 98 cows and 120 first-calf heifers and was overrun by coyotes. He'd taken pretty bad losses the year before and had heard about Kevin and me from area producers. In ten days, we called and killed fourteen coyotes off his section. He caught me at the end of that week, said they'd been dropping 10-15 calves a night, and he was averaging pulling four of them but that he was ecstatic that they hadn't lost a single calf to coyotes that season. (We've killed eleven off his place this year) That week of calling highlighted something that, as I told Kevin, makes our good years even more impressive. The fact that the vast majority of our kills are off the same ten spots. The first time we headed into a place we had just called and scored on the day before, he had the audacity to look at me with a bit of skepticism on his face and told me that he had heard and read from other guys that you should let an area cool off for a week or so after you make a kill. I told him that I played by a different set of rules than those other guys and that he would do well to ignore them. He has since learned that he just needs to go along with me and it'll be alright. That's why he was averaging 10 coyotes a season before we met to averaging 80+ a season now. LOL A good partner is worth their weight in gold. A good partner, and the standard set by this bunch of curmudgeons. When I first joined in here, Huber or someone said a decent caller should be able to kill half the coyotes he calls. Later, he amended that to say 3 out of 4. This season, we've killed right at 85% of the coyotes we called just by being patient, selecting the best shot opportunity, and working the coyotes into good kill zones. Those numbers might sound like bullshit to most of you, but I'll swear on my mama's grave they're true. Each of us got an unassisted triple, and God only knows how many doubles were in there. We've spent enough time on stand together now that it's like we're married or something. No need to think about what the other guy's gonna do. My wife calls Kevin "my other wife".
Go get'em TR. It's a great goal to go after.
[ February 12, 2019, 06:25 PM: Message edited by: Cdog911 ]
--------------------
I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
|
posted February 12, 2019 06:48 PM
Well, there are a lot of reasons for all those stats. If everything that comes in is singles, that pads the averages. Anyway, sounds good, Lance.
But, I can't fathom ten places, locations for stands, if I understand correctly? Damn, I've probably made a stand in the same place, like a particular water hole but I can't think of many. It's all random, what looks good, maybe yes, maybe no but I couldn't begin to list ten places where I have called habitually, more likely same place, different seasons.
I know a guy that used to have a favorite spot and usually killed 4 or 5 and he hung them because that was the habit 40-50 years ago, meant as a deterrent, a warning to coyotes....if you can believe that crap?
I guess it's a difference between farm country and open range? I never felt comfortable calling cows. You never know if they are going to run off or approach, intending to kick ass or something? With horses, no doubt, they are intending to kick ass.
Good hunting. El bee
--------------------
EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
