This is topic Coyote fur prices and numbers in forum Member forum at The New Huntmastersbbs!.
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Posted by Z (Member # 303) on February 07, 2004, 07:46 AM:
This is a follow-up to my first post a couple of days ago on Cal Taylor's thread "Wyoming Cats". My two farmer friends that I hunted with in Northern Montana at Christmas time took the furs into Fort Benton yesterday. They averaged in the low $30s. We didn't have any really big dogs to turn in. Don Judkins says they have the best pelts of all the coyotes he sees. Pale hides and long guard hair. The reason being they don't spend much time in the brush breaking guard hairs off. These northern coyotes mainly run wheat stubble strips for mice and rabbits. Someone mentioned on Cal's thread that they were really slaughtering them on snowmobiles in Northern Montana. Well, I found out that was correct. The eastern and northern half of Montana has gotten a lot of snow this year after many years of drought. In some places 40 to 60 inches. And this isn't in the mountains, but on the prairies. The snowmobilers haven't been able to get at them very well for the last few years, but this year the are getting truckloads. While my friends were talking to Don Judkins two local Fort Benton men had just dropped off 430 coyotes that they had taken on snomobiles. One guy they talked to had called in 16 one day and he got 8. He had 10 come into one stand and they got 2. The snow is so deep that the coyotes can't get away if they get caught in the open. One area where we had called when I was up there was a creek drainage that ran for miles. We didn't get any coyotes from a couple of those stands. Well, my farmer friends found out that a trapper had worked that drainage and got 45 coyotes out of it. One trapper they talked to had trapped 13 bobcats. He kept 5 and let 8 females go for seed. They said by the looks of his arms he paid for it. The guy went back east for a couple of weeks to visit relatives and let 2 friends run his trapline for him. They caught and kept 7 females. So much for leaving seed. His best cat was worth $400.
I would have a hard time running coyotes on a snow machine. I think they are really taking a chunk out of the population. One good thing about where I hunted up there is that they didn't get as much snow as the big storms missed the area and there are no snowmobilers out hitting the area. However, they did get enough snow after I left that they can't get around all the places we called because of drifts. So, the coyote population up there is really getting hammered. But you can never kill off ol' wiley coyotee. I hope the price never gets above $30 as it keeps the airplanes and helicopters out of the air as it costs them too much to fly for only $30 a pelt. If you hunt them for fun $30 can pay for the gas you spent hunting. Good enough for me.
See Leonard, I told you I was long-winded.
Cal, if you're out there, where in Northern Wyoming are you from? All my relatives are from the Big Horn Basin.
Posted by Rob (Member # 75) on February 07, 2004, 09:41 AM:
I had taken some coyotes up to Pacific Hide and Fur in Great Falls,MT when Don was the head fur buyer,I didn't like the grade Don gave my coyotes and I told him so,he didn't say a word just layed some Hi-Line coyotes next to mine,I felt about an inch tall. My coyotes came from the SW corner of the state.
Posted by Z (Member # 303) on February 07, 2004, 11:01 AM:
Rob,
When I used to live in Great Falls years ago I went home to the eastern part of the state for christmas one year and shot a big ol' dog coyote about 7 miles from the Canadian line. He looked so good that I decided to have him tanned. I skinned him and took him into Pacific Hide and Fur when I got back to Great Falls. When I got the coyote back 6 months later the belly was gone. I asked them what happened to the belly. He said "did you tell them to leave the belly on"?
I said "no I expected to get back what I sent". Pacific sent the hide to the big tannery in San Francisco. He asked "did it have a white belly"?
I said "yes, it was pure white". He said they probably cut it out and then they shave the hair down real short and dye it like a leopard skin. Don't know if that is true, but that coyote would have been worth at least $100 or more back then.
Posted by Rob (Member # 75) on February 07, 2004, 12:13 PM:
Z I tell my wife all the time that when it's time to retire that I want to move to Havre,she just rolls her eyes,she thinks I'm crazy.I love the High-Line.
Posted by Z (Member # 303) on February 07, 2004, 04:06 PM:
Rob, I think Clancy is a nice place to live. In fact when I drove to Great Falls at Christmas time all the way from the Boulder hill into Helena I kept looking at places along the way and thinking how great it would be to live there. You can take the boy out of Montana, but you can't take Montana out of the boy.
Posted by Rob (Member # 75) on February 07, 2004, 05:38 PM:
Z I'm 51 and I can remember when it was two lane highway from Butte to Great Falls.The older I get the further in the boonies I want to live.You know your over the hill when you start soundin like your dad.
Posted by Jack Roberts (Member # 13) on February 07, 2004, 06:47 PM:
You can't legally hunt from the air unless you are doing it for some government agency. Big Federal fines and you will loose all your pilot licenses. They can even confiscate the airplane.
Jack
Posted by Z (Member # 303) on February 07, 2004, 07:42 PM:
Rob,
53 here and counting. Now we know why our dads were the way they were.
Jack,
Haven't paid attention to airplane laws and since the prices have been so low it wasn't worth it to hunt them they haven't been out. When did the federal law take effect.
[ February 07, 2004, 07:43 PM: Message edited by: Z ]
Posted by Cal Taylor (Member # 199) on February 07, 2004, 07:44 PM:
Sorry Jack,
Not true. You do have to have a permit from the state in Wyoming, but once you have that you can hunt from the air. I know it's the same in South Dakota and I assume Montana. Private land rules still apply. You can't hunt someones private land without permission. This only applies to predators. Coyotes and red fox here. No cats or furbearers.
Posted by Jack Roberts (Member # 13) on February 07, 2004, 10:13 PM:
Cal
Is true!
A permit is authorization from a government agency. How easy or how hard that is to come by is a state or local thing.
There are very strict Federal laws against any aerial hunting unless authorized by a government agency.
If you jump through all the hoops, most anything is possible. You can have machine guns, silencers, WMDs, even launch a rocket above 60,000 feet.
Jack
Posted by Az-Hunter (Member # 17) on February 07, 2004, 10:31 PM:
I believe the Arizona fur auction was this weekend up in Globe? Any of you guys know what coyotes,cats and fox were averaging this year? Tim usually attends the festivities, you go up this year Mr.Behle? Fill us in. I swore I was going to skin all I shot this year, but failed miserably in that promise:) Was just wondering if the prices were high enough that I should feel guilty, or low enough that Im vindicated in my wonton waste.
Posted by Tim Behle (Member # 209) on February 08, 2004, 04:45 AM:
I guess we are both guilty, the only thing I skinned was this bobcat, and I'm waiting on the Game Warden to come tag it so I can ship it to an auction.
Posted by Norm (Member # 240) on February 08, 2004, 06:47 AM:
The AZ fur auction was this weekend.
Took a novice out calling... have a few in the freezer to take care of... going to get them tanned versus selling them....
I am assuming that coyotes went for $50; bobcats $150; Fox with straight cut tails were $30, otherwise $15;
If I hear any actuals, I'll be sure to post them
Posted by Cal Taylor (Member # 199) on February 08, 2004, 07:55 AM:
Well Jack, I guess we're both right, but you said in your first statement that you couldn't hunt from the air unless you did it "for" a government agency. I assumed that meant you had to be working "for" them. I know that there are several planes in the states around here that are permitted to fly and hunt that don't work "for" anyone but the privately owned ranches that hire them and for the fur. I used to gun for a couple different planes, but my pilots kept getting killed and I got old, married and had kids. Now I just stay on the ground. But I do go help some guys once in a while, I locate coyotes, pick up dead ones, and take my dogs to follow and clean up wounded ones. I'm headed out the door this morning to go with a government employee for a couple days and as soon as the snow stops I'm sure he'll have a plane in the air. So I'll be ground crew. Looks to be fun for a day or two.
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