Curious to know why folks are still trapping in middle to southern eastern part of the country. Furs are virtually worthless. I only trap my own farm now for predator control. I totally get the point of keeping a tradition alive but it's one of the hardest jobs in the world with no payback. Curious to know what everyone's motivation is. Own land? Habit? Don't know any better?
I've always trapped to manage my own property.
Trapping an animal is no problem. I'm not efficient in fleshing. If I do the math, after fleshing I'm making 25 cent per hour. Our local sheets is paying 18 bucks an hour for cashier's.

Why does anybody hunt, no money to be made there?

For food.

I hunt for food, not eating coyotes, skunks, etc. Not that hungry yet.

No better time for a guy to start a pelt collection maybe do some some trading for pelts not in their areas so trade with other trappers in other states. Some folk have private markets or end users to deal with if they have a desired types of furs. It’s time to be creative find ways to market what you can.

This is the type of answer that I'm looking for. We have got to get creative. I will not skin a 1.50 coon. My time is more valuable than that.

Keep on trapping and practicing your fur handling. That way when/if fur comes back, you'll be better off.

I have places where if I don't trap them, the landowners will find someone else who will.

The best way to make a million dollars trapping is to start with two million dollars.

Exactly. Where is the motivation to bring young trappers in the mix? As far as if you don't trap land or someone else will, I call BS. Ain't nobody in line to take your spot. Let the predators or rodents take over and they will call you. Then you can charge them. Predator control is the only future for the trapper. Fur market is done.

If you break down what hunting has cost you, its waaaaaay cheaper to just buy food.

Fur will be in high demand. When the intrest rates go uo to where they should be and the lay off start.

Sad but the fur trade has gone the way of the buffalo , never come back to it's glory years again .

Our forefathers came to this country to get away from civilization and the corruption .
This country was the last frontier , and now civilization has destroyed the world .
The closer to civilization you get the more uncivil people become .

Landowners here are willing to pay for predator and beaver removal.

That's the irony of it , still getting paid to remove problem animals .
But tossing them in a burn pile .
GOD gave us animals to use for food, clothing , and beasts of burden , not to be abused , but to benefit our lives .
So now we toss them in the burn pile because animal rights zealots say so .
They don't have any idea what's happening , all they know is their protected little world in an apartment building 100 stories high .
Many have no idea where their food comes from .

Nothing goes to waste really in the wild and population control is good for the species involved so maybe consider that before basing everything on fur values only. Not trapping is impacting other species/people across the Nation so pick your waste but little benefit will come from not trapping as you cannot stockpile critters it just won’t work like that.

Some folks have hobbies they enjoy, but don't profit from them.

Speak for yourself. You certainly do not speak for the Inuit who have one or two rifles and a shotgun and shoot enough food for 4 families a year with a few boxes of ammo.

And you don’t speak for a lot of people here in the states who are further toward that extreme on the spectrum. With the cost of groceries at the store rising as fast as they have been, you would speak for even fewer here recently.

I have been on both sides of the middle on that spectrum. When I was targeting mature bucks with my traditional archery equipment, that venison was VERY expensive. But the past decade I have gone the other way, until the past 4 years I have fired exactly nine .44 mag rounds to kill 8 deer (one deer got a second, found to be unnecessary, second shot). I spent maybe 75 cents a pound on license fees, not much for the bullets, no gas because I no longer run all over chasing bucks, no special clothes, no tree stands, rifle was a gift from a good friend many years ago. Basically I’m just pointing out that just because you or I spend a lot per pound for wild meat at any given point in our lives, it does not have to be that way. If you aren’t buying licenses it can be almost free meat, and with in-state licensing fees it can still be cheap around here.

Even when beaver was worth targeting for fur, people paid me to remove them. Fur trapping is hardly comparable to damage control. Fur trapping does not focus on solving problems, and I have always been getting paid to come in after fur and or hobby trapper to solve a problem that they did not solve. And the problems can easily be tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake, so while…

“GOD gave us animals to use for food, clothing , and beasts of burden , not to be abused , but to benefit our lives .”

…is not untrue, it is also true that GOD gave dominion over the animals. If that animal is flooding your home or farmland, or destroying crops in the summer time, no matter what the value of the pelt or final disposal of carcass looks like, it is not immoral or unreasonable to kill that animal if other options aren’t available. I remember when the fur had a lot more value, and I still got paid to toss a whole bunch of them in the dead pile. Neither the fur value nor the animal zealots had much to do with it then or now.

With all of that said, valuable fur does mean less nuisance work, but the difference is not huge around here.

To the OP. I trap to take the yotes off the calf crop. I shoot the rabbits to eat and keep them off my matoes. As for working for wages, then that is just what you are doing. Working for wages. Stop worrying about dollars per hr. And work for yourself, then you will know what we (Americans) are about. I grew up dirt poor. 9th grade education, Owne (built) my own home bought my own land. 5 kids graduated from colleges 1 a Phd. 3 batchlors 1masters. Not one with even a traffic ticket. They picked up rocks in the field in the spring. I don't even know a farmer that equates his work to dollars per hour. Most see it as margin per acre. What kind of farm are you on?
Case

That's the irony of it , still getting paid to remove problem animals .
But tossing them in a burn pile .
GOD gave us animals to use for food, clothing , and beasts of burden , not to be abused , but to benefit our lives .
So now we toss them in the burn pile because animal rights zealots say so .
They don't have any idea what's happening , all they know is their protected little world in an apartment building 100 stories high .
Many have no idea where their food comes from .
[/quote]

Even when beaver was worth targeting for fur, people paid me to remove them. Fur trapping is hardly comparable to damage control. Fur trapping does not focus on solving problems, and I have always been getting paid to come in after fur and or hobby trapper to solve a problem that they did not solve. And the problems can easily be tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake, so while…

“GOD gave us animals to use for food, clothing , and beasts of burden , not to be abused , but to benefit our lives .”

…is not untrue, it is also true that GOD gave dominion over the animals. If that animal is flooding your home or farmland, or destroying crops in the summer time, no matter what the value of the pelt or final disposal of carcass looks like, it is not immoral or unreasonable to kill that animal if other options aren’t available. I remember when the fur had a lot more value, and I still got paid to toss a whole bunch of them in the dead pile. Neither the fur value nor the animal zealots had much to do with it then or now.

With all of that said, valuable fur does mean less nuisance work, but the difference is not huge around here. [/quote]

Spoken like a true trapper , take advantage as it comes .
Know what you're doing and use it to get your goal .
Being honest , love trapping but when trap and fur thieves , at night ( wonder who is out at night ) took advantage of my efforts , trapping was no longer fun .
What you're talking about is totally different , different times and different circumstances .
Yes animal control is always and has been needed from the beginning of time .
The point is the waste , and you act like killing and tossing is the best way to go .
Never said it wasn't necessary , just the fur was used more than today because of the stupidity of anti's !
Back your profession of a nuisance trapper , I have no problem with that .
I have a problem with the waste , yet the waste isn't just in fur , it's in everything .
Look around you , take a good look , bet you can come up with trash everywhere , and things that used to be salvaged and used , just going into the landfill .
Recycle ? LOL We waste more now than we ever did 50 years ago .
Everything is now disposable .
Everything depends on just how fast we can produce it then trash it .
Nothing today is made to last , it hurts the economy if it it isn't crap after a couple years , and needs replaced .
We live daily on fake money , nothing backs our money any more , except promises .
LOL I truly wish I was born 100 years ago .
I don't want to see what my children are going to face in this world .
Yes we have space exploration , and a lot of conveniences we didn't have 50 or 200 years ago .
But we have forgotten what got us here .
Remember when bottles had a deposit of 2 cents to a nickel ?
LOL As a kid I would search the roadside ditches for them .
Last time I went fishing in Michigan , picked up $ 93 in cans and bottles tossed out everywhere .
It's the thinking and letting emotion control our lives that's destroying us .
There's more trash everywhere than ever before , because everything is throwaway today .
People are totally civilized today , ( don't care about anything but themselves ) think about it .
Think about your history , why was this country formed ? To get away from corrupt civilization .

I trapped because it was fun. Most years I didn't cover expenses. The only exceptions I can think of was in 1978 (or thereabouts) when I went camping for two weeks in SE Ohio to focus on fox, and caught fourteen fifty-dollar reds and five $30 grays. Then there was my last year of Alaska trapping, when I had figured out how to catch marten, and they were worth $100 each.

I miss trapping, even if it is a good way to go broke.

Jim