How I did on beaver this season ($$$)

Some of us are interested in this kind of thing so thought I would share:

I sold 299 beaver in the 2024 season. They were sold at the Glenn's Ferry ITA sale and the two OTC sales in Oregon. After commissions were taken out my overall avg was $34.80 per pelt. When I add in castor, oil sacs and oil, and 50 raw skulls sold at the ITA sale add another avg of $7.93 per beaver.

So all in all (with 90 ozs of #2 castor still unsold at FHA) my net beaver avg for 2024 was $42.73

Unfortunately, I didn't have a market this season for beaver carcasses so they were used to some small extent for cat trapping or were composted for my garden. I sold the 5 cats caught off of beaver carcasses for a net $815 ($163 avg).

STUD!

So, just over 38 cents per hour for labor?

All and all I took in $14,500 from mid December to March 23rd. A lot of down time with the weather this year. For water critters I only had 32 checks. I did spend a lot on gas as I trapped in 5 different counties.

Assume all beaver stretched and dried......

That's the only game in town for us out west.

Nice

Congratulations

How much did you deduct for taxes?

BP on those 32 cks you must have got a few otter and 'rats too. So that might add on to the 14.5K? Either way you cut it a lot of work and money well earned.

It takes a good work ethic to put up numbers like that. Congrats on your reward for your hard work.

Awful nice job BP.

That is a great season, congratulations!

Great job. Thanks for sharing
Mac

That’s kicking tail!
Great job getting all the niche markets hit.
The only thing I throw away on a beaver is the intestines lol
I don’t sell very many carcasses, but I’ve got 7 hunting dogs that eat beaver almost 1/2 the year exclusively.
Saves me several dollars in feed, and they thrive on it.
I didn’t hit $40 BP, but it was close with everything figured in, but I got paid WAY more than $40 each to catch’em lol

Good job BP. I averaged $33 on plews. Still have the tails, raw skulls and castors. Butchered up about twenty of them and tossed the rest of the carcasses. All in all I was happy. My last three weeks I trapped the fur went downhill. Lots of bites on some and quite a few flat pelts. All my fur is always put up. Don't know anyone but Groeny that would buy green. I like putting up fur anyway, it's very therapeutic for me. I don't trap for money, but it is nice to make something more than just gas money. I trapped out places I was saving for a couple years and did mostly flooded farm land. Was the first year I had competition around in a long time and all three places they were trespassing. Good year for beaver for me. This year I also ran a very small weekend line with my great granddaughter Miss Aalaiya. Probably the most enjoyable trapping I've ever done. At eight years old I'm blessed to have her involved.

I only caught 1 rat all season but the figure mentioned was everything, which included 15-20 nutria and 8 otters. I averaged $79 on otters and I think $14 on nutria (sold some taxi and others with tail-on).

The big otter prices were mainly I think a peeing contest between a couple of buyers.

Thanks for the kind words Paul. That means a lot coming from a man of your stature in the trapping community.

My Schedule C for trapping this season will have to be dealt with April of 2025. I always do report so that is one of the reasons you don't see me being timid about talking about what I make trapping.

Great haul BP!

Anyone that has captured more than a few beavs knows the work that was involved in what you did.

Good job Clay! I've sold a lot of different things off of beaver...including one year I even sold a bunch of beaver beetles to an outfit that sells preserved insect specimens for scientific collections!

I'm sure the government appreciates that!

Yes, very true. Some years when i've done much bigger numbers than this one I had help in the fur shed.... but not the last few years. Last helper I had passed away a few years back.

Now that’s squeezing every dollar out of your product good job!

Nice !!!

Well done!

Thought you said you were close to the lottery jackpot of a billion plus

Don't forget he has expenses to claim.( Gas,,boots,,,plywood ,,push pins ,,gloves,,heat for shed,,traps,,dye ,,wax just to name a few)

BP, way to go, my math comes up to $1115 per week gross. You sure ain’t afraid of hard work.

Well done BP.

I don't like hard work.... so I just pretend I'm having fun!

Awesome job BP! Something to definitely be proud of. Lots of hard work.

Well, done young man! Well deserved! I enjoy the break down.
Mnratman

How much did you spend on Advil ?

Beaverpeeler, when's the book coming out? And I'm serious Your gig economy of various things gets you through. Party on!!

And traveling through those 5 different counties checking beaver sets.....how many people did you see wearing ..build back better hats ?

That’s wicked! I averaged $28 but 2/3rds were late caught. Plus castor. Hoping to sell a few tails this weekend for 3-5 bucks a piece.
Should have a nice average next sale. All prime and even the kits put on good weight over winter.

that's, some great work ethics , thanks for sharing

Nice season

You're superhuman. Really enjoyed following the thread all year. Congrats!

Thanks for all the nice comments. Wasn't really trying to say: "look what I done", but just thought to share some money numbers on how it went. I know I always appreciate hearing that kind of stuff as it helps me figure out how what I do compares to other's results. Or even gives me an idea how to do better. And can be enlightening to what is going on in different parts of the country with the market.

Probably just him, lol.

you got it going on bp!

I wish I had half the gumption you have. That's a lot of fur and a lot of hard work, but I bet you had a lot of fun doing it. It is good seeing a guy cash a good fur check nowadays, that's a pretty rare thing today!

How long does it take you to put up a good sized beaver?

Can I ask why you didn't ship any pelts to Fha?

To bad about your castor not selling, Fha have been struggling to sell castor the last two years.

I will add, the fur handling is the best, with awards well deserved.

299? Id not even post stuff like this if i hadn't got to 300, what kind of slacker are you? lol

Shoulder surgery: 55k
Carpel Tunnel surgery: 32,569.12
Back surgery: 67,902.14
Back surgery #2 to fix back surgery #1: 100,567.09
Hernia Surgery: 54,390.12

I won't even get into the worn out knee's, elbows and all that, hahaha

Glad you finally got some decent money off them water rats, only thing easy is setting the trap out, after that it's all a struggle.

Cant image much of that 14.5k isnt deducted with that kind of work and mileage put in. Mileage at .655 is a good one.......more I learn about schedule C and F in my case - more I appreciate hard work and private business owners that keep this county going.

Wow! Great job!

If I done what you done I’d sure as heck be posting a “look what I done”.

I got worn out just thinking about those numbers and the work it took to get them to auction. Awesome job!!

Can't afford to ship beaver and we don't have an agent in our area since George Brady passed away. BTW, 90 oz of #1 and 7 oz of #3 castor @ $60 and $30 respectively did sell on this last auction.

I'm a clean skinner, so the skinning part after I got in a groove was taking on average 20-25 minutes (including castor and oil sac removal) and on the put up I was averaging 20 minutes per beaver. My top day I put up 34 trying to get them ready on time for a sale. (Put up on a Wednesday and sold that Saturday).

Amazing and congrats.
I can't imagine that many put ups. I did 77 this year and my hands and wrist show it. 4 times that would lead me to drinking way more then now.

Since I don't have to jump around avoiding water moccasin bites I don't have any of the above mentioned ailments!

BTW, would have had 300 put up beaver ....but gave a kit to a ride-along I had this year since he was hankering to try some beaver meat. Never heard from him again so I assume he choked on it.

It is too bad trappers can't income average for tax purposes. All those lean years.

They are all lean years.

I'm sure $10 rats were not lean years.

Ten dollar rats are better than two dollar rats but in reality still less than half of where they should be.

So when you sell in a state association auction what percent of the commission goes to that association ? When you sell to FHA where does your commission go for use ? How many furs or castor do you still have waiting to be sold at state associations ? Can you ship tails and raw skulls to FHA ? What is the difference in the time that you are paid for your skins at state associations vs. FHA ? How long before do you have to have your furs at the state association sales before they are sold ? FHA?

Speculation does not necessarily enhance the market.

Even when rats averaged 14-16 about 12 years ago, most trappers were going backwards financially unless paid to trap. Rat prices were artificially high then. Ten would be better than the 2-3 market now. However, wouldn’t change cost to produce and value on time.

Every place and trapper has a different cost to produce a rat. It probably varies from year to year depending...........

When rats were 12 bucks as averages . What in 2012 or so there was nothing lean about it. Today 12 isn’t a lot.Guys were catching a thousand or better in many cases in the upper Midwest that was good wages.

I figure that every beaver I caught this season cost me about $15-$20.

Well done BP.

I won’t have a clue where I’ll compare after my castor debacle. I will say I spent very little on expenses this year. Every beaver and nearly every critter I caught this year was no more than 15 miles from between my work and home. Most less than 5 miles. And never broke out the boat. All done by kayak.

Good job Beaver Peeler, and congratulations for a fine season.

Since I don't have to jump around avoiding water moccasin bites I don't have any of the above mentioned ailments!

BTW, would have had 300 put up beaver ....but gave a kit to a ride-along I had this year since he was hankering to try some beaver meat. Never heard from him again so I assume he choked on it.

I imagine if i spent a day with you whether you gave me a free beaver or not you wouldn't ever see me again either, lol.

I remember in the early 80's 'rats were around 8-10 bucks, 8 or 10 bucks back then would be like 50 bucks now!

Always enjoy your trapping posts. Thanks for sharing with us.

Thanks Dan, and you're welcome!

Was it not last year the outboards were breaking down weekly

interesting that 50% castor break-down
after looking at some of the pictures of them you have posted, leans to a hard grade

So next years weight lifting sessions are still in the works?

You have a good memory North. This year I actually spent a fair amount of money trying to get all my equipment ready for the season and fared better... except for a $2800 walk-in freezer break down.

I did think they had a hard grade on the castor. Also I was shocked that none made western select. Being lighter colored I figured they were a shoe-in for that grade.

I farm during the off season so I get all the exercise I need... and then some.

When the going gets tough the tough get going
And the wimps quit,lol

Hat's off to you, that is a lot of work.

Well then, it's official, i'm a slacker..

I think a lot of guys got manipulated into shipping their castor by the late October update from Fha

CASTOREUM UPDATE - OCTOBER 2023
Over the past few weeks we have received several new customers calling and placing
orders for castoreum. This is good news and we are confident that prices on all three
grades will improve in 2024.


They have had a hard time selling the #2 grade the last 3 years.
We the surge in beaver trapping I doubt the castor market will see any improvement.

Congraulations on your beaver harvest that is a huge accomplishment.

Looks like castor market took a significant fall in price this past week. The buyer I’ve been selling to said maybe be a good idea to hold em for now.

Castor grader looked at your point of origin on the label and pigeonholed your grade.
An experience grader would have done a sniff grade on light coloured castor then graded the order.
Are the feed trees on the river of the genus populus or salix to give that odor needed.?
maybe the western grade order was already filled and things slide
that extra $ 400 would have been nice

sounds like a compressor blew and a total re-charge was needed
was there any power surges within a week before of this happening ? power companies have records of these and compensate, or was it a beaver dropping a tree over the line and creating a brown out ( if so these is an omen spirit)

Good job

All things considered, I think ya done real good PB.

I was getting $8 a rat,$10 for blacks.And money from one rat would pay for my gas for the days entire line check.I always said rats are my potatoes (pay all my expenses).Money from all them high dollar canines,,beaver,,mink and coons is the gravy.That was back then of course.

Enjoyed t reading this Peeler!!

Congratulations. I wish you could get those carcasses out this way, the bear hunters would sure buy them.

You're good North! Exactly right, blown compressor and since it was only 4 years old the tech figured it was likely a power surge.

As far as the castor goes it was Willamette river stuff where the predominate forage is cottonwood in the winter months. Cottonwood equals light colored creamy yellow castor.

Yes, the update did factor in to my willingness to take another chance going the FHA route. New since the last time I shipped 20-25 years ago was the "western select" grade which I figured my stuff would grade a high % into. At any rate I went into eyes wide open and was willing to take a small amount of castor to find out. The other thing was I didn't know castor was going to hit $40 in the association sales. (I'd been hearing low 20's to mid 30's). If I'd known that I likely would have opted to sell it all at the association sales.

All this talk of good profits and great fur prices "back in the good old days" has me reminiscing. I know I have had what I consider exceptionally profitable (for me) days on the trapline, over the last few fur booms. That made me curious as to how much profit is considered "a good or great day" to other trappers. I think I can pinpoint what was most likely my most lucrative day ever, out of all my decades of trapping. It definitely wasn't my best single day catch for quantities on fur bearers, just a good numbers day, during a HIGH prices year. Does anyone else remember some of their "great days" total values, past or present, and care to share??

For me my best years were while I was in College and nutria were averaging $12-13. If only I had the equipment and know how back then that I do now! My gold standard back then (late 70's early 80's) was $100 a day.

Would I be guessing correctly that among your best days were just before the Dalai Lama said he was embarrassed to see his people sporting otter prayer shawls?

I'm actually mostly a marten trapper, but the end of the widespread use of otter fur in Tibet did hurt a bit.
I've been fortunate to live in an area of high abundance for a few higher value species....
My best single day for profit, actually came well after the demise of the Tibet otter market. I haven't tried figuring in adjusting for inflation back to the fur boom days in the 1980's, since that would require to much higher math!!
When you figure in inflation, some of those days in that boom were pretty good too!!

Then the power company will have to compensate and they will have the records. Hopefully you have the compressor (= 15 pounds of Cu@ 5$ pound) if they want to see it. Surge or brown out and over heating

My best days were when rats boomed in 2011 or 12 and averages were over 12$ = $ 1000.00 days for 14 days

Where I am,on a multi species line with marten avg around $100 like they are now and around 80 boxes out and with other fur prices climbing,check days on one Rtl should be $800 to $1200 in normal pop years.Operating 3 RTLs you would run each twice a week on avg.
Some do more lines on longer checks and others less.
I only run two RTLs now and not many traps and run each once a week in winter.
main thing is keeping expenses down by not checking empty traps.
Lots of different types of traplines,single species,multi species,long duration,short duration long lines,short lines Beaver lines and high ground lines
multi season acess and winter only acess and on and on.

[/quote]
Then the power company will have to compensate and they will have the records. Hopefully you have the compressor (= 15 pounds of Cu@ 5$ pound) if they want to see it. Surge or brown out and over heating

My best days were when rats boomed in 2011 or 12 and averages were over 12$ = $ 1000.00 days for 14 days[/quote]

Those high price rat years were fun. I have no rats anywhere near me, but was still trapping the interior of the state in the Fall, back then, and made a few days excursion just to trap some of those high dollar rats. Fun days of camping, canoeing, trapping, shooting rats, and skinning around the camp fire. I even made a few bucks too

It sounds like you are speaking in Canadian dollars, so now it has turned into a math problem for me!!
I was actually curious more about like epic all time great financially successful days, than the average runs. Maybe I do it wrong, but I'm usually setting or checking traps every day of the main season, that the weather allows me to get out. Do each of your RTL's have a maximum quota for species like marten, lynx, otter, etc??

On marten fisher lynx and beaver baseline quotas only on one of the 3 grounds I manage.Of the other two,one is open quota on Beaver,and the other is open quota on everything.I set my own quotas regardless on all 3 grounds for the keystone species in order not to harm the line by either underharvesting or overharvesting them.
But quotas when in place are specific to each rtl,but no limit on amount of rtls you can trap,except your physical ability.
I used to run many lines on weekly checks when I was younger,never check the same trapline each day.Take one day a week off to skin.
Each line would be checked once every 7 days in winter since all sets are lethal.
I only trap 3 rtls now because of my age.
I produced a lot more fur when I was younger and held down a full time job at the same time, than i do now that i am retired with more time.
I thought I would be able to trap like a maniac once I took my pension from the railroad unfortunately things dont work that way.
I do keep in the fur game though by trapping, tanning,designing and sewing fur articles the latter being much easier,on the old joints and often more lucrative than trapping full bore.

Two or 3 RTLs

You are trapping smarter, not harder!! Aging can be, and is frustrating, but we all might as well enjoy whatever we can still get out and do! I was hoping to hear more stories of high value catch days, just out of curiosity to see how what I considered to be some of my GREAT days, stacked up to others stories of their good old days!

I run two - Driftwood and Agate and trap on the a Native line (Adnac)as a designate,mostly nuisance and in fall.(That is why the beaver quota is open on that one)

Each season there are always one or two days that are extraordinary,I remember a few multispecies days in the 2g + range.10 years ago or so when marten and otter were good and cats and beaver fair.
i am sure you must have had a few 10g+ checksT4E with the amount of fur you have shown on here.
I am just talking about raw fur prices,not the prices realized by value added goods.(Still have many great returns on those) .

T4ever those early spring rat averages 12$usd converted to 16$ Cnd and the rat run days were 100+ animals per day.
Mb coonguy posted here some of his doing some large rat runs in the fall on floats of 2425 in 16 days before a early freeze up $$$$$$
and some guys say floats dont work

Since I don't check traps everyday, they are not really daily catches. I have multiple lines that get checked in order. They also get set in order of freeze up. Freeze up occurs at different times in different areas. It is a slow accumulation of wealth. Weather is always the issue.

P.S, I'm getting too old for this crap!