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Bigmeat
King of Spring
Joined: Wed Apr 20, 2011 11:23 am Posts: 670 Location: Hagerstown, MD
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That time of Year
Turkey week for about the 20th year in a row now found young bro and myself stringing steel. With prices near nonexistent we scaled back but trapping is who we are and what we do. We wanted to do it to keep up the permissions we've gained over the years and to help the turkey and small game and to just enjoy being out there. Ended the run with 17 red fox, 10 coon and around 30 muskrats. No yotes to our surprise this year but did have 3 red doubles which always make for nice pictures. A couple pics from the line. [img] [/img]
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Tue Dec 01, 2015 4:06 pm |
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Neill
King of Spring
Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2004 8:30 pm Posts: 988 Location: Lexington
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Re: That time of Year
Nice job!!! Love all those reds! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that the coyotes stay out of your area. What is that in the back of your first pic? I think you are smart to keep a presence on your permissions. Even though the market is terrible, those reds will sell and at least cover your expenses. I just moved again this summer and would need to get a new line put together. Just couldn't bring myself to go around banging on doors and finding new ground. Probably my least favorite part of trapping.
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Tue Dec 01, 2015 10:22 pm |
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Bigmeat
King of Spring
Joined: Wed Apr 20, 2011 11:23 am Posts: 670 Location: Hagerstown, MD
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Re: That time of Year
That's a deer hunters ground blind in the background of the first pic. We know the coyotes are around but they haven't pushed the foxes out just yet.
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Wed Dec 02, 2015 10:01 am |
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Bird Dog
King of Spring
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2004 4:50 pm Posts: 2650 Location: central Va
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Re: That time of Year
Bigmeat, when the coyote first came it really crashed the red fox in my area. Went from seeing several on about any hunt to nothing. Didn;t seem to impact grays much at all. Now after a couple decades with yotes the reds seem to have adapted and are again plentiful if not overabundant as before. Now seeing a boom in coons too. Seeing more than I recall in many years.
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Wed Dec 02, 2015 12:23 pm |
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Bigmeat
King of Spring
Joined: Wed Apr 20, 2011 11:23 am Posts: 670 Location: Hagerstown, MD
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Re: That time of Year
It'll be interesting to see how it plays out over time. We caught our first about 8 years ago but they were around long before that. First sightings probably came in the late 80's early 90's. Now it's nothing to hear them howling at night or to catch one on a trail camera. I am just east of I81 in MD and trap farms along side of Ron Leggett who used to catch over 1,000 fox with his dad just 15 years ago. He catches more and more yotes every year and his fox numbers have slid so I've been told. I'm not sure how long it took the yotes to push fox out in other areas of the country but we're pushing 30 years already of having yotes around and we still have plenty of fox. Maybe this small area of the world has just the right habitat to allow both to coexist in decent numbers. And yes, I saw more coon killed on the roads this fall than any other i can ever remember. If they were worth something we could have easily tripled our numbers on them suckers. Didn't put forth any coon effort because of the down coon market.
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Thu Dec 03, 2015 10:39 am |
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Coalman
King of Spring
Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:09 pm Posts: 1305 Location: Seacoast NH
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Re: That time of Year
Brings back a lot of memories.
Thanks for sharing.
_________________ Keeper of the Mountain Province Division Tenth Legion
Your eye in the Northeast sky Coalman's Online Blog http://coalmansblog.com
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Fri Dec 04, 2015 5:32 pm |
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Vic
King of Spring
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 7:40 am Posts: 2706 Location: Baltimore, MD
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Re: That time of Year
Very nice. I like that area east of 81. My wife grew up on South Mountain towards Middletown. Are you near Boonsboro or parts north? I have bought a few traps just to play a bit. We have yotes coming out big time on Aberdeen. Would like to knock a few of them off. I hope they open hunting them too.
Why are fur prices down so much, the trade embargo with Russia? Nice catch.
Vic
_________________ Vic
Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!
-Pericles (430 B.C.)
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Mon Dec 07, 2015 2:05 pm |
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Bigmeat
King of Spring
Joined: Wed Apr 20, 2011 11:23 am Posts: 670 Location: Hagerstown, MD
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Re: That time of Year
I'm just outside of Boonsboro, between there and Funkstown. The Russian economy being in the tank is the main reason coons are worthless. China had some import problems and their economy is slow as well. Fur is a luxury item they say so when it's between a new fur coat and food for the table I suppose hunger wins out. Lotta factors I suppose just combine to make it bad. Old timers say it happens every 30 years or so.
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Wed Dec 09, 2015 10:31 am |
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Wild Bill
2 Year Old
Joined: Mon Feb 17, 2020 4:02 pm Posts: 75
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Re: That time of Year
nice pictures uncle
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Tue Feb 18, 2020 6:55 pm |
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