And so you can see from this spreadsheet that our work involves more than just trapping, it involves record keeping in order to keep all the partners informed and everything above board.  So often I have read stories about how trapping partners of the past have come to odds over things that probably should not have caused them to split up.  By keeping accurate records and making those records known to all the people involved only makes for good relationships.

More than this record, I have created a “Trespass permission slip” to be signed by the land owner involved for the 2014-2015 trapping season and before the summer is out, signatures will be obtained by those land owners for our trapping next year.  Without going to this degree, those land owners can grant permission to the next trapper that comes along and there is nothing you nor I could do about it.  The biggest thing, is to make sure the land owner feels a part of your trapping success and make it easy for them to “sign on the dotted line”.  In the case of our biggest stake holder, is he wanted some raccoons caught as well as the muskrats and we did a pretty good job for him in that regard…not to count the skunks!

Letters to the various land owners have also been generated and will be dispersed, either through personal contact with the land owners, or through the mail.  Those letters usually explain when we started to set traps on their properties, when we stopped trapping and how many animals we caught.  Also, side notes as to the condition of their property and whether you feel your trapping services are needed or not.  If you feel your services are still needed, make certain to include in your mailing (or in person) an easy to sign trespass permission slip, dated for the next trapping season and include a self addressed stamped envelope.

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2014 MUSKRAT TRAPPING REPORT FOR 41 DUCK CLUB

Thank you once again for allowing me to trap on your great club properties.

My muskrat trapping season began on February 10 this year as the ice was beginning to move away from the heads of the Springs. Both my brother Bob and I had high hopes that this would be a record breaking year for catching rats. However, as the season progressed we found out otherwise. Other trappers in the area were finding out the same thing on their lines.

As it turned out, Spring came early in the swamps.

My normal routine for muskrat trapping is to start on Pete Holmgrens properties and then move out to the Promontory area where I end the season. This year brought a change as Richard Nicholas was holding his bulls in another area while I had time to trap the small seep that crosses through where he usually keeps them. I decided that while I was out on the Promontory mountain I’d trap Steve Peterson’s and the pond at Doris Larson’s. While there, Mr. Nicholas secured my trespass on the property adjacent to Doris’ on the South. The water from Doris’s pond runs down through his place and holds rats that come up stream to populate the pond.

Catch rates for the past few years have been like this:

Doris’ pond: 2013 = 1 rat, 2014 = 12 rats

Adjacent property to Doris’: 2014 = 12 rats

Richard Nicholas place: 2014 = 53 rats

Stephen Peterson’s: 2012 = 29 rats, 2013 = 106 rats, 2014 = 24 rats

The large expanse of Club 41 was a complete surprise. My catch for this area was very low. Historically: 2012 = 139 rats

2013 = 194 rats (with a helper)

2014 = 24 rats

It’s very understandable the downward direction of the catch on Mr. Peterson’s place as it is an isolated spring with little or no rats moving in from other areas. Catching all the rats out of there is totally possible. As is the area where Richard Nicholas keeps his bulls.

Doris’ pond and the downstream area will always have rats coming up from the GLS and the springs found in close proximity.

However, your Club properties have changed so much in the past couple of years what with my catching as many rats as I have, you draining the larger ponds and the fact that there is little for the rats to eat, the problem with rats that you have had is now a thing of the past. I have said all along you can never get rid of all the muskrats, but you can control the population and this is where your club is today.

I can still see a need to trap Mr. Nicholas’ place, at least one more season and of course Doris’ pond should always have traps placed on it to control those little diggers.

As for the rest of your property and Mr. Peterson’s, I don’t think there is a need for my services on those areas for several years to come.

Please keep my name and number handy in case things change and you feel you need me to come back for more control work.

Again, Thank You very much for the opportunity to trap on your club!

Very Sincerely,

Wynn “Bears Butt” Zundel

145 W. 200 N.

Willard, Ut 84340 435-723-6462 Thezundels1974@yahoo.com

P.S.

Check out my website. www.bearsbutt.com

Send to: Bob W. Foxley 708 33^rd St. Ogden Ut 84403

Along with the key he sent (2014)

The key points in all of this is to keep all lines of communication open for everyone involved and do it in writing.  Make sure to be business-like in all your dealings with the landowners and at every chance, make sure you pick up debris you find along your trapping routes.  I even like to fix a fence or two while I’m out and about.  It generally only takes a minute with existing materials found at the sight and makes the landowner know you really care.

Bears Butt

March 22, 2014

Just like the lucky rat that got through this trap, we are very fortunate trappers.  We kept a running catch record as we went along on our daily trapping adventures and when we got back to the skinning shed, we each recorded our day’s catch.  The spreadsheet is interesting to look at.  We have to keep track of not only the daily catches, but also the daily/weekly outlay of cash and who paid what to whom.  Bob paid almost all of the pay out in order to keep it as simple as it could be, but it ends up being quite a burden before it’s all over.  He will be paid back (his half) when we finally get a paycheck from the auction house, but until then, he is stuck with the bill.

Here is how things totaled for the season:

Bob  341 rats (46.6%), Bears Butt 372 rats (50.89%) plus 9 raccoons (let’s not talk about the 8 skunks), Brek 3 rats (.4%) plus one raccoon, Weasel 10 rats (1.37%) plus one raccoon and one fox.  We also purchased another trappers rats (5 total, at .68%) and they are included in our total rat catch of 731 rats!  A very good year of trapping for a couple of old guys and a couple of young guys who didn’t have much area to trap.  The mileage on my toy’s speedometer reads 67 miles…that is how much ground I covered while trapping.

Last night we finished putting the remainder of the rats up on stretchers and now it’s just allow them to dry while we wait for the time to meet with the guy who picks up the furs for the auction.  In the background we are hearing from others how a local buyer is going to make Bob and offer of a pretty good sum for our rats, little does he know, we have committed to each other that we are sending them off to the auction and that it would take a heck of an offer to change our minds….a heck of an offer, one he is not going to make.  It will be interesting when he hears about our intentions.

Most of the local trappers are content with “getting the shaft” from the local buyers because it means they get their money right now and don’t have to wait for a few months to get paid for all their work.  That’s OK, we did it for years and years and were happy about it.  I hate the hassle of bargaining with the buyers, it’s the worst thing in the world to me as they just won’t come through with their best and final offer right up front.  They want to get the furs for the lowest price they can and so they hold out until the last minute in some cases, to make an offer worth taking.  By shipping them off, we know exactly what is coming down and when, and then it’s just a waiting game to see what the auction house sends us in the way of a check.  It’s like pulling the handle of a slot machine only you are guaranteed “something” on the pull…will you get the average?  Above average?  Below average?  Whatever it ends up being, I’ll be OK with it.

While we wait, I can now get some much needed work done around the house…the weeds are going nutso!

Bears Butt

March 20, 2014

Trapping and putting up furs doesn’t end at the trap line.  Sure, the trapper has to go out into the field and catch the animals and bring them in, but there is sure a lot more to it then that.  We have pulled all our traps and now have a deadline approaching which makes it very important that we get all the furs we put in the freezer during the season out and thawed, dried, combed, fleshed and stretched and adequately cured and ready for the auction.  Yesterday was a very full day for Bob and I.  We began at 1 p.m. by meeting in the shed.  We had laid out the rats the day before in order to thaw and our first order of business was to make sure they were all separated and that the wet ones were put on the drying rack to further dry.  As is always the case when you take furs out of the freezer, some of them will be dry enough to put up.  We separated them into a big pile while the rest were laid out on the drying rack or otherwise put where they could dry both on the front and the back of the fur.  The pile we ended up with that were dry enough to put up was a pretty big pile.

Without counting them we knew we had about 150 that we took out of the freezer and so we knew that we had to take down about 150 from the overhead in the shed.  “Taking Down” means, removing some of the dried skins from the hangers and bagging them up.  We decided to take down 200 and bag them in lots of 50 per bag.  They are ready for the auction and for storage purposes, we put them in a large chest freezer for safe keeping.  That freed up hanger space for rats to come down off the stretchers and go on the hangers.  The hangers allow the skins to cure a little longer….not that they need it, but why not allow them more time, right?

Our next big decision was how many of the hides on the stretchers should we take down and put on the hangers?  We decided we needed enough space for the pile of rats that were dried and ready to be fleshed and stretched and we made a wild guess of about 75 or so were in that pile.  So, we took down 100 stretchers and put those hides on the hangers.

These things take time to accomplish and it was after 3 p.m. by the time we began to brush out the hides laying there on the floor.  We did what we could in our old and slow way and had about 25 put up on stretchers and beginning the curing process when Weasel arrived…it was right at 4 p.m.  With his help, the pile of dry rats soon became a pile of hides turned inside out and waiting to be fleshed…my job.

Fleshing the way I do it doesn’t take a lot of time, but it sure does make my back ache.  I bend over a fleshing board to get the job done and even though I’ve tried other methods, I always come back to the one I think gets the job done better.  It was about 6 p.m. when the last of the dry and brushed hides went up on the drying line overhead.  A long 5 hour day in the shed for Bob and I.

If it wasn’t for Weasels’ help we would have been in there a couple more hours!

Well, today’s schedule is almost the same, except with Weasel willing to help again, we are not meeting in the shed until 4 p.m. to put up the remaining hides.  Again, it will require taking down about 100 from the stretchers and putting them on hangers, but we estimate, with three of us we won’t be much past 6 p.m. getting the whole job done.

On a side note, hunting, fishing and other activities come with opportunities that a lot of people don’t think about or recognize that can put a few dollars into their pockets.  I have a friend that used to pick ducks and geese for a profit and if you have ever done something like that to make a dollar or two, you know how nasty that job can be.  Well, he would save the feathers and especially the down from those birds and would sell the bags to further make his money.  Trapping muskrats has a similar money maker hidden in it and we have been capitalizing on that for several years.  Male muskrats have glands that produce a musky smell (thus the name Musk…rat) and they swell up pretty large during the Spring time run.  There is a pretty good demand for these glands in the “lure making” business and so we save these glands and put them into quart sized jars.  Normally we sell them locally, but this year I have contacted a business in Florida that will give us a very good price for them and I’m going to ship our 3 quarts off to him.  For you who might also be interested in shipping your glands to him you can give him a call at 239-994-7772.  He is really interested in Mink Glands and will pay as much as $250 for a gallon of them, but he wants any and all mink glands he can get. Like he told me, he can’t buy mink or muskrat glands locally…Florida just plain doesn’t have those critters.   His business name and address is:

Grandpas Trading Post,  10171 Betsy Parkway, St. James City, Florida  33956

Bears Butt

March 18, 2014

Until we sell our furs I think I’ll continue to put related stories in the Daily Trapping Events category, it makes sense to me and I doubt you really care one way or another.  Yesterday I went to an auction site that had their auction last week, Fur Harvesters (http://www.furharvesters.com/) and looked at the prices paid for the various furs they had.  The price of muskrat was not what I expected to see, but still higher than we would get from a local buyer.  They had just short of 90,000 muskrats in their auction and they sold 98% of them at an average of $10.65.  Lower than what has been the average price, but still pretty high when you consider a silly little muskrat fur.  The bigger item was the price paid for the “Top” furs…$23!  Can you imagine paying $23 for one muskrat fur?  It makes you wonder what on earth would make one fur worth $23 when the average is going for around $11?

I have done a little research in the area trying to find out what drives a fur to be of more value than another and have yet to find out why.

I suppose, like a person who is into harvesting and hanging on his wall, a bunch of trophy animals of one species and he only needs one more to have obtained his quest of having one of each, then and only then would the value of that one animal be so much in demand (in his own mind) to make it worth selling his children, his house, all his properties and farming out his wife to get the money to buy the tag to go hunt it.  Of course not to harvest it would be out of the question and he would go to any end to make it a 100% success.

BUT, there are sooooo many muskrats in the world, why would a person pay over $20 for one?  It makes no sense to me.

Our big time dream for this season is to find that buyer who just has to have our lot of furs and will pay big time bucks for them!  I think I’ll write to one of the auction houses and see if they will respond to my question about “top lot” furs.  In the mean time, look at the picture of Weasel and the two rats he is holding up.  Certainly the small one would be worth less than the big one…well maybe not…what if you were a taxidermist putting together a scene of a mommy and daddy muskrat and some babies running around and you needed one more baby muskrat to finish it off.  That little guy could be worth a small fortune.  On the other hand, let’s say you are making a muskrat coat for your lovely wife and you needed one more large pelt to finish it off and it has to be just the right color and the big rat was the perfect one for the job…it could be worth a small fortune as well.

Demand…meet…Supply!

Bears Butt

March 17, 2014

A rat is a rat, is a rat…right?  In this case the one on your left is one that came out looking for its momma, the one on the right was also looking for its momma, but for different reasons.

It’s really funny how fate works, or better yet, Nothing happens without a reason, or I’ve heard it said, There are no accidents.  Yesterday I messaged the guy who picks up fur locally for shipping to the North American Fur Auction (NAFA).  I was curious as to how he got paid and if I was expected to give him a tip when he picks up our furs.  His answer came with a surprise;  He said he got paid via commission when the furs he sends in gets sold.  This makes perfect sense to me.  The next part of his comment was what caught me with my feet flat.  He said the latest fur pickup for the next sale was the end of this month, March.  WHAT?  The next fur pickup is not until May!  What’s going on?

I quickly went to the NAFA site and saw a special notice, dated back on February 20th that said the auction scheduled for June had been moved up to May and that the last fur pickup was in March!  Wholly smokes!  We still have about 150 raw skins to flesh and put up!  Will we have time to do this and have them adequately dried on the stretchers?

I messaged him back asking about the change in the schedule and when would be a good time for him to meet up with us to get our furs…as of right this minute I have not heard back from him.  He is a very busy guy, working a farm as well as being the fur pickup guy in Utah, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and parts of Colorado.

So, I called Bob and Weasel to let them know we didn’t have the month of April to work in our raw furs, but rather we had a couple of days to get them up on stretchers or we will miss the due date for the next auction.  We quickly got the remaining bags of rats out of the freezer and put them out to thaw and dry.  Tomorrow will be a big day to process the furs and get them up on stretchers.

We still should have enough time available to do our own measuring and grading of our furs so we have something to compare to when we get the paper work back from NAFA after the sale in May.  This is all new to us and we are speculating just what will happen to our furs when they get to the auction house.  We can’t help but believe we have a top lot mess of rats and we should get a very good price for them.  Even after the commission that gets taken out and given to the auction house, we should net more than what a local buyer would offer us for these same rats.  Our gamble.

I haven’t told you the total rat count for the catch at the end of week 5 and the end of the season.

End of week 5 = 73 rats!  End of season total = 731 (recount is needed for week 3)

As a side note, since the season has ended:  I weighed myself the first day I set any traps and weighed 144 lbs., this morning I got on the same scales and it read 133.5 lbs!  I realized I was having to tighten my belt more than usual, but didn’t think to that extreme!

Bears Butt

March 16, 2014