Author Topic: Racoons (Read 757 times)

danny clifton · « **on:** May 31, 2005, 06:54:12 AM »

Racoon prices are once again the toilet. What a shame. My wife has a coon coat that gets a ton of favorable comments when ever she wears it.
How many of you guys are going to trap a few just cause you like it? I plan to. Every fall I start my season by trapping coons for ten days. I use a small boat with a 5h.p. motor. I only drive about 5 miles to the river. Even at todays prices I'll only spend about 5 bucks a day on gas. I don't hit them very hard. I try to get about a hundred and most years I do. That ten days on the river is a personal tradition and one I enjoy. I spend about 4-5 hours a day away from home and a couple in the fur shed. I plan to do it again this year cause I have to trap. I don't know why I just do. Ever since I was a kid. I usally have 2-3 beaver traps out also. I don't like to harvest many as here in Kansas they are hatters that early. I like a few for bait, castor, and oil though. What are your plans?

Bogmaster · « **Reply #1 on:** May 31, 2005, 08:28:56 AM »

Danny,while lower prices will keep many from taking coon---not me!
They need to be thinned down like any other animal,if we as trappers don't do it----mother nature will--distemper is a very poor way for a coon to meet its end.
I will have out traps for coon,mink ,rats,beaver and otter.Rats were in the toilet,and they are now strengthening--in time,so will coon.As soon as the Russians get back into it,our prices will increase.
While trapping is a large portion of my income,it would be foolish not to harvest coon ,when I am already there.
Tom

Newt · « **Reply #2 on:** May 31, 2005, 11:20:54 AM »

I'm with Boggy on this one. If I see a set for animal, I set it.Be it be what I am there for or not. No sence in passing up a good coon set.Just because you came to catch a fox or muskrat.

cotton jonas · « **Reply #3 on:** May 31, 2005, 03:18:30 PM »

with the lower prices on coons i don't make sets for coons but still will catch a fair number in fox sets and when beaver and rat trapping.

wwhite1973 · « **Reply #4 on:** May 31, 2005, 05:37:49 PM »

Personally you all might think I am crazy, but I trap coon for the meat. There is nothing like properly prepared coon meat. I fill the freezer every year and hey, what ever I get for the hides is a bonus! I have to skin them any way. There will always be coon sets on my line.

Rob220swift · « **Reply #5 on:** June 01, 2005, 10:00:55 AM »

I'd still trap em if they sold for 50 cents. I enjoy it and management is a responsibility.

mmwb · « **Reply #6 on:** June 01, 2005, 11:01:31 AM »

"I trap coon for the meat" Willing to share a few recipes? I remember having it as a kid. Slow cooked on a grill with lots of BBQ sauce. Was pretty tasty.

danny clifton · « **Reply #7 on:** June 01, 2005, 12:08:09 PM »

This takes awhile but it comes out good.
We cut all the fat we can off the dressed racoon. Cut it into quarters and boil for an hour or so. When the meat will easily come off the bones let it cool and debone. Put the meat into a preasure cooker. Preasure at 10 pounds for about another hour or so. Drain well and put the meat in a crockpot. Add enough of your favorite BBQ sauce to cover the meat. Cook it on slow about 10 hours. I usually do the boiling and preasuring of an evening. Let the meat set in the refrigerater overnight and slowcook the next day. Makes a great sandwich.

wwhite1973 · « **Reply #8 on:** June 01, 2005, 05:40:06 PM »

My favorite recipe is to cut off as much fat as you can, quarter and par boil. I skim off the fat and when I think most of the fat is boiled off, I drain and let cool. Then I pull the meat off the bone and put the meat in a pan and add bbq sauce, butter and beer and let it simmer for about 2 hours. This can be done in a crock pot, but cook on low for about 3 to 4 hours. I also par boil a whole coon and put in a roasting pan and add a little water some carrots and sweet taters, season with some garlic powder, seasoned salt, and pepper and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour. This works best with young coons. Like Danny said a pressure cooker works great also, it can make na old coon quite tender and tasty. You can also use it to make a great stew, in my opinion, but I love muskrat also. Hey times were rough when I was growing up and my mom could do wonders with wild meat, what can I say. The bbq recipe works great for beaver too! I don't get to trap alot of beaver, but when I do, they go in the freezer also.

steven49er · « **Reply #9 on:** June 04, 2005, 04:31:24 PM »

Next fall I dont plan on setting one coon specific set with the prices the way they are. Although southern Mn has a ton of coon the norhtern teir does not. I couldnt catch a hundred coon here in ten days at present if I set every trap I own.

I am going to trap beaver in the fall and then chase fisher and otter. I am sure I will get a couple nice boar coon in fisher sets and that will do me just fine.

jim-NE · « **Reply #10 on:** June 23, 2005, 12:54:15 AM »

coon have always been the bread and butter of this region's fur industry. Even when coon prices were "in the toilet" they still average well above or comparatively well with anything else that we trapped. I skinned a lot of $5 finished jumbos for several years...and yes, it wasn't hardly worth my time if I focused strictly on costs and efficiencies. But, for pure FUN, it was well worth it. I also had much less competition in those years, and much more land to access without competition, and was one heck of a learning experience and fun time to try new techniques and sets. I wouldn't have missed trapping during the "toilet" times for anything, and still wouldn't. I loved showing up at fall trapper gatherings, looking around, and seeing only a handful of diehards still showing up. Equipment was cheap, very tradeable, etc. Then when prices rose back up, I had to fight my way back up front to get a decent view at fall demos, and all of sudden equipment had value again and every bridge and little creek was laced with stakes and equipment that fall.
If pressed to give my preference for trapping in good years vs. toilet price years, give me a toilet year any year, and let me have some FUN. I work too hard all year not to enjoy my little hobby mini-vacations each season. Yes, I too love putting some high-dollar cats on the table or a pile of finished $20 coon and walking out with a fat check. But I remember how much FUN I had when I sold some $15 cats and caught many more of them. It was no effort at all too to load up on those $5 coons, either.
I've long since gotten away from focusing on the check at end of the season, and once I started changing my focus I actually came out ahead all the way around. Remember why we do this every year, and majority who peruse this site will agree with me that the $ are only a small piece of the puzzle. An important piece, yes, but not the main focus for many of us unless we are in this for our livelihoods, of course.

jim-NE · « **Reply #11 on:** June 23, 2005, 12:56:24 AM »

coon have always been the bread and butter of this region's fur industry. Even when coon prices were "in the toilet" they still average well above or comparatively well with anything else that we trapped. I skinned a lot of $5 finished jumbos for several years...and yes, it wasn't hardly worth my time if I focused strictly on costs and efficiencies. But, for pure FUN, it was well worth it. I also had much less competition in those years, and much more land to access without competition, and was one heck of a learning experience and fun time to try new techniques and sets. I wouldn't have missed trapping during the "toilet" times for anything, and still wouldn't. I loved showing up at fall trapper gatherings, looking around, and seeing only a handful of diehards still showing up. Equipment was cheap, very tradeable, etc. Then when prices rose back up, I had to fight my way back up front to get a decent view at fall demos, and all of sudden equipment had value again and every bridge and little creek was laced with stakes and equipment that fall.
If pressed to give my preference for trapping in good years vs. toilet price years, give me a toilet year any year, and let me have some FUN. I work too hard all year not to enjoy my little hobby mini-vacations each season. Yes, I too love putting some high-dollar cats on the table or a pile of finished $20 coon and walking out with a fat check. But I remember how much FUN I had when I sold some $15 cats and caught many more of them. It was no effort at all too to load up on those $5 coons, either.
I've long since gotten away from focusing on the check at end of the season, and once I started changing my focus I actually came out ahead all the way around. Remember why we do this every year, and majority who peruse this site will agree with me that the $ are only a small piece of the puzzle. An important piece, yes, but not the main focus for many of us unless we are in this for our livelihoods, of course.