Does anyone sell racoon pelts?

[MCgunner]

I realize it ain't fur season, but I've looked for fur buyers around and cannot find any. There was one in Hallettsville, but it closed up before I got here. Only reason I know this is because there was still a sign up on the location.

Back in about 1980, there was a year when coon pelts were going for 40 bucks for a good one. Now, I never ever expect those times again, but SOMEONE must be buying pelts SOMEwhere. I've heard of folks shipping 'em to Canadian buyers. Can anyone give me some incite on this?

I'm ate up with coons and have been thinning 'em out. I have gotten five in the last five days using one trap! If I could catch hogs with that frequency, I could feed Texas. The coons I'm just tossing to the vultures. Now, I have no problem with that, but I keep thinkin' of the good times in 1980. This fur season, I could make some money on these things if there were buyers. I know Texas still sells a fur license for 10 bucks, but who buy's 'em if there's no market? I know I won't get rich trapping coons, but I'm getting so many, and it'd be a welcome side income if it were possible. Heck, I'm retired and have more time than money, anyway.

 

[jim in Anchorage]

Be careful with coons. I remember back in the 80's when prices where high I was living in New York we would run them with my buddys black and tans. Made a killing. Then the price dropped , the hunters and trappers lost interest and the coon population exploded. Result? I could barely go for a walk in the woods without encountering a very rabid raccoon.

 

[desidog]

Back in 1980 every six year old kid had a Daniel Boon coon skin cap... and a Red Ryder BB gun. He went off and played in the woods with his buddies. These days, i wouldn't be surprised to hear some poor kid get suspended for bringing an actual fur cap into elementary school for show and tell... and, if you gave a six year old a bb gun and left them unattended it would probably be "child endangerment" or some such.

I don't think Texas fur would be thick enough to demand a good price, even if there was a strong market. The time and effort it takes to prep a hide is not worth the going rates; even if you do have extra time on your hands.

 

[MCgunner]

Well, they were going for 40 bucks prime in 1980. I trapped a few and there was a buyer in a town near me. I've not done it since as I moved and got a new job. But, I'm sure, even if anyone is buying 'em, they're WAY shy of that price now days. Probably no market why they're so thick around here.

As for rabid coons, I'm killing 'em before getting 'em out of the trap and I ain't touching 'em. The trap is a live trap, not a spring trap. Back then, I used cheap cans of sardines for bait. Now, I'm using feed corn. The little farts go in my hog trap, eat the corn, open the door, and walk out. They're like little humans, opposable thumbs and all and smart. They've torn up a couple of my feeders, too. They do have a taste for feed corn around here.

 

[ilbob]

A guy I used to shoot with a few years back said he stopped going after coyote because the fur prices weren't worth anything anymore. He told me at one time he almost made more money from coyote furs then from his regular job but the fur Market died in the early 90s and never recovered. I know there are people who are still trapping around here but I don't think there's all that much money in it. Although a guy I talked to a few years ago said he had over 100 trap set out. Not even sure around here where you could set up that many traps much less get to them everyday to check them.

 

[Kingcreek]

You're not likely to get anything for them. In the Midwest they are only prime during cold weather trapping season and I don't think they were paying more than $10 for those last couple years and that was skinned and stretched.
I remember when a roadkill coon wouldn't be on the side of the road for more than an hour.

 

[MCgunner]

Well, you know, if you wanna thin out the hog population, put a $20 bounty on them boogers and they'll be wiped out in no time. They're harder to trap, though, than coons out here.

 

[FL-NC]

Feed corn does bring them in (I see them stealing it all the time on my deer cameras- along with those stupid possums). Also have them coming around quite a bit when I bait yotes and foxes with old kitchen grease and whatever meat scraps, chicken bones, etc. happen to be laying around.

 

[Varminterror]

Back in the 1980's, military winter coats around the world were still featuring coon fur ruff's around the hood. This drove a heck of a lot more demand pricing than a bunch of kids running around in Dan'el Boone caps.

Green pelts were lucky to see double digits this year for larges. I got $13 for a handful. Most were $5-8 for medium to large. And that was prime fur season pelts. Pelts out of season are nearly worthless. While large primes might have brought $40 in the 1980's, they haven't been anywhere near that since then. Prices haven't been as good in the last ~5yrs as they were in the early 2000's, and even then, we were lucky to get $15 for a prime Large. I don't recall EVER selling a coon for over $20 which wasn't put up or finished.

Here's a months' worth of hound ran coons thawing in the sun to go to seller back about 10yrs ago, that season, carcass was bringing 50cents on average over green, so we didn't bother skinning most of them. Best prices were $15-18, most in that picture bringing $12-14.

Here's a few hound ran from last winter, best I sold was $12 green, most were $8-10.

Best case - freeze them green or put them up and see if you can get any value for them next winter. Being located in TX, I'd bet you'll struggle to get prices anywhere near what we get up here, and certainly not for any thin summer fur.

If you want to "sell into Canada," you'll have to have a furbuyers license and sell at auction, in which case, they'll have to be put up. I sold at auction (and bought from other hunters & trappers) back in the late 1990's and early 2000's, but overall, it wasn't worth it when we slowed down. For a guy simply trapping a few nuisance coon around his house, it wouldn't be worth it by a long shot.

All of the above is most likely moot, as I'd be surprised if TX allows trapping for profit out of season, even with live traps, since you'll be ultimately killing them, not at least without a nuisance permit.

 

[jim in Anchorage]

I realize it ain't fur season, but I've looked for fur buyers around and cannot find any. There was one in Hallettsville, but it closed up before I got here. Only reason I know this is because there was still a sign up on the location.

Back in about 1980, there was a year when coon pelts were going for 40 bucks for a good one. Now, I never ever expect those times again, but SOMEONE must be buying pelts SOMEwhere. I've heard of folks shipping 'em to Canadian buyers. Can anyone give me some incite on this?

I'm ate up with coons and have been thinning 'em out. I have gotten five in the last five days using one trap! If I could catch hogs with that frequency, I could feed Texas. The coons I'm just tossing to the vultures. Now, I have no problem with that, but I keep thinkin' of the good times in 1980. This fur season, I could make some money on these things if there were buyers. I know Texas still sells a fur license for 10 bucks, but who buy's 'em if there's no market? I know I won't get rich trapping coons, but I'm getting so many, and it'd be a welcome side income if it were possible. Heck, I'm retired and have more time than money, anyway.

Do like I do with marmot hides.Make em into gloves and hats. Have it tanned and go from there. Nothing is as warm as your own handmade marmot (or coon) gloves!

 

[MCgunner]

Back in the 1980's, military winter coats around the world were still featuring coon fur ruff's around the hood. This drove a heck of a lot more demand pricing than a bunch of kids running around in Dan'el Boone caps.

Green pelts were lucky to see double digits this year for larges. I got $13 for a handful. Most were $5-8 for medium to large. And that was prime fur season pelts. Pelts out of season are nearly worthless. While large primes might have brought $40 in the 1980's, they haven't been anywhere near that since then. Prices haven't been as good in the last ~5yrs as they were in the early 2000's, and even then, we were lucky to get $15 for a prime Large. I don't recall EVER selling a coon for over $20 which wasn't put up or finished.

Here's a months' worth of hound ran coons thawing in the sun to go to seller back about 10yrs ago, that season, carcass was bringing 50cents on average over green, so we didn't bother skinning most of them. Best prices were $15-18, most in that picture bringing $12-14.

Here's a few hound ran from last winter, best I sold was $12 green, most were $8-10.

Best case - freeze them green or put them up and see if you can get any value for them next winter. Being located in TX, I'd bet you'll struggle to get prices anywhere near what we get up here, and certainly not for any thin summer fur.

If you want to "sell into Canada," you'll have to have a furbuyers license and sell at auction, in which case, they'll have to be put up. I sold at auction (and bought from other hunters & trappers) back in the late 1990's and early 2000's, but overall, it wasn't worth it when we slowed down. For a guy simply trapping a few nuisance coon around his house, it wouldn't be worth it by a long shot.

All of the above is most likely moot, as I'd be surprised if TX allows trapping for profit out of season, even with live traps, since you'll be ultimately killing them, not at least without a nuisance permit.

Trapping season is winter. I don't wanna sell THESE coons, but I was thinkin' about it as a winter hobby. But, as I figured, sounds like it's worthless to try. I haven't found a buyer around me, anyway.

I could get a few skins tanned. My wife sews, might like an odd project. Heck, how's about a coon skin cap?

 

[jimmyraythomason]

I sell through North American Fur Auctions. They sell my fur at auction in Ontario, Canada for an 11% commission. My Alabama raccoons sold for an average of $1.62 at the May auction this year
. These were prime m-l pelts graded as select. BTW, I saw no coonskin caps and Red Rider BB guns in the 1980s but I did see a LOT of both in the 1950s.

 

[jim in Anchorage]

Trapping season is winter. I don't wanna sell THESE coons, but I was thinkin' about it as a winter hobby. But, as I figured, sounds like it's worthless to try. I haven't found a buyer around me, anyway.

I could get a few skins tanned. My wife sews, might like an odd project. Heck, how's about a coon skin cap?

I knew the corn ball coon skin cap thing would come up. But really the mittens I had made from marmot are the warmest gloves I own. Plus their just mine, you sure ain't gonna just buy them in a store. I don't see why coon fur would be different.

 

[Meplat 308]

.

I could get a few skins tanned. My wife sews, might like an odd project. Heck, how's about a coon skin cap?

You could sell them on E-bay, Etsy & gunbroker.
Tanned hides too.

 

[MCgunner]

I knew the corn ball coon skin cap thing would come up. But really the mittens I had made from marmot are the warmest gloves I own. Plus their just mine, you sure ain't gonna just buy them in a store. I don't see why coon fur would be different.

Well, I hardly ever wear gloves. I hardly ever wear coats, a wind breaker maybe in the winter. Occasionally, it gets real cold (below freezing) for a few days and I just stay inside. LOL!

See, what I guess I NEED to do is learn to tan skins myself. THEN, I could ebay! Might make a set of mittens for ebay. Hmmm....might have to get the wife to show me around the sewing machines. She teaches sewing at a free "sewing lab" in Columbus and works one to two days a week at a quilt shop, also uses her long arm quilting machine to make a few bucks. She's always trying to get me to learn to sew. This might be the deal that gets me interested. Leather work is as close as I've come to it, so far. LOL

These were prime m-l pelts graded as select. BTW, I saw no coonskin caps and Red Rider BB guns in the 1980s but I did see a LOT of both in the 1950s.

Same here. I even had one in the 50s/early 60s. I talked mama into buying it for me at a Stuckey's (remember those) on the road to somewhere. It was all driven by Fess Parker and Disney.

 

[Fine Figure of a Man]

In recent years coon hunting with dogs has become a fun hobby that cost a little money, some guys may break even. Trapping is a labor intensive passion. I don't know anyone that expects to make a bunch of money off hides anymore.

 

[MCgunner]

You know, I'm not sure if a normal sewing machine will sew a tanned coon hide. My wife's best machine is a Viking, $8000 machine, but it cost that much due to the features, it's a programmable embroidery machine. She won't sew denim with it, know that.

There's a machine on the Tandy site I've seen before, $2500, a leather machine, but it might even be TOO heavy duty. I do have this leather sewing awl that works just fine, though. So, I can hand stitch this stuff with THAT, I reckon. I've made some concealment holsters with it.

I googled some sites up on tanning. I need to read up on that. I was going to read up on it, but then this rain came and blocked my sat signal. I guess it can wait as I need to get out when the rain has stopped and check that trap again. Killed one yesterday, probably will today, too. Then, I have to sight in a new scope on an old rifle.

 

[tomturkey]

At this time you might as well feed the coon to the buzzards as the fur market for prime fur is on the rocks. If you can find a cheap tannery you might be able to sell some tanned stuff for wall hangings.

I used to manage and work a trappers assn. fur sale back n the mid 80's. One highlight always comes back from those days in my fog old memory. My son and I were bagging fur for the buyers. He was trying to figure out what a trapper had gotten for his lot of 200 xl and xxl #1 coon. I told him 10 grand and to get them bagged as there were 150 outs coming up. They sold for $36. Quite a pay check. I think the guy may have been buying grease coon to resell.

In Michigan we have a guy that picks up fur to take to the sale in Ontario. We just fill out some paper work, only a trappers license is need to ship the fur.

 

[ScrapMetalSlug]

I sold some Ohio coon hides about 10 years ago. They were worth $6-8 depending on size and if they had any holes. Selling the whole animal was the same price as one skinned out. Opossum hides were worth $2.

They were a couple guys who set up with a trailer during trapping season in the back of a local sporting goods store. As far as I know, they still set up during the season.

Hardly worth the effort for the money. I am probably one of the few people who will eat coons. In the slow cooker wth barbecue they are great, similar to pork but wth more flavor. I sold the hides but not for the money really, sometimes like you mentioned they just need to be thinned out. I am not one who likes to waste anything if it can be put to use.

If you really have some free time and you are interested, you can tan the hides yourself and sell finished hides. I tanned a few hides doing the brain tan method, mostly for the novelty and to see if I could.

 

[HoploDad]

We saw a gentleman coming out of a Lowes grocery store to his pickup in Crockett County, the bed was full of traps. FULL of traps. This is 2 years ago. We asked him what he trapped an how it was going? Bobcat and fox were his mainstays out there in West Texas but he said he had a load go up to Canada and some went unsold. The root cause was Russians. They buy a lot of the furs, they're not big on PETA over there, but when the oil biz is down they don't have the disposable income to buy fur coats. So the international economy dictates more than we think. A rancher we know out there runs sheep. He says virtually all his mutton gets shipped to the Middle East. Who'd a thunk it?

 

[HoploDad]

P.S. McG, thanks for the Stuckey's memory. The pecan logs were "famous" as I recall.

 

[Bull Nutria]

I sell through North American Fur Auctions. They sell my fur at auction in Ontario, Canada for an 11% commission. My Alabama raccoons sold for an average of $1.62 at the May auction this year
.
Man $1.62 per hide seems too low to bother with? Did you get ripped off or is the market that bad??
How many hides did you have in that batch? I sure hope the market improves!!

Bull

 

[Varminterror]

You know, I'm not sure if a normal sewing machine will sew a tanned coon hide.

It will - with a few considerations. An embroidery machine, or quilting machine is not as adaptable for material as a general purpose machine. I've been using general purpose sewing machines for over 25yrs sewing leather, including coon hides, but I'd never let coon hide or chap leather ride under my CNC quilting machine (wife & I just bought my grandmother's "rack" so she could buy a new one). I've ran double thick 7-8oz harness leather through a General Purpose Kenmore (with about 40yrs on it) many times, and have sewn miles and miles of chap leg seams on this same machine.

1) Run the machine by hand, or set the speed to about 2-4seconds per stitch. Often the motor won't have enough pudding to run through hides, but when cranked by hand, the torque is there. See item 3 below. Since the feed is relatively irregular, the tailor really needs enough time to see how the stock is positioned before the stitch is thrown, else you'll drop a lot of stitches.

2) Denim or leather needle. Pretty self explanatory, you need a tougher needle to sew tougher materials.

3) Metal drive - you'll chew up plastic gears in cheap machines pretty quickly punching through thicker/denser materials.

4) Modified foot - walking foot if possible, but at least, modify the foot such it will give appropriate pressure on the sew stock, since the hides are much thicker than the fabrics the machines were designed to run. Often when you ask the machine to sew high thickness materials, especially high loft fur-on hides, the machines' foot pressure is way too great, and with the body of leather/hide, it ends up pinching against the frame, not just the feed dogs.

5) The tailor understands how to prep hides and hide seams for machine sewing. Prime fur has a lot of loft, so the thickness and body are a challenge, as mentioned above, but a guy needs to understand how to lay out his seams and treat his edges, such the fur lays properly and the seams come together well.

For coonskin caps, I generally sew the hide by hand, sew the liners by machine, then sew the liners to the cap by hand. There's just not enough seam length on the cap to really be worth setting up on the machine. That round top of the cap makes the major seam annoying to feed on the machine. Pinning a curved seam in leather is a trick in itself, since it's so stiff and rigid, so the tailor really needs to understand how the leather/hide will feed in the machine before committing. You'll likely fail at making a couple caps before the first one comes out well. And might take 2-3 coons to make one proper cap.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

Man $1.62 per hide seems too low to bother with? Did you get ripped off or is the market that bad??

Better than they brought last year. The international market for raccoon is nil to none. Alabama raccoon have excellent quality fur but don't grow to the size of northern coon. A 19 pound boar coon here is huge but it will only grade m-l at auction! I only sent them in to help offset the CITES charge on my otter and bobcats. As far as the fur market in general....quality pale, heavy coyotes averaged over $100 each in the February auction and Montana bobcat did very well with the top lot bringing $3,500 ea.(bought by Italy). My first 11 otter averaged $42 but the next 6 brought the average down to $32 with another 7 going unsold. My Alabama bobcats also went unsold.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

Here are the averages and highs for the May 8-14, 2017 NAFA fur auction at Ontario. You need an account with NAFA to sell fur. You will need a hunting/trapping license to sell but not a dealer's license.