Kill a varmit, save a gamebird, and fur prices

oldandnew

Active member
I'm begining to think that the best service we could do for pheasants and quail is get a pack of coon hounds! I've never seen so many coons. Dead on the road, sitting in trees eating buds, in broad daylight, lots of foxes too. I have them in my yard daily. I'm going to make an effort to shoot more coyotes as well as the foxes. Skunks and possums are going to have to wait for someone else. Anybody know the fur prices these days? Used to be worth something, sold a big northern coyote one time many years ago $300.00. paid for the whole trip, now with the anti fur idiots walking around and posing naked, probably not worth a dime.
 
Hawk numbers seemed to be higher this year than any other trip I have taken to South Dakota. We were in a farmer's yard talking to him while two hawks were out in his CRP chasing pheasants. Neat to watch but when we did hunt we found pheasant carcasses in the field which I assumed were from the hawks.
 
here in western Kansas you can just about count of 4 Red Tail Hawks per mile

not to long ago I saw a hen flying- low and long- Hawk came from above and behind- caught that hen in the air

I've seen enough pheasant carcases
 
While deer hunting in November (SE MN) I came across a guy checking his coon traps. He had something like 21 so far that day. I couldn't believe the sight when I looked in his truck bed, it was filled up to the wheel well with dead coons. He said the day before he got 29, and 30+ the day before that. He gets either $5 or $10 per pelt, can't remember what it was.

Seems like predator counts are up this year. Heard a lot of people talking about seeing skunks, coons, hawks, etc... Not good for the ringnecks.
 
Can anyone confirm that MN is allowing ND hunters with a fur bear license to go over there and help eliminate some of the Coyotes?

Hawks in my opinion should have a season open for them things too! I've hunted a time or two where one would jump up out of CRP...looked and found dead pheasants. I don't doubt the whole nabbing a hen out of mid air.
 
Prior to the government love affair with raptors, the old south quail plantations used to put a telephone pole in the middle of a weed field with a hot electric wire across the perch, eliminated a lot of quail competitors. In the last century, there was a place Pennsylvania where hawks migrated through in the fall, all the hunters gathered for pass shooting. Maybe a little to extreme, but we're to touchy feely now. The political correct answer now is it's all about habitat, and while I agree that habitat is the first major ingredient, reducing predators on the little bit of quality habitat we have, makes a big difference, be they winged or 4 legged, until or unless we have literally miles of habitat. As it is now, with limited habitat we have a predator buffet.
 
we actually saw a golden eagle with a pheasant last week in KS. Damn that thing was big.
 
yeh it really has to hard on the birds, I also have been seeing lots of varmits even here in town, as far as the fur prices, well thanks to PETA and some bleeding heart hollywood woman, the price you get for a hide is hardly worth the trouble to skin, scive, salt and stretch one.I remember in 1976, the 200 year anniversary of 1776, I killed several coons hoping that the coon skin coats would be popular and I lost my a**. I can say we did eat a few, my dad and me, and they were pretty good. Lots of work fur nothing. :(
 
I can say we did eat a few, my dad and me, and they were pretty good. Lots of work fur nothing. :(

I was told by an old farmer I used to milk for that the best doughnut he ever had was fried in coon lard. I didn't think it sounded to good.

Scott
 
Coyote down

Here is my coyote I got while I was deer hunting around my house. I shot him with my 308 m77 I have some really good ones of the exit wound can I post them if they are gory
2010-10-03_13-05-47_640.jpg

2010-10-03_13-06-34_101.jpg
 
hawks

i went on my first pheasant hunting trip to nebraska this year and ive never seen so many hawks in all my life they were on every fence post and lightpole around,you guys are lucky to still have birds to hunt here in east tennessee we dont have hardly any left mostly because coyotes and hawks
 
i was hunting in Kansas several weeks ago and as i was looking at the ground i was going to work (CRP) and i saw a hawk fold up and dive into the grass (about 150 yards away) and suddenly a hen pheasant took off, obviously he missed trying to kill her, but anyone that doesn't believe hawks kill pheasants is kidding themselves, this event is proof of the devastation they bring to pheasants, although protected, hawks are a huge menace to pheasants!
a reduction is in order........
 
I hate to sound like I disagree with everyone on this issue because I’m sure hawks and coyotes do kill a few pheasants, but what I’ve heard in the past and it makes since to me is that hawks and coyotes help the quail population, I would be willing to assume that it would be close to the same with pheasant. I don’t live around an area with pheasant populations so I could be completely wrong about the similarities between quail and pheasants, but what I’ve been told makes sense to me.

A hawk’s main diet is field mice, and snakes. The field mice and snakes actively search for and will devastate a quail nest and kill several soon to be gamebirds in one go around, instead of a single bird at a time.

Coyotes displace foxes, a coyote’s main diet is rabbits, they don’t pay much attention quail, and I’m not saying if given the opportunity they won’t kill and eat a quail, but they don’t actively hunt them. Foxes play a much larger roll in killing quail. Again also coyotes eat a lot of field mice that do search for the nests of quail.

So with low numbers of these two animals the rodent population will boom, and with a large population of rodents, quail and pheasant eggs will have a hard time making it through, therefore taking a large toll on these birds that we take so much enjoyment in.
 
Habitat is so very important. TRUE!! Good pheasant habitat makes EXCELLENT predator habitat.:(
But you know! pheasants and other game birds could and would thrive very nicely in marginal habitat if it wasn't for so many predators.
And for sure, so would released birds.
I took a trip across SD on 212 last Sept. [saw lots of good bird country, all the way to Bell Fourche]:thumbsup:
Should have kept count of the coons and skunks. :eek:
 
I've seen hawks pounding pheasants many times, they work in pairs or even up to 4 hawks at a time and the birds don't wanna fly and they swoop in and nail em. I've seen this a few times. I've seen a hawk hit a rooster out of the air he chased for a half a mile. Dunno bout them being good or not since they kill rodents???
 
Being an avid coyote hunter I have learned over the years that no matter how many you kill, there will be new ones to take there place the following week. I have never and never will shoot a hawk, they kill way to many rodents.
 
opening day this year we are going through a field and the dog locks on a section of tall grass about 15 yards away. I mean locked on, the best point I have ever seen from him. Buddy and I circle in for the flush and up pops a coyote about 10ft away from me. He hauled ass with dog chasing. Had the dog not chased could have easliy done him in with #5 from that distance.

Dog is steady to bird flush haven't worked on the yote flush
 
Back
Top