Another Season

[MuddyWaterWarlock]

Educate me! What is the difference between Red and Gray Fox tracks? Don't say color!

[Olly]

Educate me! What is the difference between Red and Gray Fox tracks? Don't say color!

One's from the "other" side of the tracks.




Got nothing useful to contribute.

[assateague]

Educate me! What is the difference between Red and Gray Fox tracks? Don't say color!

Color

That's the easiest one. Reds prefer to hunt in fields and open areas, grays stay in (or very very close to) the thick woods. Reds are bigger by about 20% or so. And reds are worth more. I have no scientific proof, but reds seem to eat more meat.

[assateague]

Just realized you said "tracks". Grays are smaller and more oval. The heel pad is much closer to the toe pad on a gray fox track.

[MuddyWaterWarlock]

Just realized you said "tracks". Grays are smaller and more oval. The heel pad is much closer to the toe pad on a gray fox track.

Thanks! As far as color around here sometimes they are very similar and hard to tell at a glance. Just don't see many of the bright red pretty ones anymore.

[assateague]

An update. Shaping up to be a very, very poor year, but things could change. I thought last year was bad, but I'll be lucky to get close to last years totals, and I pulled all my traps by the middle of January because it was so warm they were losing their winter coats. It's still fun, but it needs to be a little colder. For the record, I had two mangy foxes (both reds, of course) so far, and I have two coon hides in the freezer.

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[one2many]

An update. Shaping up to be a very, very poor year, but things could change. I thought last year was bad, but I'll be lucky to get close to last years totals, and I pulled all my traps by the middle of January because it was so warm they were losing their winter coats. It's still fun, but it needs to be a little colder. For the record, I had two mangy foxes (both reds, of course) so far, and I have two coon hides in the freezer.

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poor season for you maybe but still looks nice hanging there. you are a skinning machine

[assateague]

My neighbor (and trapping mentor) is the skinning machine. Takes him 7 minutes from hanging-skinning-scraping-on the stretcher for a red fox, maybe 9 for a gray, and 12 for a coon. He's got 213 so far this year, but he is retired, and runs his trap lines all morning into the afternoon. I think he's got about 55-60 sets out, which still isn't a huge number. He's just killing his average- I think it's around 7.1 a day (a little better than 13%) , mines down to .8, which is 8.8%, based on the average number of traps I've had out (although if you count the effing skunks and possums I'm probably up to about 12%. Bastards.). The catch goal is 10% of your trap count, so I'm slacking, but I've been so busy with work that I just don't have time to get more than a dozen traps out at any given time, and often less than that. Right now I've only got 7 sets out. Irritates me.

[Eric Haynes]

My neighbor (and trapping mentor) is the skinning machine. Takes him 7 minutes from hanging-skinning-scraping-on the stretcher for a red fox, maybe 9 for a gray, and 12 for a coon. He's got 213 so far this year, but he is retired, and runs his trap lines all morning into the afternoon. I think he's got about 55-60 sets out, which still isn't a huge number. He's just killing his average- I think it's around 7.1 a day (a little better than 13%) , mines down to .8, which is 8.8%, based on the average number of traps I've had out (although if you count the effing skunks and possums I'm probably up to about 12%. Bastards.). The catch goal is 10% of your trap count, so I'm slacking, but I've been so busy with work that I just don't have time to get more than a dozen traps out at any given time, and often less than that. Right now I've only got 7 sets out. Irritates me.

You are making me wish I would have got back into it this year rather than next. I have a lot of land I can trap, but honestly, I just hate all of the work after the catch. Wish I knew someone to do all the skinning and stretching and we could just split the cash.

[assateague]

Getting that average back up today.

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[Goldfish]

Your wood stack is getting low. Or are you planning on burning coons?

[assateague]

Went down to see how the neighbor did today. Another banner day for him!

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[one2many]

Went down to see how the neighbor did today. Another banner day for him!

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if i wasnt lazy i would start running a trap line again
you all seem to have lots of fox there
how many hours a week does the guy put into trapping?
sure looks like a job well done

[assateague]

He's got a ton of time in it. As far as actual trapping time, I don't know. Right now, he's only got between 58 and 64 traps out, but they're scattered all over creation. As I said, he's retired, so he drives around checking them and having coffee all morning, usually gets home around 1:00, then skins until about 4 or 5.

[Olly]

He's got a ton of time in it. As far as actual trapping time, I don't know. Right now, he's only got between 58 and 64 traps out, but they're scattered all over creation. As I said, he's retired, so he drives around checking them and having coffee all morning, usually gets home around 1:00, then skins until about 4 or 5.

I can't wait to be retired. 14 more years.

[assateague]

[huntfishnv]

Went down to see how the neighbor did today. Another banner day for him!

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That's impressive. I've always wanted to take a fox.

[assateague]

With the weather being what it is (hot) I hate to bad mouth any catches. But lately, I've gotten into some really big coons. The "problem" is that they're not worth even half as much as a gray fox, and are twice the work to skin and flesh. Since Sunday, I've got one red, one gray, and 7 coons. But at least they're big.

Rockstar can for scale.

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[Goldfish]

I'd probably be pretty big and fat too if I were eating a billion eggs from the black ducks that nobody can shoot.

[assateague]

The place I'm trapping now has a compost shed right through the woods, about 50 yards away. I suspect fat coons are in my future until I move on from there. The compost sheds are where the chicken farmers throw their dead birds. You have to walk the houses every day, and collect the dead (usually suffocated) birds, then they throw them in big open sided pole barns. They're like Golden Corrals for coons around here.

[Flightstopper]

But do they get a chocolate fountain??

[Weston81]

Or Cotton Candy.

[obxbufflehead]

But do they get a chocolate fountain??

And cotton candy?

[obxbufflehead]

But do they get a chocolate fountain??

And cotton candy?

Damnit Weston! Beat me to it!!

[Weston81]

Sorry buddy, I just remember them pimping their CC for months on TV, wasn't a big selling point to me.

[obxbufflehead]

Sorry buddy, I just remember them pimping their CC for months on TV, wasn't a big selling point to me.

Na your good man. Same here. Used to go there when I was little. My dad would call it the trough lol.

[assateague]

A good day.

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[Weston81]

NICE!!

[assateague]

Updated wall

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[Olly]

How money am I looking at there?

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