A family friend had mentioned to me that Dad said he should get a picture of his fur "one of these years". So, we surprised him today, and showed up to get it done. The picture is our fur he has ready to go on Saturday. There were 8 coons he just got on stretchers that we didn't bring out.

Left to right, me, Dad, and my youngest brother. I can't remember the totals on coon. But its over 120 right now. 46 Rats, 10 mink, 2 beav. 9 coyotes, 2 fox, and 22 grinners. I know the old fart has worked his butt off on that fur!!!!



Mom produced this picture of Dad (left) and a couple of his cousins. This was 1964 and I was 9 months old! This picture was taken at Christmas. Totals for them that year were 226 coon, 356 rats, and 35 mink!

Very cool!!

Great pic.....


What would you guess the furs are worth in first pic if I may ask!!!


BTW....good lookin dogs also


Thanks for sharing

Wow!!!!!!! That is priceless. Great job fellas.

Great picture. Man, that's a lot of work there.

One of the best pics ever posted on here....just awesome bubba!

Very awesome that is great Congrats

cool greg,
trappings a dying art, wish more younger people would take it up.

I don't even know what to say because that pic is so awesome.

Very very cool.

Love it.......thanks for sharing!

only twenty two grinners? Ya aint releasing them are ya? LOL

That is awesome. Lots of hard work, and great memories right there!

Wow, Yaz. That is an amazing picture.

Awesome pics Yaz

Cool pictures and congrats to you all.

I see there are no fox or yotes in the 64 picture? I know the yotes were very rare here then but didnt your dad target fox? h.h.

No fox or yotes...lots of quail, grouse, and pheasant. Those were the days! Great pictures, by the way!

Looks like Uncle George has been busy!!!... Awesome pic Bubba!!!

HH,

I asked Dad the same question. I can remember in the mid to late 70's following Dad around on the fox lines. He could catch reds and grays like it was nothing. One of the things I remember most was him always hollering at me to step in his boot prints and NOT make more tracks when we walked out on a set. Back then, I wasn't very old, and had a hard time keeping stride with him. I got to carry the broom, which served as the "fox whacker", and Dad always broomed out our tracks when backing off a set. I swear, he could just throw a trap out in the snow, and have a red the next day! From what he said there was no fur market value for foxes back then. However, there was a bounty on them. He said they made more on bounty money than what the fur was worth. He would take them into the courthouse. Its hard for people to imagine these days, but I believe crows, hawks, and owls were on a bounty also! Mid to late 70's, when the fur market picked up on foxes, he wore them out. Coyotes didn't come into the picture in our area until the late 70's and early 80's. By the 90's, the red foxes were rare, and the gray foxes were nonexistent here. The red foxes we catch now are incidental, and not intentional.

Keeps him out of Mom's hair. Besides our fur, I know he has been putting up some fur for his Minister, and a couple other guys. So, yea, he's been busy!!

Thanks guys! I knew he was proud of his fur. Even though its not been one of his best years, this is the first time he has put ALL of it up to sell. It was a good time just getting it all set up to get the picture! I told him we are going to have to a "late season" picture with everything that didn't go this time!

Yaz,

When I was 10 maybe 12 I'd go on fox drives with my uncles, cousins and a few other guys. We'd drive mile sections and kill 15-20. One of the guys had pickup with a cap and he kept the fox and used the $2.00 bounty to buy gas and our lunch. You had to cut off both ears and take them to the county court house to get your $2.00. Not sure if he sold the hides. h.h.

Wish there was a bounty on Grinners. Or there would be high demand for their green butt Ooze for medicinal purposes.

HH we are ageing ourselves but I think the bounty was $3.00. When I was that same age I played the dog on many a fox drive. They kept the ears and I put up the hides and if my memory serves me I sold them for $5.00 each.

In Cass County the bounty was $3 and then the hides were sold to a buyer named Hardy.

This would have been 1962-1964. I can still see the image of that truck driving away after dropping us off, with many fox hanging off of both rear corners of the top.

One time when I wasnt with them my cousin shot a coyote. The local paper had his picture and story on the front page because yotes were very scarce around here at that time. h.h.

Just so you know…..I likely wasn't born yet HH! What county was that coyote killed back then?

Huntington........you young whipper snapper....lol h.h.

Had to razz somebody last night! The mammalogy professor at Ball State that I worked for doing research said he thought our coyotes in Indiana moved down from the north. Not from the east. He always thought our coyotes were more genetically similar to the red or brush wolf in Michigan. He didn't have any evidence other than skull size, and overall body weight and coloration. The majority of our coyotes do have a lot more red coloration than the western coyotes.

Yaz, I recently read that the north eastern states have very few if any yotes. From what I read the yotes in the Midwest have grey wolf in them and most likely came from northern states.

Several years ago a guy I know told me he saw a video of the IDNR hauling yotes in cages in the back of a pickup truck. He said the cages were covered with a tarp. He said it showed the DNR releasing the yotes into areas to help control the deer population. Before the yotes arrived in Indiana whitetail didnt have a natural predator in Indiana.

This could be B.S. as the guy is know to stretch things a bit. h.h.

WOW!

I have turned in fox for bounty at Anderson Indiana It was ears back then I ask what to do with them was told to throw in trash on the way out could have turned them in again But I didnt LOL

Throbak, in St. Joseph Co. back then they had a special paper punch made that they used to punch a hole in the ears to prevent that. You guys must have been more honest. LOL