BigGameHoundsmen.com

Sold 10 to a local buyer and averaged $915. I couldn' t believe it till I cashed the check!

Ross, tats a dang nice average and I thought my 700 was good. Andy

Yeah Andy,
That's the best I've ever done. They were all males and all but one were caught at 8000 to 9000 feet in the mountains. I felt like I earned every penny!

Wow...that is lots of money being made on cats.
So just curious I keep seeing people making this crazy money on cats for the last few years and I wonder how much longer do you guys think this will continue? First I guess I wonder just HOW many $8000 fur coats can be sold (I mean it's like people must wear them one time and buy a new one?) and second I wonder how much longer will the cat populations in the high dollar areas continue to do well with the amount of pressure that must be getting put on them anymore?
Sooner or later one of them is going to come to a stop and personally I hope it's the coats before the cats...
I do live on border of the high dollar cats and do catch them I like money just as much as the next person but I like seeing a cat in a tree even better. Someone will probably get mad I posted this but it's just my opinion but sometimes I wonder if anyone else is thinking the same thing?

Liz ODell wrote:Wow...that is lots of money being made on cats.
So just curious I keep seeing people making this crazy money on cats for the last few years and I wonder how much longer do you guys think this will continue? First I guess I wonder just HOW many $8000 fur coats can be sold (I mean it's like people must wear them one time and buy a new one?) and second I wonder how much longer will the cat populations in the high dollar areas continue to do well with the amount of pressure that must be getting put on them anymore?
Sooner or later one of them is going to come to a stop and personally I hope it's the coats before the cats...
I do live on border of the high dollar cats and do catch them I like money just as much as the next person but I like seeing a cat in a tree even better. Someone will probably get mad I posted this but it's just my opinion but sometimes I wonder if anyone else is thinking the same thing?

Liz, I have no cat hounds today, but share your concerns. Realize in todays economy people need all the money possible. Lets hope others have your concerns. Al

Our state there are quota for diffrent regions as long as one canbe seletive just as ross stated all good adult toms there will be no problem. One has to be selectiveon taking cats and you average will be high and not hurting the population one bit. Its the kill all theory that is bad for popultion. Andy

Liz,
I like the money but like the cats more. Selective harvest definately is important. I don't think prices can stay this high for more than a couple years but who knows. I do think that the cat population is down in parts of our area but think it has more to do with prey than hunting. In areas with lots of public land and road access the cats will definately take a hit. There is alot of country here that never gets hunted or trapped so there will always be cats. Our biggest problem is the government trapper who kills more cats than anoyone around. He gets paid by taxpayers to control predators(coyotes) but somehow manages to catch 40 to 60 cats a year and gets to keep the fur check! WTF!

Got 400 for mine is South Dakota. I heard they were paying as high as 700 skinned and stretched.

Although this was a record year for us, as far a overall numbers, we covered 3 times the ground while burning 3 times the fuel. We harvested 1 of 7 cats treed this year. That is a new low. What that means as far as cat numbers who knows.
With that said we sold ten of our B grade eastern cats to a private buyer for more that I have gotten EVER. We'll see how Klamath goes. Sounds like there will be a load of quality cats up.
Not that I have anything against trapping but Oregon may well lose it if it goes to the polls. That along with the California cats possibly leaving the market we could see an increase in cat prices. Maybe a limit is on the horizon for western Oregon???
Don

Sounds like most decent toms from eastern MT are going in the $800 - $1000 range with the really good ones $1200 and up. I think the prices will be better next year because there won't be a surplus of furs at the end of this year, every time that happens, prices go up. The demand will outlast the supply because there are a billion Chinese, several million Russians, and several million Europeans who want what we're selling. If you want to see amazingly high prices, talk everybody that hunts or traps in the western U.S. to not sell any cats for a year or two, then see what all that demand for high quality western cats would do! That's my $.02 anyway.