|
Post by sixgun44 on Mar 8, 2012 15:11:52 GMT -5
I cought 3 rats today and after skinning i saw holes in two of them on belly side. On of the holes turned into a two and half inch slice just below front legs after i put it on stretcher. The other one has a little slice about mid section, but only about an inch long and he is a really big one. How much will be taken away from price from such damage?
|
|
|
Post by chicken on Mar 8, 2012 15:34:24 GMT -5
? NOT REALLT SURE!!! But sew em up... wont hurt the value...hole is a hole ..but it would be good pratics
|
|
|
Post by mole on Mar 8, 2012 16:29:33 GMT -5
I dont know what caused the cuts in your rats.. But.. Oscar Cronk gave a talk Demo at convention once and he talked about cut rats and one cause was wire tag ends on traps. He said when the rat gets caught it spins and turns under water and those tag ends can cut the rats. He advised that you should cut off all old wire pieces on traps.
|
|
|
Post by Itrapny on Mar 8, 2012 17:22:44 GMT -5
No need to sew up holes in 'rats or any pelt unless it's sold fur side out IMO....If you use wood you can pin them closed, but you can't disguise a hole without fur to hide it
|
|
|
Post by herm on Mar 8, 2012 17:28:45 GMT -5
Not going to say you have to,but with two out of three cut rats it is time to pull your traps in that location.They are breading and fighting.Look for a different location such that mat have just lost its ice covering if you dont want to catch rats that are cut.
|
|
|
Post by sixgun44 on Mar 8, 2012 17:48:33 GMT -5
How long do i pull for....season? The holes don't bother me, and i love doing it,....just can't see doing it if the rats are worth nothing. Would rather wait till next season, but if it is only a buck or two loss..i can deal with that.
|
|
|
Post by slyfox74 on Mar 8, 2012 18:12:21 GMT -5
aside from the devalued pelt, you're running the risk of catching bred females. Better to pull out of there and find a fresh spot. I try to find places where the ice is just beginning to recede.
|
|
|
Post by sixgun44 on Mar 8, 2012 18:24:44 GMT -5
I will pull tomorrow if any more cuts/bites.
|
|
|
Post by J.P. Wilson on Mar 8, 2012 20:56:38 GMT -5
One thing to think about too is if you caught that same female rat in the fall it would also not be able to have kits this spring. So if you leave it now or catch it in the fall your still doing the same thing. Just depends how you look at it. IMO
|
|
|
Post by slyfox74 on Mar 8, 2012 21:31:00 GMT -5
Good point
|
|
|
Post by herm on Mar 9, 2012 6:26:46 GMT -5
But the rat harvested in the fall would not be cut.
|
|
austinp
#3 Newhouse
the next fur season is never far from our minds :)
Posts: 3,008
|
Post by austinp on Mar 9, 2012 6:37:30 GMT -5
the same blue female rat trapped on opening day in late October 2011 is worth about as much as the spring version with a hole in it. not much difference either way
|
|
|
Post by johnrockwood on Mar 9, 2012 8:16:02 GMT -5
If the population level is high enough, you will find bit muskrats in the fall, too. Very few muskrats live past 2 years of age with most of them not surviving their first year. More are killed by other means than by trappers. Therefore (something to think about): Does it really make a big difference whether or not you harvest them, other than the difference in a reduced price for damaged skins ? Especially if some hawk, owl, mink, coon, coyote, fox, turtle, blue heron or whatever is going to kill them 365 days a year ?
|
|
|
Post by Lonny Mattison on Mar 9, 2012 9:13:31 GMT -5
Good point John.
|
|
austinp
#3 Newhouse
the next fur season is never far from our minds :)
Posts: 3,008
|
Post by austinp on Mar 9, 2012 9:48:45 GMT -5
Contrary to eternal and undying misconception, trapping pressure cannot and does not limit future muskrat populations. But those who believe otherwise are impossible to convince otherwise, so no point in elaborating that point I know from personal experience of "over-trapping" the ditch and creek network behind my house every year for the past decade that next year's population comes back every bit as strong or stronger... except for years of extreme drought and/or dredging operations. Matter of fact, the years when I manage to clean them out so it appears not a surviving rat exists anywhere tend to be followed by the biggest populations next season. I have an inkling that low population numbers where favorable habitat exists stimulates greater reproduction in the same manner coyotes and fox have larger litters where year-round ADC work is prevalent.
|
|
|
Post by sixgun44 on Mar 9, 2012 16:21:27 GMT -5
Only got one today with no cuts/bites. Pulled a few traps and set them else where. All the rats cought have been really good size, except for two. If over trapping is not a problem and price is about the same either way then i guess i should put a few back tomorrow. What is an "average" i can expect for rats and how should i judge rat size?, most of the ones i got are about to the end of the wire stretchers.
|
|
|
Post by herm on Mar 9, 2012 19:03:42 GMT -5
I dont think there is any documentation any where of modern regulated trapping ever having a negitive effect on wildlife populations.However if I was getting a large percentage of cut rats and I dont mean one hole in the pelt and I knew of a different spot that the ice had just gone off and the rats were not cut there I would move my traps where the rats are not cut.That would be my personal choice if I had that option,but as stated by others it would not effect the population the following year. Now my question if we all mostly agree on that I wonder why we along the southern shore of Lake Ontario do no longer have a spring season on rats?We are subject to lake effect snows just like the eastern shore that can shut us down early in the season.Also deep snows can prevent the formation of thick ice so you cant even trap in the dead of winter some years.
|
|
austinp
#3 Newhouse
the next fur season is never far from our minds :)
Posts: 3,008
|
Post by austinp on Mar 10, 2012 7:16:20 GMT -5
imo it wouldn't hurt a thing to leave the rat season open to March 15th here in the southern zone. Most years that would only give a week or two of open water trapping... and the season of 2010-2011 would have been none.
a bit longer to work the winter rats with good quality fur, anyways. there'd only be a handful of guys out, just the serious diehards while everyone else stayed home.
|
|