Originally Posted by
Backwoods7
I wouldn't skin one for the little amount of money you'd get for it ain't worth the trouble if it's a nusence animan shoot it and dump it is the best advice I can give ya
I don't necessarily know if I agree with that, we make pretty good money at selling coons. Plus dumping carcasses is illegal in some states. Plus, coyotes/bobcats don't eat coons, so they rot away in place with the vultures picking at them, so if you DO dump them, dump them somewhere that you won't have to tolerate the stink.
Here's a little more info on pricing, at least in Kansas...
A "jumbo" coon is selling for $12-15 around here this year, "larges" are $10-12, "Mediums" are $6-8, and most places only give $4 for "smalls/kits", if they even buy them (not much useful hide on a kit). Where I hunt has pretty good food supply, so most of our coons are pretty big, so I can be selective and won't shoot smalls/kits, or even some mediums, so they can grow up for next season, unless I need to drop one to keep the dogs interested.
We're also pretty selective about when and where we hunt. We know where to hit when the weather is good, when the weather is bad, when the moon is new, or when the moon is full, when it's warm or when it's cold. It's a pretty rare night that we get skunked. Only getting 2 coons is a failure, but having a 10+ coon night is not uncommon.
On a normal night, we usually get 4-6 coons (some nights 10, 12, 15, or more). It usually takes me less than 10min to skin one, usually I can do a night's worth of skinning within an hour. At $13 average, that's $50-75 an hour... not a bad wage...
This year we've already sold about 180coons, we usually average between 200-250 on a given year, and at a $13 average, we're looking at about $2500-3000.