Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Trapping Any ADC/Wildlife control type trappers here ?

What's it like ?

Do you enjoy it ?

I consider myself to be primarily a fur trapper, but I have a commercial nuisance wildlife permit, and most of the trapping I've done in recent years has been ADC work. Do I enjoy it? Not enough to let it interfere with my day job. The problem is, where I live there is no professional ADC trapper. And there are a lot of skunks. So I get a lot of calls about skunks. I charge a lot. And some folks are still not deterred. Last summer I took over a dozen skunks out of one house. Before that I had taken 8 out of another.

ADC trapping has the potential to make a lot more money than fur trapping. But IMO you have to be on top of your game to do it, and customers deserve honesty and a job well done. There are some real scumbags that hold themselves out as ADC trappers and I wouldn't tolerate that.

The real money and the real service in ADC work is exclusions. Once a problem critter is caught, exclusions ensure the problem is much less likely to reoccur. I don't do exclusion work. I don't have the time or the skill set. I will put in a once way door if appropriate and urge them to get a handyman or contractor in to fix the problem for good.

Readonly ,

12 skunks in the house - that- would make a person uneasy ...

I've been in the construction business for years and have been asked about how to get rid of critters doing damage to someones house . I could help with both exclusion and ridding the critters from the house but it seems people here don't want to pay .

A doctor with raccoon and squirrel problems decided to go buy a cage trap - seems to want me to help him for free .

It seems like the sort of thing where a person could get calls at 3am asking questions about -- sounds in the attic-- what do I do .

I'm looking into it to see if it looks like something I might - give a go .

Thanks

Private sector or govt.?

Kinda hard to make a living either way.

I was a govt. wildlife specialist. Hard work. Long hours. Low pay.

Thought about doing that in the private sector, but friends that have done so didn't last long at it because it's an on demand profession, and not much financial gains to be had.

If you enjoy hunting and trapping, you should consider that before you delve into it full time, and depend on it to make your living. That can and will take all the fun out of it... sooner or later.

For more info try http://trappingradio2.com/ and or wolfernation.com. They are owned by a professional trapper named Clint Locklear that traps all over the country. And does a lot of ADC work.

That's what I'm thinking Rockinbar , like I said the people who asked didn't want to pay anything , thier thinking was I'd do it for $50 .

mch ,

I have watched nearly all of Clints video's and heard the podcast stuff on youtube. He went all in -trapping , bait making now deer hunting stuff . The time to promote ones self on youtube would be a huge undertaking in itself .

Where and when did you work for the outfit?

I've been a Specialist for 25 years. Best job in the world.

NM.

Not a bad job. I had a few decent perks as well. Some have it better than others. Some have great equipment other areas don't have much. Obama sure wasn't doing APHIS any favors. He tried to defund it as much as he could.

I just couldn't make the pay cover what I needed it to.

There's a bit of a riff down here right now.

The county was paying a pretty good portion for the Wildlife Specialist here. Oil revenue went down with the price of oil, and tax revenue followed. The county commissioners are trying to pull their financial help. Ranchers have gotten them to commit to paying half of what they were, if the ranchers will meet their input to keep it going. It's still up in the air right now.

Ranchers say that to get a Wildlife Specialist to work in the area it's costing them $300 per day.

You factor in a pickup, traps, supplies, gasoline, ATV, firearms, ammo, snares, baits, licenses, and expertise,... That ain't making anyone rich very quick.

Getting ranchers to pay you $300 a day is the trick.

They'd expect 10 coyotes and 25 hogs a day for that.

Rockinbar ,

Forgot to answer your first question -- private sector to begin with .

We had beavers undermine a county highway out in a tourist area , road caved in -could have lost a Dually down in the hole - nightime too . Nobody injured - no damage to any vehicles - pure luck .

I'm sitting good financially , only taxes and liability insurance so I don't have to have a huge payday -although that's always nice . Just getting very bored with the same old stuff year in year out .

I have been doing ADC work for close to 30 years now. If you would like some honest information I would be glad to answer any questions you might have through PM's. I am in NY state now, but am from Florida, and know some operators there that might also be of help to you.

I have a friend that just retired as a Govt trapper here in South Central Montana. I have know him since the late 70's and he seemed to enjoy his job. I guess the changes in how it was managed was his reason for retiring. Also, he is old-like me! I never heard him complain about the pay, but around here we don't make much anyway.
I am sure that guy has shot many thousands of coyotes out of helicopters and airplanes, and probably trapped just as many.
He also knew every rancher in several counties - and who made the best coffee and lunch. He is somewhat of a legend around these parts. ( opinions differ though)
I would have loved to have started out as a young Viet Nam veteran and had the life outdoors like him.
I do think that there are just as many or more coyotes than ever though.

Now back to the original questions,
Ken

Say hello for me!

I still see him every year at our conference in Red Lodge. He stops by to see everyone.

I got a dandy Airedale Terrier from him and his wife about five years back. One of the best coyote dogs I've ever had.

I kind of figured you would know who I am talking about.! He still has two Airedales but I kind of think he isn't raising any more.
Do you do the same type of work he did? You know, I was surprised he retired when he did although I think the political climate was more than he liked.
I see him at least once a week when he drives to the dump in his old Ford Pickup and he stops by my house on the way home.
I will tell him hi---
Once I figure out your real name. He would never be able to figure out what /who scenarshooter is!

Ken

Tell him the government trappers from Glasgow.......say hello. Wes(retired), and Pat.

And I'll stop by the next time I go through Columbus...;)

I think our govt trapper retired and moved away.

Not sure if we even have one around anymore.

He had some damn big shoes to fill here in Blaine County.

Lots of the old school guys have gone.

I've seen some of the new hires, when they even bother to replace them...

Many have never even attempted to trap anything. Zero experience.

I was aware of one in particular. It was a couple of months after working hard at his job before he ever even snared a coyote... Seems to me that he should have been able to "accidentally" catch more than that.

Then they trained him on M44's. That's scary... But it seems that many of the new hires depend on M44's way more than the old trappers used to.

Here's the pup I got from Dick and Judy. "Max". He'll be six this summer. I've had three great coyote dogs in my 25 year career with the outfit. Max is turning out to be one of the best.

Gene Bucklin was one of the good one's. We all still, and always will miss him. I used to go over there and fly for him on occasion, and we rode together going to the conference every summer.

Well, I can see where I need to get the coffee on and give Dick a call. He will be very pleased to hear that I have been discussing him with another "trapper" and when I show him a picture of one of his dogs on the damn Internet, he will be real pleased. Of course, the bragging will commence!😉
I will let you know the results .

Ken

Scenar , Beautiful dog.. I remember you photos of Trapper!!! Great pals for sure.. Always look forward to you information! AND PHOTOS!!!

Mike,

I did contract ADC work for the state (state set the contract ~ 40 hrs/wk, but I put way more hours into than that). I was provided with the state and federal permits, vehicle, all trapping, exclusion and hazing supplies. I used my own firearms and waders. All of this was done outside the regular state hunting and trapping seasons. It was a mixed bag of city, town and country issues. Wildlife ranged from bats, armadillos, opossum, skunk, raccoons, squirrels, gophers, snakes, coyotes, badgers, bobcats, beavers, muskrats, deer, and even mississippi kites. We were just starting to see signs of feral hogs, so I got into the beginning of that. I'd also get called out to take care of diseased, injured, orphaned wildlife and that ranged from deer, owls, hawks, waterfowl.

For me; I enjoyed it because of the presentation of new issues and challenges along with resolving the problem. For the people who lived in town or just moved out into the country, a lot of the problems are self created. So giving them information as to 'why' different wildlife behaves the way it does was a chunk of the battle and even check out equipment if the person felt comfortable using it. Call when your finished.

Farmers or ranchers sometimes would take care of the problem themselves and be done with it. If they called me; then either they were aggravated to the point where it now became my problem (which was fine) or they just didn't have time within their schedules or resources at their disposal to get the job done (that was most of the time). I was super busy, logged tremendous milage, covered 23 counties, always had my ADC supplies, and camping equipment.
Concluded the contract with a final report, including a list of species and location.

Thanks still snooping around seeing if this would be something for me .

23 counties wow that's covering some ground .

You are lucky.

I had daily and monthly reports, had to document each animal, photo it. give gps coordinates to each animal, draw blood and other samples as required. Plus had to attend various grazing board and commissioner's meetings to report effectiveness. I had incident reports as well, especially with large predators. Had a separate report for if an animal not targeted was taken.

Gunning coyotes from a chopper was fun, though.

It was more of a clandestine thing w/i the agency w/o any public meetings involved. Yet I always thought the helicopter gunning would be the bomb!!

You are lucky.

I had daily and monthly reports, had to document each animal, photo it. give gps coordinates to each animal, draw blood and other samples as required. Plus had to attend various grazing board and commissioner's meetings to report effectiveness. I had incident reports as well, especially with large predators. Had a separate report for if an animal not targeted was taken.

Gunning coyotes from a chopper was fun, though.

I am never going to complain about doing my logbook, or bookwork again. I can't imagine having time to get any real work done with all that documentation.

I forgot to add the permission and terms of service contracts for EACH landowner too...

They couldn't just call you out to take care of a problem. I had to get them to sign a contract about what animals would be targeted, which ones wouldn't be, plus the methods of taking, and any other special circumstances, like which pastures would have what type of livestock, etc...

Then you throw in the politics of the anti hunters and coyote huggers...

Sounds fun .

I had been a fur trapper and hunter most of my life. 9 years ago I decided to start doing contract work for the local ranchers. Things were slow at first. Ended up doing contract work for the state. Now between local ranchers and state contracts I really have more work than I can manage. If you do good work at a fair price word gets around and buisness grows. It's hard work and long hours but it been a good gig for myself. I still have a fulltime job and do this as well. You need to get a true handle on costs. From your cell phone, truck expenses, gear costs and bait and lure. It all adds up. Get a good accountant. Hope it helps.
Brent