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

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