Where To Buy Inexpensive Used Ferret Finder.

[Minkenry 1,044]

Hello all. It is the beginning of the muskrat season, and my wife and I were hit with a tragedy. My hunting mink That'e' was hit by a car and killed. Now I'm stuck with a broken heart, no mink to hunt with, and to make matters worse, the muskrat season just started. I have a half trained mink who can kill muskrats without a problem, but she hasn't been trained to cache. Training a mink to cache typically takes several months, and the muskrat season will be half over before I have a mink ready for caching. I decided to hunt anyway, and try to net the muskrats as she flushes them, but she keeps killing the muskrats before they can escape from their burrow. Today I spent several hours trying to dig up a muskrat that I never found, and now I'm thinking I ought to try your guy's ferret finders, to see if that would help.

 

I've been hesitant to try one, because I worry about the mink getting snagged underwater and drowning, but I figure I should at least give the collar a try. The problem is, I don't have much money to spare, so I don't think I can afford a new one. Plus, I'm not sure how much I will even use it, due to the fact that it will only be useful for hunting muskrats (brown rat holes are too tight to allow for the collar, and there's no way to dig up most rock squirrel dens). So even if I did have the money, I'm not too excited to spend a bunch of money on a device I only occasionally use.

 

Does anyone have any tips for where I can get a good deal on a ferret finder?

 

Thanks in advance to anyone who replies!

Edited November 9, 2014 by Minkenry

[Rake aboot 4,929]

They tend to be quite expensive bud.

 

The old Mk1 Deben locators are good. but still command a high price because some people prefer them to the new ones.

 

The Mk3M is the one I use, but again they can be expensive. You can see them on the Deben website.

 

Total pisser about the mink. I`ve watched your videos and it`s pretty amazing what you are doing.

 

What do you reckon your budget would be in UK £ and if I see anything I`ll put it up here for you.

 

ATB

Rake

[Minkenry 1,044]

They tend to be quite expensive bud.

 

The old Mk1 Deben locators are good. but still command a high price because some people prefer them to the new ones.

 

The Mk3M is the one I use, but again they can be expensive. You can see them on the Deben website.

 

Total pisser about the mink. I`ve watched your videos and it`s pretty amazing what you are doing.

 

What do you reckon your budget would be in UK £ and if I see anything I`ll put it up here for you.

 

ATB

Rake

I'm not sure what to say my budget is. If I could find one for under 100 pounds, I could probably come up with the cash pretty quick. If it's much more than than that, then I'd have to save up for a while.

[GreyRake 108]

Will just have to keep an eye out on for sale pages. They come up on the for sale section on here sometimes. eBay, gumtree.

 

There's some mk1/2s on ebay.co.uk at the moment under £100. Bidding, so may go up and your delivery will be a bit more.

[dogmad riley 1,337]

Don't think the locator collar would last long underwater that might be your downside to it. Worth there money though better getting your ferret back or mink than leaving them

 

Sorry for your loss I know alot if effort went in RIP

Edited November 9, 2014 by dogmad riley

[Minkenry 1,044]

I've often used a second ferret in the past to either shift or help finish the rabbit off, how would that go with mink? obviously won't help your current situation. Locators are a lot of money , but they give you peace of mind, banging a shovel on top of the ground may help, is she struggling to kill them or eating them?

She has no problem killing what she's caught, and she has no desire to eat it either. Just kills it, and comes out covered in blood, and wanting to look for another. I hate wasting the muskrat, so I then try to dig them out when possible. This is a total pain in the butt, because I have to dig up the ENTIRE den system searching for her kill! If I had a locator, I would be able to know where the kill was being made, because she would be stationary while she was making the kill. I'm hoping this would make it easier for me to find the dead muskrat. Normally I just train my mink to bring their prey back, but it takes a couple months to train the average mink to retrieve their kill, and cache it in their carry box. I typically train my mink during the summer, then I have all fall and winter to hunt with them. But since my trained mink died, I'm now stuck with this half trained one, and I'll waist the hunting season if I put in the time to train her the rest of the way.... hence why I wanted to try out a locator, if I can find a way to afford it....

[Minkenry 1,044]

Don't think the locator collar would last long underwater that might be your downside to it. Worth there money though better getting your ferret back or mink than leaving them

 

Sorry for your loss I know alot if effort went in RIP

There's no problem getting my mink back, that's pretty easy. Especially with this mink! She kind of like a little dog, she wanders off hunting, then comes back looking for me if she wanders too far. She comes back out of the hole after every kill, no problem. The problem is finding her kill so it doesn't go to waist.

 

So the locators aren't water proof? Someone told me they are..... could it be a special model he was describing, or was he possibly mistaken?

Edited November 9, 2014 by Minkenry

[dogmad riley 1,337]

 

Don't think the locator collar would last long underwater that might be your downside to it. Worth there money though better getting your ferret back or mink than leaving them

 

Sorry for your loss I know alot if effort went in RIP

There's no problem getting my mink back, that's pretty easy. Especially with this mink! She kind of like a little dog, she wanders off hunting, then comes back looking for me if she wanders too far. She comes back out of the hole after every kill, no problem. The problem is finding her kill so it doesn't go to waist.

 

So the locators aren't water proof? Someone told me they are..... could it be a special model he was describing, or was he possibly mistaken?

I think when they say waterproof they mean splash proof (if you get what I mean) I don't think they will be fully waterproof to be fully submerged I could be wrong though. Atb

[dogs-n-natives 1,181]

The old deben are not waterproof, I think they make one that looks like a wee tiny hockey puck thats watertight lol

 

I have an old mk1 set-up you could get off me, but there no good for regular underwater work in my opinion.

[dogs-n-natives 1,181]

Yeah its the deben mk3 thats supposed to be fully waterproof

[Minkenry 1,044]

You might be surprised how accurate a dog can be. Is the mink steady with dogs? Might be worth a go might add another dimension to the hunt?

I've got a buddy who hunts with me real regular who's doing this. He's got a lurcher, and had a terrier that worked with both my and his mink. He just got a new jagdterrier pup that he will be raising up with his current mink. His other "working terrier" was an American bred piece of crap "Decker terrier" that I now like to call a "DeckCUR terrier". I've LITERALLY had boarder collies that were gamer and had more prey drive than that little cur! The piece of crap wouldn't even kill rats without flinching! So my buddy sold the dog to someone who wanted a pet, and got a 8 week old jagdterrier from working bred badger dogs out of Serbia, I believe (don't quote me on the country, as I might have remembered wrong). He was going back and forth trying to decide if he wanted a jagdterrier or a patterdale terrier,and he finally decided to get the jagd because they had more breeding for trailing abilities.

 

My mink That'e' (the mink that died recently) was really good around dogs, and totally ignored them. However Ma'ska, the albino mink I'm hunting with now, thinks dogs are prey. She will attack them any chance she can get. She'll even stalk the dog, sneaking up on it from behind and pouncing on it's neck. We've had pull her off of a dog's face a few times now, so I'm not too interested in trying to work her with dogs.

Edited November 10, 2014 by Minkenry