Possum Paul of Nelson, New Zealand

[Coote 5]

Here's a picture of my mate Paul with what he'd probably call a fairly small catch. Anything less than fifty is a tad dissappointing for this experienced bloke.

 

Paul has accounted for thousands of possums. He is an expert. Farmers, forestry companies and others call Paul for help in controlling the possum population. He is also a local buyer for fur and skins.

 

When he traps possums, he generally uses a toothless leghold steel trap.

 

I have never timed myself skinning a possum, but I know it is fairly hard work. I guess I could probably do a good job of six an hour fairly comfortably. Paul can skin 50 an hour .

 

[IanB 0]

Thats a goot tally coote

[woodga 170]

good pics nice to see something different goodhunting all woodga :ph34r:

[pegandgun 51]

Those must be the skinned possems at the back Coote.Good pitures and nice to see an expert trapper from another country.Keep the pics coming mate

Heres one or two mink and fox pelts

[Coote 5]

yep... those are skinned possums at the back. I don't know how he disposes of the carcases, but I think some people use them for dog tucker.... and I was told that one or two folks take them for human consumption.

 

Often when I visit Paul he has a heap of dead possums in his garage. It is a pleasure watching him skin them. He is a fairly big bloke and he appears to work slowly, but the skins come off and the pile of skinned carcases grows.

 

Darn those mink must be bigger than I thought. The skins certainly stretch a long way down those boards.

 

You skin foxes P&G?...from another post I gathered that real hunters just tossed them over hedges

[pegandgun 51]

Our foxes are starting to moult now Coote,which makes the pelts useless.Our fur trade is well and truly a thing of the past.I will skin a few well primmed Foxes/mink for orders now but the rest go "over the hedge".Its a f*****g discrace that we should be MADE to waist a valuable resource like our winter pelts just because a minorrity think its cruel.The foxes,mink and other animals are still being killed and simply dumped so using there pelts should be the obvious thing to do .

Now our government has banned fox hunting and are intent on banning snaring and anything else to do with our country life :realmad: .

 

I dont suppose theres a house or cottage near you that would suit me is there Coote

[chartpolski 20,583]

First time I was in NZ I started counting the road casualty possums on my way from Auckland to Tokaroa, soon gave up, litteraly hundreds!!! They were a pest in Toke, sitting up on the T.V. arials and ruining the reception. Up on the Coramandel there was cards in the shop windows advertising for pest controlers to kill possum for a wage and a tail bounty. I was told never eat them as a lot have been killed by poison.

Cheers.

[Coote 5]

We used to see more possums on the roads like your experience in Tokoroa Chartpolski. Maybe it is still like that in some areas, but I think that the the populations have been reduced near some urban areas.

 

There would be many cottages that would be ideally suited to you P&G. And you would be most welcome here too.

 

It's a shame about the legistlation changing our country ways. I could go on and on about it...and get quite rude. I just rejoice in the fact that I can still do a lot of the things that I like to do.... and should be able to for most of the forseeable future.

 

The lobbyists and legislators seem, quite often, to be folk who are well-intended. But they simply don't seem to have a grasp on how things really work. And just because a few tossers do stupid things with guns etc, the powers that be have a knee-jerk reaction and come up with blanket laws that stuff things up for good honest folk. I bet I don't have to explain that to you though.

 

A couple of days back I was invited to vote in a poll seeing whether NZers thought that guns should be totally banned. Naturally it didn't take me long to make my mind up, but I was heartened to see that only 7% of everybody polled to that time were in favour of banning guns.

[bullsmilk 2]

Our foxes are starting to moult now Coote,which makes the pelts useless.Our fur trade is well and truly a thing of the past.I will skin a few well primmed Foxes/mink for orders now but the rest go "over the hedge".Its a f*****g discrace that we should be MADE to waist a valuable resource like our winter pelts just because a minorrity think its cruel.The foxes,mink and other animals are still being killed and simply dumped so using there pelts should be the obvious thing to do .

Now our government has banned fox hunting and are intent on banning snaring and anything else to do with our country life :realmad: .

 

I dont suppose theres a house or cottage near you that would suit me is there Coote

hi there p+g justa question is fox hunting band i know hunting with dogs on any quary other than rat rabbit ect is band but hunting fox all out is that band ? i dont know any feed back would be great regards joe

[midnight 657]

no mate its legal to control fox populations , with snares guns and traps still.

you can still dig to foxes with terriers . and you can flush fox to waiting guns with dogs (only 2) or to a bird of prey.

its an ofence to intentionaly hunt foxer hares mink etc with dogs but accidents are over looked as long as there is odviouse other contoll methods being used at the time .ie walking out with a shot gun and a lurcher with the intention of using the dog to retreve shot or wounded animals.

" i shot the hares but it ran and i sent the dog to retreve it "

[pegandgun 51]

I think that you can only use terriers to ground on foxes if they are taking Game,but if they are taking lambs etc your hands are tied

Ime not certain about this,PETERTHEBEATER is the man to ask about this