My kind of store.

[pitw]

I went with a buddy to Edmonton yesterday and had to pick up 2 moose and a deer hide that I had taken in for tanning last year[not mine but I'm the one that gets the job cause I go there oftener to drop off coyote hides for NAFA]. 
The smells in this place are to die for as you have leather, luress/baits, sausage spice, trap oil and sawdust.  Probably over whelm some but I love it.

What you see upon entering.


Some snares.


Some Lures.


Some furs.


Some leather.


My interest in meat handling prompted these next bunch of pics.










My personal favorite as this one is marked $2,195[paid $20 for mine] 



Jack with his deer hide tanned and ready for use.


Now for the story that will start with an apology to all new trappers for the way some older trappers may act towards you.  We are not really trying to be rude, ignorant or most anything else for that matter.  We have had to learn what we know through experience and some of that experience was at our expense so we pass that along too.  Don't get mad at us for some of what we say/do but try and learn from it. 
The story.
  I had somehow wrangled my way into a business meeting with the owner and 3 sales people when Jack comes up telling me he found a guy with a queestion[Jack couldn't trap a golf ball on a driving range].  The guy is maybe 24 years old, 6'4" and has hands the size of a soccer ball.  He's standing holding a 110 coni when I show up and asks if there is a tool to set these things.  I reply "Yes and you have two good ones".  I take the trap and set it, handing it back to him.  He ask's "Can I use that to catch coyotes by the paw".  .  I tell him that yes he probably could but that just about any trap there would be a better choice and that there are now laws that restrict what he can use.  I show him the legal ones and he says they are too expensive.  By now I've found out he lives in the "Burbs" and just wants to get rid of some coyotes.  I tell him if he doesn't care about the laws and getting caught that he can find many used traps for cheap that will work and go about looking at stuff.  He's been holding this coni the whole time like it is Nitro glycerine[good thing it wasn't cause his shaking would have set that stuff off].  He yells "What do I do with this"?   I say as I'm heading around the shelf heading for the lures "Just unset it and put it back".  I then heard a [many of you have heard this sound} whack followed by a howling %&*$%#@*&^&^%)*)(%%%.  I gotta admit I smiled a bit as he caught up again and had me help remove the offending object from his quickly turning red digits.  He then wanted to know if snares would work    .  I patiently explained how to set snares for coyotes while telling him how to set up a bunker to defend himself from all the dog owners he was going to have coming for his life .  So as you can see he was learning and that's a good thing.
  I'll have Mandy show her Moose hide when she gets here today as I'm dying to see it too cause we squared it up good[I hope] before sending it.

[timbertoes]

Neat post, thanks for sharing!

[NASA]

LOL, the noobie learning curve can be very entertaining at times. :roflmao:

[msmith]

Wish you had pics of that coni after he "un set" it. LOL

[HuntnCarve]

I truly wish we had that kind of store around these parts.  Be like a "candy store" for me!  I just finished up grinding 20 lbs of deer into burger.  Yesterday I pulled out the Hobart meat slicer (commercial model that my brother inlaw gave me!) and sliced up everything from the deer except the burger scraps.  Tonight we're having venison steak sandwiches! 

Funny story:

Tuesday night as I was boning out the doe I shot down at my buddies place, a van came pulling up into his driveway.  Now this is considered a somewhat residential area.  A woman and a boy hop out of the van and walk right by me never even noticing me. (I was in his front yard with the deer hanging on a gambrel from a tree).  They were friends of his wife and daughters, coming to pick up another daughter that was there.
Well when they came back out and noticed me, the lady gasped!!!  "Did you kill that?"  "I sure hope I did being that I've cut all the meat off it skeleton!"  "What are you going to do with it?"  "I'm going to eat it."  She screws up her face and gives me a sour look!  "Have you ever tried venison?" I ask.   "Not that I can remember" she replies.  "It looks gross like that!"  "Well what does your beef look like when you buy it?"  "Oh, it's all wrapped and packaged at the Super market.  It does not look like that!"  "Well it did at one time" I tell her. My parting words must have planted a sudden dose of reality in her head as she got into the van and drove away.   My friends wife just smiled at me when I told her that I hope I did not offend her friend.  Such is life in the Big city.  I'll take the country any day of the week!

Dave

[HuntnCarve]

Oh, I almost forgot...Isn't having a Conibear snapping down on your fingers a standard initiation into the world of trapping?  Believe me, once it happens, you'll never forget the experience!   I thought it was the funniest thing when it happened to an older friend that was teaching me how to set them.  Wouldn't you know it.  I got my turn a couple days later!

[Silencer]

that's a great store for sure   

[FinsnFur]

That a privately owned store,  or some Northern Chain? Boyyy I think I'd love it in there too.

[pitw]

Jim Halford Hide has been going in Edmonton as a fur buyer for as long as I can remember.  Now as most other trapping related stores have shut down they have opened up stores in 8 places here in Alberta.  If it ain't against the rules and anybody wants a link to their catalogue I maybe could figure out how to put it up. 

[5 SHOTS]

 

[LORDDAL]

any body want that link hmmmmmmm let me think YES Please  that store is one in which I would never leave once I got there youd have to drag me out kickin and screamin and all that leather I would go all giggidy giggidy over my dad use to run a Hanover Shoe plant and I have been workin leather since I was my sons age nothing beats the smell of leather except maybe burning Coal from an Old Shay engine I was a brakeman on the shays here at Cass Scenic Railroad for a time and man I miss that coal smell

[iahntr]

Very cool.
A guy could spend some time in there!

[pitw]

Okay here's the website[I think]     
http://www.halfordhide.com/

On another note I thought I might show you the difference in a hide skinned by Mandy and myself



and one done by a good friend and very good hunter.



I like hers better even if it is smaller.  Now you know some of the reason why I appreciate you guys and your eye for detail and wonderful works of [for want of a better word] Art. 

[FinsnFur]

And behind curtain number 3....
Them turned out very nice.

[alscalls]

Thanks for the link!  I love the cuber!!! 
What ya gonna do with the moose hide now that ya got it tanned?  (Just curious)
Looks like your friends hide had too sharp a knife in a couple of places..... ....I remember being like that myself....

Love the post.....thanks for sharing.

[vvarmitr]

No wonder there are so many anti-trappers. 

I remember butchering & cutting a hole in the hide. Boy the razing & ridicule ya got.