Thread: possum plucker

Anyone know a company out there that make possum plucker's with a electric motor. Can night shoot and keep going on a good night come home and pluck the next day. Just a thought am having

A Guy that sells proven home built ones would be ok. All i can find are petrol ones and i know its for field use.

The only home built plucker I know of has an electric motor of quite substantial size to stop the beaters stalling and to create wind to blow the fur...would pay to check motor size comparison HP between electric and petrol.

McVicars in Rotorua

Originally Posted by Gapped axe

McVicars in Rotorua

Bit out of my budget $2800 the one they have on TM. The plucker i had last night done a good job for her first time at it, just she doesn't always come out
I only do it for a bit of pest control on the farm but just thought on those good nights i can just keep on shooting them and deal with them latter. The window is closing at a fast rate with lambing and calving

I made one with the help of the local engeneer, who robbed me for their part

ran it with a honda motor 5.5 hp and it went great

I lent it to a friend who ran it with a .5 hp or so electric motor and it worked

Id have to say it would have been pathetic with the .5 because I could get the motor working when i had it on there

i hate stopping shooting to pluck warm possoms, and hate piss/blood/semen on my guns so a plucker is cool so you just do it the next day when you can be bothered
I also use to pick up any possoms when id drive on little trips and it would pay my gas and then some

I found that wearing a condom stops most semen getting on possum fur.

Originally Posted by bigbear

Bit out of my budget $2800 the one they have on TM. The plucker i had last night done a good job for her first time at it, just she doesn't always come out
I only do it for a bit of pest control on the farm but just thought on those good nights i can just keep on shooting them and deal with them latter. The window is closing at a fast rate with lambing and calving

I’d chuck a bit of math at it.

What’s the extra $ value gain with a plucker..?

Base it on $100/kg ( cause that’s why we pluck. It’s $90/kg at moment n Bush has stopped buying for August...)

Extra 10g fur per body m/p over h/p say..?

10 bodies x 10g = 100g = $10

100 bodies x 10g = 1 kg= $100

...so you’d need 2800 bodies of extra fur to pay for a machine from McIvors ($2800 cos that’s only price I have..)

I’d say you can do a far bit of hand plucking to get reasonable $ without a big capital outlay....

My 2c worth....

If you value the convenience of of plucker ...fill ya boots.


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Blake O'loughlin from stricky outdoors makes and sell possum pluckers petrol and electric I've just purchased a petrol one and highly recommend them priced around 1400/1500 for electric i think.
Tauranga based I think.
Info@strictlyoutdoors.co.nz
0277681745

You might also want to check if anyone's buy machine plucked fur at the moment, a couple of weeks ago when I sold some hand plucked they told me that they turned a guy away with 25kg of machine plucked and are no longer buying it

@Crekyhills Thanks for the heads up, only been hand plucking. hard to justify spending big money on a plucker when iam only doing it for pest control, I can understand the guys that are doing it for a living day in day out but with fur prices dropping again it be hard to stay in the game and make a living.

i think machine breaks down the fiber's?

I don’t know that it breaks down the fibre, but it certainly mixes all the hair up so that the length is not able to be distinguished.
Often the buyer wants a minimum length, no belly hair or tail hair etc.


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Originally Posted by mimms2

Generally MP you take all the fur so tail, moult and belly, which are shorter and lower grade.
HP you just take the back, so the higher value/quality stuff.

Even when doing h/p always get told ‘pluck the lot...get more weight..’ my understanding was back fur/points only


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I pluck what ever comes out, if i get half the tail fur it goes in the bag