When I was in Illinois (suburbs of Chicago) I remember catching raccoons that got up into the +40 pound range, but in Utah where I live now, raccoons in the lower to mid 30's are exceptionally rare. So it makes me wonder how accurate my memory really was on the size of the raccoons I caught in Illinois. This got me wondering further, how big do raccoons really get, and where are the biggest raccoons being caught?

So what have you guys experienced? What are the heaviest weights on raccoons you have caught, and what states were they caught in? And how rare is it to catch a raccoon over 40 lbs? Is it really even possible to catch a raccoon over 50 lbs? Thanks to all who reply!

Bergmann's Rule.

10% of my coon will go over 30lbs. Have only caught a couple 40s. Had a season think it was 2011 160 coons skinned 25.5 lb average. See a few on the roads that are huge in August at the height of sweet corn season.

It takes a heck of a coon to go 30#.

I have personally only got two that went over 30#, and they were barely over.

So by percentage, I would say that by me, maybe 1% will go 30+.

I've heard that Maine has a monster coon as well as N Dakota.

ND would get my vote.

I have only witnessed a few from years of trapping this area.Southern WI.Il. border.Here is a pic of a real 31 pounder.Hung it on a standard 6'8" door.Next to a few average coon.All tanned.

got one 39 lbs next a dumpster at backyard burgers LOL

But the biggest ones come from around the nuclear plants were they make them there nuclears.. U can shoot them out at night without a light ,, you know because they glow in the dark and such.

Most 30 + lb coons I've caught in Michigan were in the UP, some below bridge.

Biggest one I ever weighed here in PA was 26 lbs. It looked a heck of a lot bigger than that.

MI and SD have some big ones the majority of coons here run XXL or bigger most years. 31#
#30

That’s sweet

I know when I was doing put up for NAFA we just hated doing ND coon, big and gristly.

In the '70's one was taken here in Delta county that weighed 45 pds.on the DNR scale in Escanaba.They were calling it the state record.Don't know if anybody broke it since.

Back in high school my buddy and I shot one that weighed 46# on a certified scale. Biggest I have ever gotten. I have caught a fair number in the mid 30's, but that is spread over several thousand coon and many years. In northeast NE, I think my average coon was a 3X, but I didn't trap coon in the water much, so mine probably ran a bit bigger than some.

36-15 on the fish scale. It felt like 37 to me.

I think we're close.


Brad

31# was my biggest ever here in pa.

Patrapper that is a monster here. I assume that I might have taken one in Pa over 21. In NY I did get a big one and everyone knows that I weight everything but for some reason not that one. Maybe 25......jk

caught some big lanky coons in s.d. Real big redfox too

I’ve personally killed two that went 26# , one in a trap that was a porker. Treed the other with my old night champion female, this coon looked like a stove pipe with legs. The biggest one I ever saw was killed in a grain elevator and bought by my old fur buyer ( Mr. Glen Burmaster) it weighed 32#.

A lot of people talk about 30 pounders, until you pull the digital scale out,lol !

X2

Suburbs South of Toronto all the way on down to Windsor will yield lots of corn and soybean fed coon. I have trapped less than 200 coon so far, but I know that 2 where over 30 on a scale and lots that I never weighed were only a bit smaller.
I have seen some absolute giants road killed around Detroit and Ann Arbor MI

42 years of trapping,predator and coonhunting that was the only one i've ever caught even close to 30 and i actually caught it in a blind trail set in a hay field heading into a cornfield with a 1 1/2 coil. When i showed up at the trading post a couple miles away with it to weigh it definitely got alot of attention.

Apparently it depends on what state your coon came from.I've been in sections of the south where I thought a 11/2 coil was overkill.And 30 pd ers,while not your average size here,is not uncommon.

I usually catch ten or so a year over 30 pounds. Like ADC said you think you have one until the scale comes out. Not really common. LLL

only caught one that went over 30 lb in 45 years weighed hundreds that went 22 -25 lbs that's on dryland going to early and trapping creeks yield kits and small females

My biggest ever went 39, second 36.

For every thousand coon, I'll have roughly 10-15 that hit or break 30. LOTS of 25-27 though.

Those big Coon and Big Beaver will shine again I just know they will. I skinned and put up so many Coon back in the 80's I couldn't even look at one until here about a year ago, if those big prime ones would bring a quarter hundred I would put a dozen for the fun of it. I put up a Beaver here a couple years ago now that is work let me tell you! Nothing but respect for you Coon and Beaver guys.

My largest in south Tx was a whopping 18 lbs!

My nephew has weighed two in at calling contests that weighed 43 each on two different contests and two different scales. Central Texas and hundreds of pounds of corn thru the deer feeders. He said they were so fat they waddled.

I got a 40 lb and a 35 lb in the same day 5 miles back in on a snow shoe trail I had a few years ago.

I carried both of them out frozen hanging on my shoulders with rope.

Let's just say I didn't have to do any cardio at the gym that week. Lol

Caught a 40# or over for the last 3 years running. This year the big one was 38.5#. NRA hat for reference.

I'd say to answer his question. The Mid west ... HAHA

Back when I was in high school, I caught one here in Ohio that weighed 47 pounds. It had poor quality fur and overall was a poor quality yellow swamp Coon. I always wondered if it was somebody’s escaped pet.

Best wishes, Willy

I largest raccoons I've ever seen were ones trapped in and around the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago; absolute monsters. This was back in the late 70's.

Biggest we caught was 29 pounds. I have tried my whole life to get one over 30 pounds.
Jim

put one of those 40 pounders on a scale 99.9% wont break 30. same thing is true of bobcats.

Yeppers, even that 29 looked freakishly huge. Was tough to get a decent shape stretch on it because it was so round around the belly.
Thanks Danny.
Jim

A buyer in Pa held a heaviest contest.
If I remember right, all the 40s and most 30s
COON
Shrunk
Hugely
In
Transit
to that guys shop.

This season half of mine are 3x or better.
How where and when I trap has a big effect on this.

Long Island,i fleshed a bunch of coon from here,coney island-duck farms and such.the coon were not only huge but pretty colored to boot.i broke 30 once in pa and never close again but that one in 30 yrs.

Freakishly huge is right!!

These were the only two I got that were 30+

I've only caught 3 coons. I hate skinning them so I don't try and catch them since I only trap as a hobby. My smaller 2 were around 20 and 25 while my bigger one weighed 36 pounds.

Don't know if NAFA still uses the 6X grade, but when they did 2013-2014, I was usually getting a couple Northern MN in that lot. Had to stretch 41 inches I believe.

Here are a couple big ones. LLL

I call them saucer butts.

bucket butts here.

Yep, a lot of guys who've caught plenty in the 40 lb category have never actually weighed them.

I recall one guy on her awhile back claiming he took 3 coon out of a farm house with 4" walls that were over 40.

I caught ONE at 40 years back and had to pry its head out of a #220. Just short of having to grind the rivets out of the jaws. And we wonder why the bigguns go around, under or over a #160.

The biggest coon, I've ever seen was in the city, behind a dumpster. I've also taken my best coon behind a city restaurant dumpster years ago. Would be good for a dozen of the nicest coon I'll ever see, every year.

I don't catch much fur because I'm a hobbyist who doesn't have a lot of time at present but I do live in good coon country according to the NAFA grades I get. The largest on an old bathroom scale with me holding it was in the high 20s. I don't think I've sent an easy 5XL to auction yet but I'll take a 4XL "linebacker" coon in the 22-24 lb range anyday over a 2xl beach ball. I don't have a buyer yet for excess coon fat...

i am eager to go out and see my sons place in Minot and the area around it,just saying.plus he spends everyday driving around the state on the AF's dime so he should know a little.

What I found on very large coons is stretched out belly fur. Lol

And on the males the tail was always damaged on either being bit off or scar tissue.

I believe that's from breeding season from other males but that's just a guess.

Got an Alabama coon one time at a feed lot that went 24 pounds and went almost 8 in wide at base and 37 long at the end of hide. Look like a darn coyote. Because of all the deer feeders in the woods now days we're trapping more and more coons over 32 in.

How long are your boards?

There is a yard stick beside it. I believe those boards are 56" and are wider than my normal board. They are for my "big" coon. LLL

I don't target coon. The ones I get are big ridge runners I get in my coyote sets. I don't know what they weigh but they will stretch 4x-5x. I get a few that go 6x. A 6x is 41 inches. I have taken a few that stretch a couple inches bigger than that.

Back when George Sovy was buying coon in the late 70's he paid by the lb ($1 a lb) and was still disgusted that he had to pay $45 for a coon that lived next to a broiler chicken operation. Had a belly chock full of dead chicken! (That would have been in Washington).

i've also caught hundred pound beaver til i got them on the scales.with them the weight seems to greatly increase in comparison with the distance from the truck.

I've done some too and your exactly right beav they're awful.

must be like mississippi beaver.

I’ve stretched quite a few go over 40”. When I was taking coon I’d see quite a lot that would be in the 25-30lb range. Few I’m sure would be over. Majority of these coon would come from trapping protein feeders on big game ranchers down here. Just rolling with thick yellow fat from eating at a never ending protein buffet.

Back in the mid to late '80's there was a picture in the letter to the editor section of the Trapper magazine showing a 'coon stretched out on top of a cage trap with the guy who caught it next to it.He caught it in Minnesota and the part of the caption said it weighed 54 pds(?).Whether it weighed that much or not,using the cage trap and the guy standing next to it as a scale,the thing looked like the Andre the Giant of the 'coon world.

I killed one that weighed In at 51 lbs. WE were pretty young and my dog run something Into a culvert went home got the 22 and killed It. We didn't even know what It was till we got It out of the culvert. Dad hauled It down to the local feed mill and had It weighed.

Found out later It was the local owner of a drive Ins Pet.

I have caught a lot of coon in Illinois and the biggest one I ever weighed was 33 lbs. I think some of the biggest coon are around food dumpsters from restuarants in city where habitat is close by. This year I caught some of the biggest I have caught in a while including the 33 pounder and think it is because I haven't been trapping much the last three years and some have a chance to get bigger.

Always seemed the coons in the Chicago suburbs that lived in town always had a course "welcome mat" looking fur on them.

My largest was here at the homestead about '04. It was just a few ounces over 30. It was a tank.

Green skinned 42" coon. Never weighed it, but my 16 yr old son was proud. Best Halloween he ever had.

30 to 32 pounds has been the plateau on the ones that I have caught. One or maybe two a season for me. All around corn silage bunk feeders.

I get maybe 1 over 30 pounds a year, most of my "thirty pounders" are 23-26 pounds. Had 2 or 3 reach the 40 inch mark over they years but very few.

I have caught several that have filled a bucket but never weighed them. I also had a trail camera photo of one at a bear bait he stood on his hind legs and reached to the top of a 55gallon steel drum and pulled himself up to open the loose cover.

years ago I did a lot of coon hunting with hounds and can tell you this a lot of 14-16 pound coon felt like 20 lbers till I carried them out of the woods from way back in some hollow ....actual biggest I've weighed was 28 lb

The fur buyer I use to deal with in the state of RI when I live in MA . He told me that the large and best coon came out of the upper midwest. I found that out after I got out here.He use to buy for a guy out of NY. and seen what the guy had in his storage room,he said they where stack like cord wood.