How do I know if the coyotes I'm catching are worth finishing and sending to auction? I hear of people complaining about $2 coyotes. I'd be upset if I put in the effort of skinning and fleshing to then pay to have a coyote shipped/picked up and then drummed. This is only my second year trapping. So the process takes me longer to do. I don't mind investing the time now to learn, but eventually I'll want to be able to tell if the coyote I trapped is worth the effort. The coyotes I'm catching are caught in November and December. They do not appear to have any other defects that I can tell. (wounds, mange, etc) Im located in Wisconsin and have been told our coyotes are not like western coyotes. The hair is more coarse and the bellies are not super white. This year I did catch a coyote that had a pretty clear belly compared to others I've caught. Pictures would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance. I enjoy learning from all those with more experience on this site.

$2.00 coyotes LOL

Last year I had 5 coyotes that went for $7.00 for the bunch 3 only brought .50 cents each. And no one could explain that to me.
The cartilage was out of the eras so that Isn't the problem. They had fur maybe It was a bit broke down . but .50 no way.

I don't understand how they grade coyotes.

Pictures of your put up coyotes might help.

I will take some pictures when I get home from work and post them. I've got 2 on boards right now.

This a real good question , when I get the results back from selling it seems like the grades are divide into 3 groups
best ones are in top 3 -15 lots , majority are 16 to sale average , then 1 or 2 tankers that are those $7 ones you talk about Beav ..
Dont ask me to pick those 2 poor ones out cause I cant figure it either .
I had a friend that attended last years first sale at NAFA and was lucky enough to visit the grading floor when they were doing coyotes and he was disgusted with what he saw . We all realize with the volume of dogs being graded that individual attention to each and every one is gonna be minimal but one of the top lots had a very visible hole the size of a golf ball and was full of dried matted blood and pieces of grass, how that made it to top lot blew him away .. when asked about it the graders response was that the blood would come out when the buyer processed it ,but nothing was said about the hole .

If you live near a fur buyer? Maybe you could spend some time with him on grading and what to look for? Not sure what part of Wisconsin you are from. But Greg Schreoder @ FHA would be more than willing to help you through that part of the process.

I believe it depends on how the grader feels on any given day. I’ve sent in some very fancy coyotes and had real poor grades and the next batch is average or below average and get good grades.

What does a $2 coyote look like?.....google arkansas coyote and click the image button

A $2 coyote is rough fur because of a number of reasons. I had one that went for $1 this season and I know it was going to be low.I put it up anyways. But my others was going up and then better. I use to sell by NAFA years ago and did get top lot for my and back then they where picky on there furs.But now it looks like they are not.If there was a hole that should of been sew up and was not it was down grade and at time damage .but when sew up it was up a grade. years ago I was told if the skin have up to w hole from a 22lr it is ok. But if there is anything bigger then that need to be sew up.

woods are full of them.

Skins don't get graded and lotted by one person.In the sorting/grading process a skin goes past the eyes and hands and noses and ears of several people in the process.The only thing the graders do not do is taste the pelt.A hole in a pelt depending on location may not downgrade a pelt.
A pelt may not look that bad,but if the dressing costs make the skin unprofitable for manufacture to current fashon standards no one will bid on it or bid very low for craft.
A $2 dollar pelt at the big auctions could be worth more sold elsewhere to different type of buyers that likely do not attend international auctions for various reasons.

Boco - what you say is true, at an international auction.

When selling to a country buyer - which we have plenty of the the US - one person does the entire grading on a pelt. Size, color, heaviness, defects, etc - the whole nine yards. And it usually done all at the same time. At a trappers sale, a buyer doesn't have time to sort by color and then go back and sort by heaviness. It is one look and done. That pelt has been graded and valued.

That is a fact of life when buying fur in the country in the US - whether you approve or not.

I understand the country buyers,we used to have them here and I sold fur to them.My post was to inform how fur is handled at the international auctions.All the information is disseminated by the auction houses in various publications and communique's and may be of intrest to trappers who may not have had the opportunity to peruse it.One of the reasons Canadian trappers started shipping to the international auctions in the 60's and 70's was to benefit from part lotting of their skins,a marketing strategy which provides better overall returns to the trapper,and is preferred by the buyers,as a lot of the tedious work of sizing matching etc is done for them by the auction house.They can buy a lot that is ready to go directly into production of a garment with minimal extra work.

For your information I could care less how people market their fur,but I do like to provide some pertinent information and correct some misinformation for those who may wish to weigh their alternatives.
Wissmiss,go back and read H380's post that I was referring to.It may help you to understand the context of my post.It mentioned Nafa specifically and referred to a hole in a top lot pelt.

In response to powder boy H380... the grader puts to one side what looks good as being in the top Grade....usually the pile gets to 25 skins. The rest get tossed into their different 7 or 8 grade piles Then he takes their regular break ie lunch..clears his mind of the 1000 he has done and looks at those 25 doggies again..... the pile shrinks to [b]12-16 best skins, and they go on sorting and putting nicy's into that pile again, till the next break and it all starts over again.
The top3 grades are mostly the nice ones that have been handled more than once.

That 2$ job usually gets only handled once and into the 3 rd grade and bundled depending on amount for a bale. They are obvious tough skins to make anything with[/b]

I live in Indiana and our Midwestern dogs can be all over the place. A few years back at our state auction I watched two coyotes go through; one went for $45 and one went for $10, to my eye they looked identical. Whenever I ask around about why one went so low and another went so high I get vague, general and sometimes confusing answers like they don't even know. I put up all my non manage/damaged yotes and take them to the state auction, if I get less than a $15 bid I take them home and home tan them for wall hangers, can usually get around $30 just through word of mouth from family and co workers who know people that want one.

Here are 3 coyotes from this year. All three are from December.

I have done the go to a fur grader and try to figure it out. Last year was my first year not skinning a "few" and all I can say is I wish I would have shipped all but the extreme obvious bad ones! I can't make heads or tails of it I only sent what I belive to be the very best and it was all over the board. I know I'm not a professional but they were not 2 dollar dogs. I wish the auction houses would be able to tell me which hide went for what so I could maybe learn, I know that would be expensive for them but it might help them in the long run.

Did you leave the balls on that one coyote?

I sent 2 coyotes to NAFA last year and got $35 for each. I was pretty happy with that. It was my first year trapping. First time skinning/putting up a coyote. So I was happy with it. But I read on some posts about people just tossing them in the ditch or how ‘ugly’ they look. Ugly and beauty is very subjective though. So I was hoping to get some ideas of what they are looking for. I read the article in the IT magazine about the pencil trick. So I know these skins are not flat. They would fall in semi or heavy based on the pencil trick.

No. Those 2 on the boards still have the penis sheath hole. I wasn’t sure how far up to cut. Will that affect the value? Should I have cut the ‘window’ to just above that?

No window on fur out.

Ok, so where do you make the cut? Are those coyotes that are boarded done correctly?

They look like 5 of last weeks coyotes. Out of 7. Mostly lack of guard hair and a bit of mange on one.

Lumberjake from the pics those coyotes look to be well handled and correct on the boards.Colour may not be the best-hard to tell from a pic but otherwise they look fine for what they are.One looks to have snare damage in front of the hips,and another looks weak in the guard hair on the neck and flanks.The handling is likely way better than avg.
I would ship those.Dont expect big money,but should be way better than $2.

Thanks Boco. That’s means a lot coming from you. I really appreciate it. I’ll let you know how they grade and what I get for them.

LumberJake, what is the "pencil test " ? Also what is the width of you board at the base ? My NAFA spec boards are 9" wide from 39" to the base, which I always thought was to wide, yours seem narrower. Does anyone know if board width even matters ?

In my opinion, precise board width doesn't matter. On the other hand it should be within reason and not way off the charts.

For example - if NAFA or FHA or Groenwald specs say a certain pelt should be 8 inches wide at the base, 7.5 inches is fine, maybe even 7.25 inches. 8.5 inches is fine as well. 6 inches or less and 10 inches or more are too far off the charts and would be too narrow and too wide respectively.

There isn't a magic number as to far off the spec you can be. The important thing is that the pelt looks very similar in shape to what the standard is.

Trust me - when a NAFA grader has thousands of Raccoon to go through, he/she isn't going to stand there and measure the width of each pelt. Width is something you can eye ball.

They grade by Hwys and boundary lines now days,lol. I would like to send to some western sales but I can't cause I live too far east of the hwy and they can't use my type of coyote.

Spot on tbn.

WE got snow now so I'm off this morning to try and catch some of those $99.00 coyotes for the study.

Im curious about the " powder boy "comment .. Ive had top lots in the past so I know how the game is played , I was simply sharing an experience a friend had on the grading floor .

A 2 dollar coyote in Ohio is Way better than the average as where i'm at, 1 buck or nothing is the rate. Wishing we had pales running round here.

Kyron, the pencil test was in the latest issue of International Trapper. It said if you stick the eraser end of a pencil into the fur of your coyote hide depending on how much of the pencil is hidden gives you an idea of how it will grade. If only the eraser head is hidden then I believe he said flat. If the eraser head is hidden and 1/4-1/3 of the pencil is hidden then semi and if 1/3-1/2 of pencil was hidden then heavy. Don't quote me on the exact numbers. Im recalling from memory. As far as the width of my boards, I'd have to measure them. I bought all my boards from Top Lot stretcher. I am not very handy with wood working. So my boards are not homemade. I boarded my two coyotes last year on those boards and got $35 a piece for them.

I think a lot of grading gets done on the curve, ie if there were a 1000 coyotes that were all grade # 3 some of them a small percentage would be top lot, some in the #1, the majority #1 and 2 and a few would be junk. On a given lot of coyote they are compared with each other. In other words out of that 1000 grade 3 coyotes some of them would be the best of that lot.

I'm glad I don't trap in WI. I trap Oct. coyotes in Maine. Any with mange or small pups I pitch and send the rest to NAFA. My 2017 coyotes averaged $45.75. 2016 averaged $29.58 . I did have several that brought $6.00

Color does not seem to matter much. Most of mine grade DBR-DK. This is the best from last year:

137507 3XL-XXL I-II DBR-DK 1-4 1 100.00 100.00

If they grade color red all mine have gone 2-7 dollars.

Your put up is fine. How to tell if you should put them up, experience. If they have no major flaws and are fully furred, you should be OK. From the pictures, yours don't appear to be real heavy (could just be the pics), and that might be the norm for your area. Look em over fairly close after they have dried or hung for a couple hours. A dead give away are parts of the pelt that look wooly, even if the rest looks ok, it indicates other problems. Other than major problems like mange and big holes or tears, a few flaws are normal, and those minor flaws get more numerous as the winter wears on. Selling the first few times to someone local or who can look at them and give you pointers would be the best. Sending to auction doesn't really help you learn, as you have no real feedback on individual pelts. After you've done more, and you have looked them over after finished, you will start to see the things you need to look for to make a decision about skinning. I pitched a really big heavy dog yesterday as he had two bare spots in the middle of it's back, old wounds from the looks of it. It still had value as the rest was OK, but was it worth it to me time and effort wise (had 6 more that needed skinning) to fight it. To be honest, if it would have been in the first 10 of the season, it would have got handled. Now working into the 70s, my oomph isn't what it was 2 months ago. BTW, every auction, I get a couple of those really cheap ones, nothing is foolproof. Good luck,and keep plugging away.

I averaged $45 on these 3 coyotes. They went for $50, $45, $40 I do not know which one was which obviously. All three were graded II which surprised me. One was caught in November but the other 2 were caught mid December.

They all looked kinda flat to me.

Here are some fifty cent beauties.

No....no widow in coyotes! Selling on an international auction is prolly the worst place to learn fur grading. Hang out at a fur buyers and ask lots of questions, or better yet if you have deep pockets, buy fur! You learn quick that way, cause every mistake you make will cost you money! And that is on an up market! The auctions have a hundred grades, and two hundred reasons why , but that is what is needed when the fur goes straight to the manufacturer. Different deal when a fur buyer buys it. It may go through five more sets of hands before it gets offered to a end user. Just for referance, the pic of the third yote is real close to being the price you ask about. Learning to judge fur takes time, but it amazes me what some people will skin! Good luck