This make the 4th time I think I have sent my furs north either through FHA or NAFA I have never had much discrepancy in sizes from what I graded prior to shipping and what was posted later by the auction house. This batch that grades were just posted on has nearly a third off from what the sizes were prior to shipping. I had 4 less 3-4xl, 2 less 2xl, and ended up with 6 more 1xl then what I had recorded. 1 rat lost a size and to beat it all one possum went up a size. While I'm one to admit I could have screwed up one or two, I don't think I would have messed up that many times. What would cause that big a difference in sizes, would they drop a size for small damage? Anyone else run into this issue before? I will say that the majority of my grades were better then expected. All my coons went eastern north central, a few of those coons were junk and probably should have went eastern semi.

This is my take on the coon grade size differences everyone says they have with NAFA, now I have not talked with anyone that works or grades for NAFA. This is just my common, simple way of thinking. They take a coon, say it's a 3x size, it has a some flaws down near the skirt or high on the shoulder and it would grade as say a 3x l-ll, but there is enough length that grades SELECT if they call it a 2x that they drop it a size. To me they may think that by dropping it a size someone might just want to by a select grade coon faster than a l-ll.

The graders will drop the skin one or more sizes if they are stretched too narrow.Also they will raise them a size if they are stretched too wide.
On standard boards if your skins are not stretched past the size lines by at least a half inch on small skins and an inch on larger skins to allow for shrinkage,they often will not remain at the size you think they are when removed from the board.
The ovals for beaver boards are marked 2 inches over the size to allow for shrinkage.
If you mark your cat,coon etc boards to the sizes for pelts stretch the skirt between the size lines,or if you want to stretch to the line mark your lines on your boards to allow for shrinkage like your beaver ovals.

The size has nothing to with grade or quality , a select or no.1 or slight damage , is what it is, a 1-11 , early coon usally. Not real prime. 11 , is unprime early

How wide are your boards? Wrong sized boards, read as too narrow, will result in coon being dropped a size. Rats are done purely off square inches now and I dont know if that information on the square inches to size table has ever been made public?

Coonman, reread my reply again, slowly. So that coon would of graded 3x slight damage instead of l-ll. I will try to explain this another way. Say this fantasy coon measured 33 inches and we call it a 3x size coon. As we look at this coon it has perfect leather from its ears all the way down the length of it UNTIL you get to the 31 inch mark. Now we have some damage. Now the graders can grade it as a 3x with some damage or they can say we can put this coon in with the 2x size and grade it as select. If i was a buyer I would feel better looking at my invoice that said my lot of furs had a grade of select, rather than slight damage.

With coon,any dmgs near the skirt,on the belly, or on the head are generally overlooked,unless its a taint.
Pelts with excessive pointed noses may also be dropped a size.
Also sizing is done before grading.

All my stuff is stretched on wood. I have the freedom brand coon boards as well as the rat stretchers. My 2x and down normally go on the smaller board which is 7 3/4 at the base and my larger 3x and up boars go on the larger boards which are 8 3/4 at the base. I will put the majority of females on the smaller board because they don't seem to fit in the shoulder neck region on the bigger boards. I went and measured the smaller boards and they are only 7 inches wide at the 32 in mark. I think NAFA specks are they want them 71/4-7 1/2 at the thirty inch mark. The majority on my skins did grade select with the rest going 1-2 and only one in a 2. I had a few with bad rubs. I know the one coon that was a 4 color had about a 5 inch rub and that hide went select.