Please explain the blue coon thing. I just know not to start trapping until Thanksgiving. I understand the inside skin is blue, and the fur is less than prime? Is that all that is too it ?

Last year I had December coons, and an experienced person told me the fur is not prime.

The reason coon are referred to as “blue” is because if they aren’t prime the leather is thinner, and the hair follicles show through the skin giving it a blueish grey color. When a coon is fully prime the leather will be thick and look white or cream colored. Goes for other furs as well

Does it affect the quality of the fur ??

It affects the value, thinner leather is harder to work with, sometimes impossible. If the leather is too thin it really doesn’t matter how nice the fur is. Blue leather is an indicator of how prime fur is though. If it’s still blue the fur probably isn’t as nice as it could be. As far as having coon that aren’t prime in December, I call BS. Animals begin to grow their winter coats as soon as days start getting shorter. In December the days are as short as they’re going to get. Once days start getting noticeably longer the quality of the pelt will begin to slowly deteriorate

I’ve trapped blue coon later in the season-I was told those are likely sick coon who didn’t have the nutrients needed to both survive and prime up. Not sure how accurate that is

Teat sows that had a late litter will go all winter and never prime up. You can wave the bs flag all you want but I’ve skinned sows in January that weren’t prime.

There’s a balance here on coyotes that are hard to just get right. When the leather is perfect the fur is getting worked down, hit on fences, rubbed, or full of burrs. It’s a small window for sure. The same is on coons. Theres a window before they den up and that fur gets worked.

I’d rather have a mix of both then perfectly prime leather and increasing imperfections in the fur. I’ve caught some of my better selling coyotes in the end within the first couple weeks of November before the fur has much of a chance to get worked.

Two prime on the outside, and two blue in between...see the differences?

These two were caught on the same day, within 50 yards of each other, both female. Caught 2 days ago, so they're not quite done drying, but the difference is obvious.

That is a great picture!

Very educational picture for sure. So it's an individual thing. I'll start trapping this weekend for sure...

June-uary

Early II's are much more useful to the trade,normally, than late II's.

On true blue coon the hair follicles will also be exposed on the leather side and any hair showing will fall out during dressing as they become slate color not so bad but even slate color will be hard to sell this year