I have a question for my super smart and scientific fellow trappers or the old timers that just know stuff.

Trapping season opened today in Indiana, but I quit going out on opening day a couple years ago. I’ve yet to find any fur worth trapping this early. My research seems to point to fur priming out based on moon cycles or length of daylight and not temperatures.

Does anyone know what the magic formula is for good prime fur?

Never been temperatures. It's photoperiod, altitude, age, health and nutrition of the animals. Photoperiod being the primary trigger.

I talked with my state furbearer biologist a few years back at a convention. She said it was the amount of daylight. It activates enzymes and other body chemicals to increase primenes/fur growth. Now it also depends on the critter. Google "furbearer primeness charts " and they will give you various charts from different areas. From the charts I interpreted that beaver and muskrat prime up in late winter. Everything else should be trapped between mid November and mid January give or take a few weeks.

YaYa,

That’s similar to what I’ve been told and believed, but how can I figure it out for myself? I’m sure that it varies a bit between Wisconsin and Indiana.

I feel it’s a waste of time to go out until after November 1st. I’d just like to find a formula to predict an exact day…..if that possible.

Water trapping doesn’t come in until Nov. 15. Coyote, Fox and skunk come in October 15. I’m itching to get out there, but want good fur.

One thing I enjoy about trapping is its unpredictability....as in nature itself. In years past I received something for early caught coon if they were the big Ole boars. Now the furbuyer will hand them back to you. I've seen it happen. It's a hard lesson. We all have trapping fever but ya gotta wait. I even used to trap muskrats early because they were worth something and easy trapping in open water means volume over quality. Not so today. So tomorrow I will go turkey hunting and scout coon trails while I'm there. I need to buy warmer socks because when I start trapping I will need them.

Impossible, There's just too much variability, even from critter to critter. As an example- This pic is from a few years ago. Both of these coons were caught on the same day, within about 50 yards of each other, early in the season. One is prime, the other is far from it. (And yes, I should have scraped that one a lot better )

Problem with predicting a date, especially for raccoons, there might be a gap of over a month between when your biggest raccoon become prime and when young of the year and their mothers get prime, if they ever do get prime. By the time you wait for all the raccoon to be prime, you're dealing with ice and snow and the ones you've been waiting to prime up are holed up and not moving.

Yep, I've caught big boars in late October that were full prime, but have caught sows in January that still scraped blue.

We're supposed to get a colder and snowier winter here so November and early December just might be the extent of coon trapping for me.

You will get prime fur before you have clear leather. So just because you have slate colored leather dosen't mean the fur Isn't prime.

Agree Beav.

If you're from the upper part of Indiana I have found Thanksgiving to Christmas is the best time slot for primeness.

Good video. There’s still a fella I know that says you never trap beaver in December or later, their feed bed starts to rot and the fur goes to crap. But he also doesn’t believe the price is higher that $3…lol

Great video, but I have a hunch that the big guy is still looking for an excuse to start trapping coon a little too early.
Many slightly blue coon are number 1's, but in my experience a bigger number are 2's.
I'll bet this video was from a few years ago when grading standards were a little looser.

Our season here in Iowa starts Nov 4. I'm a firm believer that big coon prime up faster. My 3x and up coon are a solid 7 outta 10 on a scale. Good, but not perfect. Those 2x are gonna be a bit slate, and your 1x and down are just gonna be black mostly. Except will be that large sow that had a litter, she will be blacker leatherette then the larges.

Everybody says "wait until Thanksgiving" that's when they are good, and I'd agree Thanksgiving to Christmas is about the best for my area. But if I wait, what if mother nature doesn't? We could have a foot of snow by Thanksgiving, all the coon could be denned up for long periods. It's very possible I could catch 10 coon on opener with good weather to the same effort of catching 1 on Thanksgiving if the weather turns. And with the peive difference being EXTREMELY minimal on this current market, I'd rather get the 10. Especially since the fur itself is just a fraction of the prive on these animals. Just my opinion. Whenever you go I hope you have fun!