Is there really that much difference? I know a guy from SD that traps for a couple months in TX. A few years back during the mini fur boom he took home 71 coon from North Central Texas. A few weeks after he was home he drove them down to Iowa to a fur buyer. He introduced himself and said he was SD. The buyer thought he was buying SD coon. 71 coon from North Central Texas averaged $27 in the grease. If the fur buyer knew they were from TX, those coon would have averaged $6-$8. IF you know where they're from, they look different. Most buyers are buying based on the region, not what the critter looks like. Just another way in the business to buy your fur cheaper.

Coon from Texas were known as coat coon( southern coon) because they have a shorter nap than coon from say Kansas or Nebraska-these are usually classed as North Central coon-bigger coon decent colors but more open than say Minnesota North Dakota coon-which are classed as western heavies-Iowa coon have the best colors from what I have seen with my 50 years in the business. From what I have seen with coon-Minnesota and North Dakota,Manitoba have consistently the biggest coon in the country-ALSO THE HEAVIEST QUALITY. Northeastern coon like Pennsylvania stuff don't have the size as the western heavies and a slightly shorter nap with much weaker necks-not so great color for the most part. Michigan/Wisconsin coon are good heavy coon with darker colors for the most part as well-we used to see a lot of fisher coon from these areas

demand is every thing even texas coon is wanted when coon are high theres difference in coon 20 to 50 miles apart quality color size if they live where there is a lot of trees vs none where they live in the groundif they live where its colder than others what kind of food scorce they have if their harvested to keep a good healthy animal vs inbreeding just to name a few things

X2

Ole Roger Toews (RIP) always said Manitoba has great coon so Minnesotas should be pretty darn good too. As Boco said, there’s detailed explanation in the big book. I can’t take snippets of it right now…..I’m out of the country.
Here’s my “40lb” coon for ya….

Not scaled. After this catch, I bought one to leave at the shack. I think it’s closer to 50+ probably 60ish…….
Some wolfers are brutal for guessing their weights at 145lbs, but never scaled…lol

There are several subspecies. I trap three here; Northern - like yours, western, and eastern.

In my area any coon around 20 lbs has a missing tail, at least one missing ear and at least a toe or 3 missing AND the most ugliest yellow tinge you will ever see. The nicer fur and colors seem to come from 12-16 lb females and 1 or 2 year old males which only go xl, xxl if your lucky.

"Bergmann's rule," which states that animals tend to be larger in colder climates, meaning the further north you go, the bigger the animals are likely to be, because larger bodies help conserve heat better in cold environments. Deer provide a well known example of this. Biggest coon I ever caught weighed 24 lbs. and yes I couldn’t wait to weigh it because I was certain I’d hit the holy grail of 30 lbs.

Actually JAKE-I'm a coon guy in Manitoba LOL-heaviest I have weighed and seen is 34#'s-I used to think all my big coon were 40lb er's until I started scaling them-To break 30lbs isnt' that easy. But I will say we get alot of big toads-our kits FROM THE YEAR are 3xl's usually by November each year. Some guy up in the interlake just scaled a 134 lb T wolf.-That's a hog

I have seen a lots of coons from Arkansas and the biggest I ever seen was 20 pounds. Our coons just do not get that big.

Guess I’m gonna have to start weighing some coons. I don’t know if I catch some decent ones or if our bobcats are just tiny. I’ve had both on the hitch haul and coons dwarfed the cats. I do know I’m catching a lot of young coons and cats right now.

I trapped SE Kansas one year and the size/color of the coons there amazed me. They looked like small bears and were silver in color. Far cry from the coon I trap in Kentucky.
I would like to catch some Iowa or SD coon to see how they compare to the ones in Kansas.
Heck, while I'm at at, maybe Ill head to Montana and try to catch some "highline" coyotes then head to Wyoming and Utah to catch some cats...
One can dream right?

World record coon was 63 pounds and 55 inches long!!! That’s a giant. We get big coon here and the biggest I ever weighed was 40 pounds on the nose.

With all that’s been said, without weighing, I’ll bet we’ve all caught 50 pound coon when we had to haul it over 100 yards, by a front foot. You learn quickly to set closer to the truck or bring a sled.