I caught a 15 lb female coon last weekend and she was still blue. What is the deal? I don't start trapping til after Thanksgiving and still get blue coon. I live in southcentral PA.

Also how do ou avoid holes at the teets? Thanks in advance.

She probably had a late litter. When this happens their producing milk not a hide. Some will go thur winter blue. Wouldnt worry about it much comes w/ the terriatory.

Been some late sows this year, worse than most. Almost look like summer coon. I am told that the boar will kill the kits if he can, and the sow will come back in to be bred in summer, July I have been told. That results in very late litter small coon and booby old sows with flat fur. I have also been told that some coon genetically come in late, could be one theory or both is true. Last year I saw none of this, this year I have seen a lot of it.

Yepper a sucklin sow coon. Probably got big black teats. Heck I have seen a big old boar or two that was blue in late december. They were not sucklin boars though. LOL
Most of the time when ya catch a big old blue boar coon, it is because he lives someplace that does not get very cold most of the time. A lot of times in a hayloft or something of that nature.

So Don, I know the sunlight, or shortness of daylight starts them pushing fur. Does leather also come along with that, or is it the cold? Or a combination of the two?

I suppose, one could look at a southern state where it stays warmer but the days get shorter like ours, do thier coon get decent leather like ours do?

While I got ya, if I remember right a coon primes backwards from all other animals, is that right? One is nose to tail, the others tail to nose?

K9 funny thing of it is, most of the boar coons I have seen that were blue, had a pretty decent fur. The sucklin sow does not have a good fur. they lack underfur and usually have poor guard hair, whereas the boar coons just have a blueish leather.
From what I know about primeness on coon they generally start primeing in the neck area first then it goes down the back area.
the So. coon will also eventually prime. K9 funny thing about leather is this, in the summertime the leather is also kind of a light color to it.
The actual blueing of the hide is the hair and fur folicles starting to grow more densely.

Interesting.

I remember when we used to grade ranch mink, some of the local mink ranchers beleived that there was a stage called "kit prime" in the early fall. They were convinced that there was a window of time, I think it was in Sept, that you could tell what the quality of the kit's pelt was going to be. I could read a winter primed pelt pretty well but never could see what the big deal was with the "kit prime" theory.

Funny what influences a pelt, or an animal over the year.

Seems our boars start getting good white leather, then they just get [Please excuse my language... I'm an idiot] and bit up. Seems to be a very small window of time when they are "perfect" if they ever truly are.

So whats more important, the leather or the fur????

Well been scraping coon and am tired. Will look for your answer the thanks for the info.

Well that leads to a lot of typing, but I will try to splain in a painless manner.
The leather and fur or of equal value when considering damaged hides. Usually the fur will be prime just before the leather turns creamy white.
In late season when coon start to fight the fur can still be good but the leather can ruin your price on a coon. Once coon start fighting and biteing each othe , you have real leather problems.
On mink , especially wild mink, the fur seems th have a better underfur color to it when the leather is a bit on the blueish side. As a mink comes more into the white leather stage, the underfur starts to fade a bit and after so long a period of time the guard hair actually starts getting a reddish tint to it. Then after an even longer period of time the guard hair starts to singe or curl ever so slightly on the very tip of the guard hair. This is what is called singeing, i think that is the way it is spelled.

You have about a 2 wk. window when coon are perfect.

Thanks Don, very informative.

K9 that is to the best of my knowledge. Somebody else may know more than I, but that is my observations from over 30 yrs. of furbuying and 45 yrs. of trapping. I may not be exactly correct but I am close.

don i have one that dried almost black ...will sell it to ya for the very low price of $100 !!!

Gary , you sayin that maybe that coon done turned into a fisher coon? I think ya forgot your decimal point or at least it ain't in the proper place.