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So what would a "red tint" actually grade at NAFA, given that its not "damaged" by knife cuts or other leather defects, a "Grade III, color 5"???

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"And God said, Let us make man in our image …and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, …the fowl of the air…and all the creatures that move along the ground.
Genesis 1:26

The grade of sel, I, II, III, and IV deal with a combination of leather quality and fur quality. Color is its own measure and with coons they are 1-5. I never had a #1 before. Reddish coons are usually 4 and 5.

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NYSTA member

Live Free or Die

Most of my coon already have lower color numbers although they are usually a range. I don't think I've ever have had a straight "5" for color so I'd have to look. So if the leather condition was fine, would just the fur pattern that causes it to be a grade III or IV?? Or would a "red" W. Northern or Western North-Central (if its possible to still be in these regions as a "red" coon) have more value than one from regions further south???

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"And God said, Let us make man in our image …and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, …the fowl of the air…and all the creatures that move along the ground.
Genesis 1:26

R, if you are getting colors 2 through 4 pretty steady, and this one looks more off to you then your normal, you can probably safely assume it will be a 5. Most any of ours that look that far off go as 5's. The color its self doesnt make up the primness grade, so its color will not cause it to be a III or IV.

What I can tell you about primeness grading (SEL, I, II, III,IV) is that like wcs stated, only the furs length, density, leather thickness, over-all fur quality, and added in is the amount of damage either natural or human error for both fur damage and leather damage. If your coon is highly off color, but yet has long silky gaurd hair and deep underwool with little damage and creamy white leather, it would then grade out something as follows... XXXL SEL 4-5 NC. Now take away the long gaurd hair, and some of the wool and degradations in leather from late coons, that same coon might be somthing like this....XXXL II 4-5 NC. The second column always reflects the fur and leathers over all well being and thus value, where as the 3rd column only pertains to color. Unfortunately, color alone can make a huge difference in the buyers eagerness to spend money or not spend money no matter how good the rest of the pelt is. If the pelt is perfect besides color, it stands a better chance then smaller of the same condition, or of worse fur primeness graded pelts, but at best, even SEL 5's dont excite the buyers much.

Note that primeness grading (2nd column) is always Roman numerals or SEL/SS. The color (3rd column) is always standard numerals.

Yes, typically, the exact same graded coon,,, but in a more southern region,will bring less.

So maybe it wqould grade something like this. At my first NAFA auction (May 2013) I had a coon rate "poor" under "clarity" (right?). Don't know if the clarity rating alone put it in the "damaged" category or not.

240213 4XL-3XL DGD 2-5 PR 1 11.50 11.50

This one was either a road killed one I picked up very fresh one night mid Feb. or more likely the first one out of Thor's machine shed where he re-set the dp (I had given up) and caught one in early March although the weather was cold that year and March was still winter. Anyway, I'm sure the same hide would never make $11.50 this year.

I guess the question is does the "poor" condition make it "damaged". Perhaps a question that I should already know... I see Amak has chimed in so I better go read

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"And God said, Let us make man in our image …and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, …the fowl of the air…and all the creatures that move along the ground.
Genesis 1:26

Thanks Amak for my continuing education. I value that greatly!!!

Perhaps I should try a little experiement. I have 2 of these red tint critters. This last one is larger (will probably stretch 3-4 XL) and I think I'll try it at auction and see how much it gets (even if it sells). The other one (probably between 2-3 XL) I'll tan and try to sell on ebay as a wall hanger. And I'll see how these options do this year. I've been working on the premise that there will be ebay buyers who don't know or don't care about the fur quality of a tanned coon hide and just want one. But, in reality, there could be most (or all) that say, "that's an ugly looking coon" and won't bid at what I would start it at for the auction.

Because there's little expectation either way, the results of the experiment might be interesting!!

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"And God said, Let us make man in our image …and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, …the fowl of the air…and all the creatures that move along the ground.
Genesis 1:26

On a damaged pelt like that example you gave, there is no other indications of the primeness grading properties...just says damaged in the place of SEL,I,II. It is a sec III pelt. What that means, is they must give a quality rating to the pelt for buyers to get a better idea about its other conditions.... other then just "damaged". Just "damaged" alone, could cover a whole wide girth of various pelt qualities. So, they rank the pelt as Good, average, or poor, for the buyers knowledge. They do this only on pelts with too much damage to be ranked as a "II" or greater.


Your experiement sounds like a good one!

I love talking about this exact type of grading jargon. I find the ins and outs of the auction process amazing. So many variables to examine and ponder

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NYSTA member

Live Free or Die

The first night I don't guard the dp in Thor's machine shed with a corn cob lightly in it a grinner gets into the mellows. I didn't see it right away as it was under some junk but the trap was gone. I guess the grinners raid his cat food as well and might as well clear some out too, at least this one has decent color. I might make enough to buy me a 20 oz. pop (soda, Coke, soda pop, whatever else you all call it)



Bro called this morning and found a "20 pounder" coon road killed right out in front of his place so he rescued it from the gravel. Cold today, never making it much into the 20s, and frigid tonight. I have fur popsicles across parts of my garage floor. Guess I don't have to worry about them going bad on me but it takes awhile thawing them out (I sneak them into the house inside a tubberware tote and leave them in the downstairs utility room for a day or so until they're workable enough). No skunk though, I value all my body parts

Was leaving work tonight and saw these butterballs just off of the parking lot. We had a flock of about 2 dozen winter in the tree grove last winter but haven't seen them as much this year. They wander from farm tree lot to farm lot over time. I wonder how fast I'd be lassoed by security if I death-rayed one from my car???

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"And God said, Let us make man in our image …and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, …the fowl of the air…and all the creatures that move along the ground.
Genesis 1:26

Hehehehe!


It'll be death ray time on turkeys before we know it PC. Im already anxious.

X2!!!!!

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Roadkill is a redneck's paycheck- Jase Robertson

The second amendment is in place in case the others are ignored.

What is that white stuff around those birds? Six of eleven snow monitoring sites on Mount Hood have no snow at all. Supposed to be warmer and dryer than normal the next three to four months. Looking to be a long dry summer.

Nice white grinner. Looks like a $5 bill to me

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NYSTA member

Live Free or Die

Red Rooster would be proud! I only have a few 220s left in my arsenal and one plastic bucket cubbie. I dug this one out of a snow drift about a month ago on one of Thor's parcels (an old falling down farm house and trees around it) and rebaited it. A couple weeks ago or so, I saw some nice coon tracks running on top the snow drift and drizzled a molasses trail down from them to the mouth of the cubbie. Don't know if that was a trick or not but the last time the coons ran, this one put its head in the wrong place. A nice ending for this box for the season

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"And God said, Let us make man in our image …and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, …the fowl of the air…and all the creatures that move along the ground.
Genesis 1:26

WCS- Yes, that is one of the lighter colored possums I think I've caught (at least for a while).

Rem- Too bad about not having snow in the Cascades. That is not good news for the year up there. Meanwhile the Northeast is getting buried in snow. I haven't looked into the scientific literature at work how often in the past such cross-continent swings in extremes for precip has happened but they do seem at least anecdotally to be happening more. The jet stream (which side of it your on makes a big difference in how much precip occurs) may be becoming more volatile in its swings...

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"And God said, Let us make man in our image …and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, …the fowl of the air…and all the creatures that move along the ground.
Genesis 1:26

Good job on the bucket sets!

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Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Rem- Too bad about not having snow in the Cascades. That is not good news for the year up there. Meanwhile the Northeast is getting buried in snow. I haven't looked into the scientific literature at work how often in the past such cross-continent swings in extremes for precip has happened but they do seem at least anecdotally to be happening more. The jet stream (which side of it your on makes a big difference in how much precip ) may be becoming more volatile in its swings...[/quote]

There is a big high pressure area south of here that has been shoving most of the storms around us and into Canada. Then they slide east, heading into the New England area.

Mid 30s or so yesterday, -20 F windchill this morning. The winter roller coaster continues.

I went out to check my active sets; 1 functioning dp behind Stinkbait's, 1 coon cubbie in Ry's pasture (another there is buried under a big snow drift), 2 dps & live cage at the hay farm, and 3 dps at Thor's. I haven't been up to Ry's for a while, he was been checking that set and it really hadn't produced much this year. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find a coon-iscle in the 160. Nice size but crappy yellowish color. I think it will go the wall hanger route. Pulled that box and retired it for the season.



Nothing happening at the hay farm but the dp in Thor's machine shed was cleaned out without moving the trap or firing it (don't know if a coon or grinner--left the corn cob out of it). I've caught 3 coon and a grinner out of that set since Christmas time so I connect sometimes. Its supposed to be cold all week but warming on Friday. I'll run the dps one more week and then I'm done...

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"And God said, Let us make man in our image …and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, …the fowl of the air…and all the creatures that move along the ground.
Genesis 1:26

I find it amazing that you are catching coons this late in the year. I know it's been a mild winter for you guys but I have not seen a coon track, a road kill coon, or any other sign of a coon in well over a month, closer to two months. They gotta be starving here.

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NYSTA member

Live Free or Die

Nice catches PC. Too bad you can't shoot those turkeys. Got a crossbow ?

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Those who trade liberty for security shall have neither.

"Take ye heed,watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is".

Rev. 6:8 and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was death , and Hell followed with him.

.........and the coon smack down by NPCF intensifies!!!!! Way to go R! You're tearing them up this year! Fun stuff them coons are eh? I missed it a lot this year and only got a handful to work,,,,,more out of my desire for the pleasure of putting them up then anything else. So I hope you dont mind me riding your shirt tails for my fix! Thanks for posting such a great thread.

Thanks guys, its fun to get pleasantly surprised!!

WCS- I don't know the answer to why we have more coon movement during thaws in Jan. and Feb. than you do this year. Could it be that you all have a lot more forest and possibly better den trees and the coons just have greater shelter to sleep tight? Have our open farmland coons have gotten conditioned to roam more when these thaws occur?? Other factors?? But what I've learned the past 2 winters is that if there are breaks in sub-freezing temps our coon will move and if a guy has working sets there, he'll occasionally score.

One reason I've documented all my critters that last 2 years is perhaps this summer I'll go back and find the weather patterns with my catches. I know Swamp and others keep detailed journals that include such info. I haven't been that dedicated but it might be a fun exercise during the off season...

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"And God said, Let us make man in our image …and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, …the fowl of the air…and all the creatures that move along the ground.
Genesis 1:26

I love the thaws in jan and feb most years they are needing food and to stretch there legs but the biggest thing is it's breeding season.... This is a guys best chance to catch a good number of big boars....

Partial payback at the hay farm. Was 9 F this morning but had gotten up into the mid-20s yesterday and this cooner must have decided to run. But, as Backwoodsman has said, when dealing with "barn coons" the weather guide may not mean as much. The live trap had been laying in wait for 2 weeks or so without any sign of movement. Then this today. On the other side of the hay barn, my dp was knocked over but not fired. Probably by this same coon. Very cold windchill tonight, a bit less cold on Thurs. and forecasted nearly 40 (for one day) on Friday. Back below freezing for the weekend.

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"And God said, Let us make man in our image …and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, …the fowl of the air…and all the creatures that move along the ground.
Genesis 1:26

Great looking coon R.

Hey, did you make your own live trap?