When do you start hunting for fur?

Joe Calton

New member
Is there any special time to start coyote hunting for fur? a certain average temperature for the fur to fill out that lets you know its time to start hunting maybe?
 
October 1st.
Temp has little to do with it. It's like trees . Hours of daylight is the trigger for the animals to start furring up. Some are starting to look good already.
 
Late October, at the earliest if you are planning on selling the higher quality fur, weather has usually cooled down enough, and days are short enough.
 
Originally Posted By: songdogfur buyer starts buying in Oct., so I start killing in Oct.
^^^^^^^^^^^What he said!
 
ok, so since I need some yotes to practice skinning on, then if I start in a month or so, then the first ones if I mess up in a few places it wont be so bad then?

I would guess that the earlier in the season, the easier it would be to call them in?
 
couple of things that are going on here.

There are biologists that say that it's tied to day light, but if that was the case the coyotes in AZ would never grow fur. Its not like a few more or less hours of the day makes a difference in the summer vs. winter coyote fur here.
Shoot a coyote in phx and measure the fur, shoot a coyote in Williams a few hours north and measure the fur. I can tell you what the buyer said.. One is worth $5 and the other is worth $30. The only measureable difference is the cold. As they get cold, the hair grows in, to keep them from being as cold and they eat more to have what it takes to stay warm, vs here in AZ, they are smaller. But that makes about as much sense and daylight making hair grow.

Either way..
Early season prime furs are expected to sell decient, however they are saying that there is a large surplus of left over furs, so prime should sell well, not prime, if at all the buyers are going to be very picky. (read Fur Fish and game fur report in the back) it's not always spot on, as some buyers are going to take risks that may or may not pay off.
The further north you are the sooner they prime up, so that would explain why guys in Canada are saying to hunt them in October and others are saying November.

For the best prices you want to see fur (on the back at the 3 to 4" mark and thick, can't see the bellies. If you are planning on shooting to sell fur, and call in a double, shoot the lighter one first. (worth more) thick white bellies are bigger money.

if you are wanting to learn the process of putting them up, I would suggest getting out there now and shoot one. Then skin it, and put it up, now is a nice time of year, and it will give you time to get the tools that you are going to want to have ready to go when you start doing it for money. I would get it put up, and then find a buyer and take it to them, and have them review it. Ask them for critiques on your work and not the fur since it won't be good.

The point is that learning now will save you a lot of fustration. I found out the hard way at the end of the season that i was skinning them wrong.( I missunderstood, go around the genitals, and left to much of a patch of fur on the coyote, and it cost me half the price of the pelts, meaning that it shouldn't be more than a baseball size patch of fur left around the butt and junk) Learning now will save you time when it counts, since it's new to you.

There are some tools that you are going to need to get, like a fleshing beam, stretchers, sewing needles and plain dental floss for sewing.
I made a set of youtube videos, they are nothing great, but enough to get you started since it was geared for those that have never done it before. There is a lot of "advice" on how to skin, but that doesn't do you any good if your buyer doesn't like it.

There are 3 video's and one that talks about how to do the ears. (4 total)
 
"Prime" to me, simply means the hair has stopped growing. Which is easy to see once skinned. While the follicles are still active they are dark and can be seen as the "blue", or on really early coyotes it's just dark, on the leather side of the skin. Once all the hair has stopped growing and the follicles have all turned light colored, no more blue and the hide is "prime". The freshly skinned leather side will be nice and light colored.

From there, the fur isn't going to get any better, since the hair has stopped growing. Other than, some - including buyers - find the sun bleached look of later winter more appealing. But once prime, the hair has finished growing for the season, it's not going to get any thicker or longer. Just the opposite, long guard hairs are going to get broken off and rubbed by various amounts, depending on the environment and habits of the individual animal.

Around here, they are generally prime by mid to late Oct. Early October still shows some blue stripes along the backbone, but those are still marketable. I killed a few yesterday morning for bounty. As far as length and thickness, the fur didn't look too bad at all. If I had taken a picture and posted it, somebody without much experience probably would have commented on "how good the fur looks already!". But had I skinned them I'd have found the dark skin of an early fur that has little market value.

It's daylight hours that triggers prime. Local temperatures are why coyotes in colder climates grow thicker longer fur, but the temperature has nothing to do with when they prime. And, as far as that goes, by my definition of prime, temperature has nothing to do with prime either - once prime, the hair isn't growing anymore for the year.

Anything you kill and put up right now is going to be blue as blue and not very marketable. When they are still blue (or just dark, the blue color doesn't really show up until getting closer to prime) the follicles are still showing on the leather side. Fleshing with the follicles showing scrapes the base of the follicles off and that hair is eventually going to slip. You won't see it during your put up, it won't happen until after the tanning process and the eventual garment/trim use of the fur. But, if it was blue, it's going to end up very poor quality finished goods and experienced buyers won't give much, if anything for it.

- DAA
 
Or you can pick up any roadkill ones you see. You'll be able to practice sewing and fleshing.

Here it's really around November that they are prime. The way I look at prime is, each animals fur is as good as it's going to get for that year at that particular moment. Your value increases towards that day and decreases after it.

The fur market is the fur market. Weird trends will change what people want. Last year I got $50 for a roadkill small coyote with a blue belly. It was light though. If you skin it try to sell it. You may at least get enough for a box of ammo.
 
I start hunting hard in October and skinning in November. Same for coon.

Probably won't see me shoot or skin a cat until AT LEAST Dec 15, and I don't even bed a single cat trap until Jan 1.
Of course, I catch a few early in coyote sets, and do my best to release those.
 
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