When is fur at its prime? Here’s a guide for Illinois, other Midwestern states

I started the trapping season on Nov. 10 in a deer camp in western Illinois. I start every season there because I have to get out before the start of the deer gun season.

I get to trap, fish, and hunt because the owners give me the run of the place if I control the raccoon, muskrat, beaver and otter populations on the six ponds the property holds. I suspect many trappers who have arrangements like this really appreciate the opportunity.

Prime is King

Here’s the thing, though. I was trapping there early because I have to – not because I want to. Fur at that time was not as prime as it will be in mid-December.

In fact, in central Illinois, nothing is completely prime when the season opens each year in November. The rest of the trapping I do is after the second firearms deer season.

Almost all fur will be pretty much “as prime as it gets” by then, with the exception of bobcats and beavers. I won’t really do any beaver trapping until March, when the pelts are perfectly prime with the underwool at its heaviest.

I didn’t draw a bobcat tag this year, so that’s a non-issue for me, but bobcats around here prime up by early January.

Why are we talking about this? Because fur prices stink again this year. There is a market for most items but the prices are going to be low and the grading tight. Fur that is damaged or not totally prime is going to take a severe hit. Many of you that trap in the fall already know this if you’ve marketed any fur. If you trapped early and are waiting to sell you are likely in for a rather unpleasant surprise.

What is “prime”?

The fur trade talks about prime fur but many trappers don’t really know what that means. Prime means that the fur is developed as much as it can be. The guard hairs and the underwool are as dense as they ever will be, and the guard hairs are as filled in and as long as they will get. Typically, the guard hairs are dense enough and long enough to fully cover (and thereby protect) the underwool.

Unprime pelts have a matted look to them. That is because the lack of guard hairs let the underwool get easily damaged and woolly looking. As this coat sheds out and grows, this unsightly look disappears. A prime pelt has a “finished” look to it. The dense underwood allows the long guard hairs to stand up instead of lying flat.

Fur color is different in prime and unprime furs as well. The animal will be at its best color when fur is prime. As the season progresses, fur will sun bleach, animals will lay on the ice causing guard hairs to pull out (such as fox), fur can get rubbed (such as the back of the neck of large raccoons), fur can stain (like the red urine stains on late spring beaver), or the season may just progress far enough that the day length is changing enough to cause the leather and fur to weaken in anticipation of shedding to a summer coat. There are a myriad of reasons fur becomes less prime as the season progresses.

In addition to changes in the fur, the skin (the leather) also changes. It gets denser and changes color. A fleshed prime skin will be almost white (turning more cream colored when it dries). The leather on an unprimed hide, depending on where it is in the annual cycle, will be anywhere from almost black to a blue color. This blue varies in intensity from very blue to just a hint of blue as the fur primes up. The changes in leather color make it much easier for a fur grader to determine the primeness of a pelt, particularly one that is dried skin side out.

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What Causes a Fur to “Prime Up?”

Most outdoorsmen think that the reason fur becomes prime is because of cold weather. This is confounding cause and effect. While temperatures do make a slight difference, the main reason fur becomes prime is due to day length.

The real trigger causing an animal to start growing their winter coats is a term called photoperiodism. Photoperiodism is defined as the physiological reaction of an organism to the amount of daylight in a 24 hour period. Photoperiodism determines the change in the color and density of fur (as well as other behaviors such as sexual behavior and hibernation).

Surely temperature has to have some effect you say? Not really. Even if your winter temperature is only 50 degrees by the first of January, raccoons would still prime up in late November and early December.

Temperature can and does affect daily movements and travel patterns by changing the manner in which animals forage for food and what types of shelter they seek, but that’s the extent of temperatures role in the whole process.

There are long scientific descriptions on how this whole process works, but basically daylight is absorbed through the retina in the eyes, transmitting information to the animal’s brain and triggering the seasonal response.

Different animals respond differently to the loss of daylight.

Some furbearers, like raccoons,  go through biological or physiological changes during early winter, while others such as beaver and muskrat become prime later into the winter and spring.

Government agencies have done extensive biological analyses to identify when each furbearer species pelts become prime.

These studies are major factors in establishing trapping seasons.

Pelt primeness is always weighted heavily in the decision of timing and duration of trapping seasons.

Practical Identification of Primeness

You have to remember that genetics plays a part in determining when a furbearer becomes prime.

As noted above, various furbearers are genetically encoded to trigger the whole primeness process at different times of the year. Additionally, there are regional changes within the same latitudes. Furbearers from locale to locale receiving exactly the same day length may become prime at slightly different times. These changes are not huge, rarely exceeding a week or so.

However, knowing you can trap an area a week early, or knowing you need to hold off for a week, affects how a trapper approaches setting up their trapline.

A perfect example is in the difference between the two fur-out raccoon pelts shown. While there is a distinct difference in pelt quality, these furs were taken less than 20 miles apart within a week of each other.

The pelt with the weak guard hairs and woolly looking underwool has no value in today’s market. It was the earliest caught. The only way to know for sure is to do some trapping (or get some reliable information from local trappers or fur buyers).

Trap a few raccoons and when you skin them take a good look at the skin side. If you can see the blue cast shown in the skin side picture, lay off trapping that area for a week or two. If the skin sides of the pelt look white or creamy, trap away. Note this information because it will likely remain unchanged from year to year.

Size also can make a difference. The more mature animals tend to prime up first. If I’m trapping in my area Nov. 15 and I catch a 25-pound boar raccoon it will likely be prime (or almost prime). If it is a young of the year or a sow that was just done nursing? Nope – not even close.

One thing that is very important to remember is that just because a fur is prime does not mean it’s going to receive top dollar when you sell. It only means that it is the best that it can be at that particular locale.

I can guarantee that an average northwestern Illinois raccoon is going to run circles around my average central Illinois raccoon. They are going to average bigger, better color, and longer fur (particularly guard hair). They are going to average at least twice what I get.

Trapping Realities

Here’s the deal. We all would love it if our schedules were such that we could trap whenever we want and as long as we want. Unfortunately, except for a select few, that is not an option for the vast majority of us.

So what do you do? The answer is trap when you can. I had a long discussion with Guy Groenewold (Groenewold Fur & Wool) about this a few days ago when we were talking about current values in the fur market.

Groenewold said, “People are going to have restrictions on when they can access a property. Don’t stop trapping because of these restrictions. Do what you need to do and have fun. If the fur is not yet prime, so be it. Just be aware that it won’t have the value that a fully prime pelt does.”

Groenewold has a strong belief that we need to maintain a healthy pool of trappers if trapping and the fur market is going to survive, so he tries not to discourage trapping in any way.

Remember the beginning of this article? I was trapping some raccoons that were not prime. Unfortunately, the first 10 days of the season was all I had so I either trapped then or not at all. Because they are nest raiders and the owners like having a thriving wild turkey population, I remove every raccoon, opossum, and skunk I catch.

Just because a lot of these animals were not prime doesn’t mean they were wasted. I lung shoot all of these furbearers so that the skull remains undamaged. I have a market for these raw skulls – not a great one but more valuable than a small unprimed pelt. I also can sell the raccoon bacula (look it up) as well as the opossum tails and any hearts from opossum sized and larger furbearers.

I don’t have a clue what they are doing with the hearts and tails and I have yet to rummage around inside a possum to harvest the heart. My point is to look for alternative markets.

What Groenewold was saying though, and what I belief, is do the best you can. It’s going to be a balancing act.