Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Trapping Fur fleshing question for the experienced trappers/fur hunters...

O.K. Guys....long story short: I will have to take a lot more call for the hosptials I work at this fall/winter, so that means most of my weekends I won't be able to go hunting. That leaves me with A.) staying home or B.) hunting at night for coons and predators. I have done a little night hunting, but have been somewhat unsuccessful at it.
Not really wanting to just "kill something", I want to process the furs....I realize that I probably will be lucky if I break even, but I don't care.
So, the questions are:

1.) how do you deal with fleas/ticks on a carcass prior to skinning?

2.) After skinning, how long do you have before you flesh the hide and put it on a stretcher?

3.) Can the hides be frozen after skinning, and thawed out at a later time for fleshing? Are there any drawbacks to doing this?

4.) Once the hide is on a wood or wire stretcher, how long before it can be removed?

thanks in advance for your relpies; I realize that I am most likely going to make some mistakes processing the furs, but it is a learning process, correct? There are a lot of good videos on Youtube that show one how to skin, flesh, etc, but none seem to answer the questions that I have posted.
Thanks again............

1) permethrin or Raid sprayed on them in a plastic bag

2) A day or two rolled up to keep from drying. think refridgerator....

3) Yes. Yes, chance of freezer burn/drying

4) Depends on conditions, temp, humidity

I have had good luck freezing the unfleshed (cleaned of chunks of meat) hide. Fur should not be wet and try to get all the air out of zip-lock. As Hunts says, always a risk. I'm real small-time and the home- tanning is very satisfying.

I never felt the need to use insecticides on my critters. I will kill ticks if I see them. I don't take the critters in the house, keep them in the garage.

It is best to make sure they are dry before skinning. If wet, wipe down with newspapers and then let them dry in front of fans.

I try to stay in the habit of wearing nitrile gloves.

I will keep them bagged in the refrigerator for a few days before skinning but prefer to avoid freezing as I have had dryout issues with frozen pelts. Don't use a frost free freezer.

Borax is a furhandlers friend. I use it liberally on the fur side to clean mud and blood, and rub vulnerable spots on the leather side of fur out pelts to make sure they dry without issues.

I personally never wash any pelts....I use borax and a brush to clean them out. I have never had to deal with a complete mud ball of a coyote. If I did, I would hose it down before skinning. Some guys run there yotes through the washing machine.

I prefer solid wood boards cut to nafa specs by reputable board makers. Cheap boards get real expensive if your furs are docked at auction.

Good to hear of someone that wants to do things right. Most of the guys that I know that kill coyotes don't have any idea what to do with the hides.

#1 I give them a good misting with some Raid as soon as I get them home. Within a few minutes they are pretty much free of fleas.

#2 If I have too many to flesh in one night, I roll up the excess hides and put them in a garbage bag in the freezer. Never had any problem at all if I wait until the weekend to flesh them and get them on stretchers.

#3 Never had a problem with using a deep freeze for keeping hides fresh until I'm ready to put them up. I've even lost track of a hide in there and put it up the next year. No difference at all.

#4 It will depend on temp and humidity. With a fox or coyote, I generally leave them skin out for a day and then turn them and leave them until the skin side is dry to the touch. A few days I suppose.

As for proper cuts on a canine, I know you didn't ask, but I see a lot of messed up hides. Cut the hide off on the bottom jaw, and cut your front legs off at the first joint. I like to fold the ears back and make sure that they look nice and even side to side. Make your bottom cut along the line that the color changes along the back legs and stop at the hock. Make sure you split the tails to the tip. I like to keep a fan going in my fur shed, helps dry damp fur and your hides will dry more quickly. I wash the areas that get blood on, otherwise you can just brush them out good. When you take them off the stretcher you just give them a few flips from the nose end and they will fluff up nice.

Look at market prices before you start finishing fur. I was real disappointed one year with coyote prices after I had done the work, and I haven't skinned one since. That is a regional thing though, and our coyotes just aren't worth much.

With coons, it seems like they flesh better if they are just barely not frozen. Toss the skin if the freezer long enough that the fat firms up good, and it will be a little easier. You can also sell skinned and unfinished fur if it works out better for you time wise. Roll the hide nose first down to the tail and freeze it is a plastic bag.

Borax everything, lots of it.

You asked about coon so here is what I do.

Never had terrible trouble with fleas

Depending on the temperature you may get a couple of days between skinning and putting them up. You are better off though to put them up as soon as you can. If you cant get to them right away or would rather do them in batches just freeze them.
You can freeze your hides fur out for better than a month with no trouble. Avoid rolling them up as they will thaw faster if frozen flat or simply folded.

Get a good quality fleshing knife Necker and Caribou are my favorites

Get a good quality fleshing beam and set it up at a comfortable level. Your back will thank you

Grawes or Brian Stines make excellent boards. You can also go to the NAFA website for size information, find some basswood and make your own

Once you put them up temperature and humidity will dictate how long they need to stay on a board. 60 degrees with a fan blowing lightly on them should get the job done in a week more or less depending on humidity.

Have fun. Fur handling is work but worth the reward.

Welcome to the 'Fire, friend. Good luck trappin'!

If you don't want to deal with ingesting raid hang your critter by its hind feet. Then take a washcloth or it's equivalent and squirt a healthy dose of rubbing alcohol on it, now place this rag between the animals hind legs.next get a garbage bag large enough to contain the entire animal and squirt a little inside of it and pull it up over the animal and tie it up tight with a piece of wire or tape. The fumes from the alcohol kill the fleas In about 12 hours. I have used this trick on hundreds of coon coyote and fox. Our coon have real bad fleas here at least the ones we get out of the abandoned farmsteads anyway. I don't like fleas or raid. A guy died in ND about 10 or 15 years ago from a flea bite they blamed it on a bobcat he skinned. The doctor told me ingesting insecticides offer follicular lymphoma an opportunity get started in the human lymph system. Hence my severe disdain for raid as I now have that disease. Have fun skinning, as long as your careful it's very rewarding.