OK,
So I'm new to this whole trapping and fur harvest scene. In fact, I don't even have my trapping license yet (working on it). Anyway, I bagged my first coon about a two weeks ago, small game hunting. I see BIG possibilities here, off set retirement, home tanning business, the whole nine yards. My nine year old son calls dibs on the coon. He wants revenge against the species for eating his pet turtle "Huberta" last summer, and he wants a hat. So I begin skinning this hat with legs. My GOD man!!! After 2 1/2 hours and several flurries of language that I will need to ask for penance over, the skin falls from the carcass. The garage floor resembles the bedroom scene in Friday the 13th, hmmmmmmm.

After a quick smoke I get down to scraping. I have no fleshing tools yet, so I start out with the "butter knife" I have read about. That was about as useful as, well, a butter knife going through coon. After 15 minutes of kneading the fatty beast I fall into admitted defeat and another smoke. Being an avid woodworker, it dawns on me, HA! DRAWKNIFE! It resembles a fleshing knife if you ask me. I select one with a rather dull edge on it and get back to my duties.

After 45 minutes or so is about the time the wife walks into the garage. With eyes that reminded me of the night she gave birth to said son she bellows, "What in the HECK are you doing?". I hunt, and have hunted for 30 of my 42 years, I have skinned many a whitetail, but this coon was different. What greeted my wife can not be called anything less than carnage. Large globs of fat deposits were strewn about the place, clinging, as I discovered, to pretty much any object in their general de-cooned trajectory. The blood at this point was pretty much coagulated, I never even noticed all the footprints I had left until then. And FUR. You see, I learned right then, that drawknife DID have a pretty good edge left on it after all. I admit it, it looked like I used the Ginsu knife set I bought years ago. I tell her "Uh, Nothin". Then the wife makes that pre-vomit "HORK" sound, you know the one, and took off running for the house. My natural reaction is to chase after her.

I can tell you from personal experience, when a non-hunting, let alone trapping, neighbor sees a man covered in blood, juicy fat globs and FUR, let alone carrying a slimy and bloody drawknife, chasing his "HORKING" wife into the house, it is NOT good. The neighbor lets out this shriek of sheer terror. Oddly enough, her eyes looked EXACTLY like my wife's pre-birth eyes. The neighbor tears into her house screaming as if she's on fire. I stopped and realized, NO, this is NOT good. I dropped the drawknife on the ground and took a seat on the front porch, waiting for the police response.

Two minutes and FIVE squads later there was much explaining to do. MUCH EXPLAINING.

So, as I begin cleaning the garage and sadly place the shredded "pelt" into the trash, I need to know...

DOES THIS GET ANY EASIER?

get the right tools and know how, and yes it does.

LMAO, it gets easier my friend. just keep at it. The right tools are worth their weight in gold. a good sharp skinning knife and a fleshing knife with a fleshing beam (can be made from PVC). If its legal in your state, pick up some roadkill and practice. but just like peeling out any critter, the sooner after the kill the better.

Putting up fur takes time and practice, and it gets easier with each critter.

But you defitately must have the proper tools, from skinning knife to fleshing beam and knife, and you have to learn the proper technique. My first coon was a disaster. I lost a lot of money my first couple seasons because I was not scraping them properly and was stretching too wide. But didn't have anybody to show me so didn't realize my error. Finally when I started shipping to NAFA I figured it out pretty quick, got the proper equipment, and now my fur grades with plenty of *'s.

There is a happy ending however. We, my son and I, get to eat the representative of the coon species that murdered his turtle. But alas, no hat....yet.

I did save the coons major organs as well. I do quite a bit of Rusty Crawfish trapping for fishing bait. They LOVE chicken hearts and livers. The Rusty is a problematic invasive species here in Wisconsin, In the past I just pulled their tails off for bait and discarded the bodies in the trash. I figure I can freeze the crawfish bodies and use those for coon. My own little recycling plant.

Spend some time on YOUTUBE. Get plenty of visual instructions . Start with being able to skin one. And never leave the slaughterhouse door open, LOL. I process 30 deer a year easy along with whatever fur I get. Next door people don't have a clue , other than what I tell them.

i wish i could have been one of the pigs to respond to that call. i would have laughed so hard i probably would have lost my job. skinning coons is a mess. i tried wearing rubber gloves to help out; nope just made it worse. if you hand a coon like you would a deer and pull down, it makes it easier but you still have to cut through the fat.
djohnson-

yes, it gets easier... I still trash the first pelt I do on a beam each year.

As a woodworker you know how important the right tool is for a specific task. No different with fur handling. You'll need a fleshing beam and a fleshing knife. You also should spend some time in the fur handling archives here, as it'll save you a few more visits from the local LEO.

Thanks for the great laugh though

Yeah, I've retired the drawknife from any future skinning operations. Need to get a fleshing knife. That will be after the new silverwear set my wife suggests I get first. No real arguing room there. What can I cay, I wear the pants but she is my queen! HA!

LMAO, great story....page 7 in the archives...Tom

http://www.trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/826947.html#Post826947

LOL that is awesome! I'm totally laughing with you because, one day, that is just going to be a great tale around the campfire when you are a pro skinner.

Once you have the right tools for the job, of course it gets easier. You should have seen my first nutria. You haven't had a skinning disaster until your friend "helps" you by slicing into it's colon and spilling nutria diarrhea all over the place.

I think there are a few really bad mistakes a person can make skinning. That is skinning in low/bad light, rushing the job, letting the blade get dull and letting your hands get cold. If you have a super halogen 500 watt light in your garage or outside, you can step over to it and warm your hands up because it emits heat! Lots of heat! You can also see what you're doing.

Don't beat yourself up, because coons are relatively difficult to start out with. You also didn't cheat and freeze them first. Freezing right after skinning, then fleshing another day while the flesh is still a tiny bit rigid is easy-mode.

What you want to practice on, for starts, is rabbit. Buy a few farm rabbits that are 10-12 weeks old and get used to them. Muskrat and nutria will be much the same, and possum will be too. The thin skin of these animals will help you to learn to be gentle when you peel. Rabbits will seem easier than coon because they lack the fat. But later, when you try coon again, you will feel that they are easier, in a way, because you can yank all you want on it's skin and not tear it.

Just don't try a coyote or male otter next, or you're likely to have a stroke.

good one!i think all of us have had troubles starting out.itll become easier as you do a few more.thanks for the laugh.

Funny story and one most of us can relate to!

Wayne Fasig,

I've never been an officer of the law but I have a couple of brothers-in-law that are. They are respectable men who do a job that most would not have the nads to attempt. Though my sensibilities may matter little over the internet, you must know that I take serious offense at you calling them pigs; shame on you!!!

S/F,

Bob

I use a draw knife on deer capes and larger thicker skinned animals, but on coon, fox, and thinner skinned animal I use a regular fleshing knife. Most of the time you arent cutting fat off you scraping it. It will get easier just like anything you do more and more of. You shouldnt expect your first to be flawless.
http://www.trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/forums/14/3/Fur_Handling_Archive.html

LMAO, That's a GREAT story! I have tears running down my face reading it! Yes it will get easier! Get yaself a gambrel and the right tools! Man!, I sure woulda loved to have been a fly on the wall for this one! I haven't fleshed one yet myself, maybe it won't result in the cops being called.

Try to get with someone in your area that puts up fur and go and watch them. Say a fur buyer. It will save you many hours of greef.

LMAO that was great.It reminded me of last year when me and my son were doing the skinning in the basement.After he was down there for several hours one night my wife was gonna go check on him, realizing she hadnt see the bloody mess we had turned her basement into I had to jump up and hear her off before she could get there.or risk skinning everything outside for the rest of my life.Its cold out there

next try fleshing a beaver

That was a riot, almost wish I had neigbors! You picked a great year to learn.