It works pretty darn good, gotta keep it sharp though. If it's sharp it fleshes the whole beaver with out any problems.

ok thanks for the advice
what did you average on you beavers last year?

snowstorm i showed you last year how to flesh over your knee that way with a knife

Ya I know but I don't have a fleshing knife

I'm not up there with you guys, but maybe a couple pics of fleshing over your knee, ive never seen that done before

lay the hide over your knee
and just start slicing the flesh off

what works for me is using a very thin curved blade and making fast cuts, i slowly change the pitch of the blade as i cut to make sure i only cut the flesh and not the hide.
i only use this for the hard area on coons or around the face of critters

yep nothing special about it

I can post pictures of fleshing as soon as I have them. There isn't much to it, just like countrysmith stated.
Just make sure also if your wearing jeans or anything that can bunch up that the material stays smooth on your knee, one little bump of bunched fabric will cut the hide.

Further Into The Season:

Well, due to being busy with other things in life, I haven't really set anymore traps, since my last post I had two 330 conibears stolen, and the third one was thrown into the weeds. My guess is who ever stole them took the two traps with beaver and got mad because the third one was empty.
So I pulled the one remaining trap out while it was still there, the same night someone jack lighted a deer so I know it was poachers. Which is quite alright, because enough people have complained that they are out poaching that our local Natural Resources office has brought out a "task force" from Winnipeg. We currently have 50 more DNR officers out in the area right now, aswell as 2 Cessna planes and a helicopter. The RCMP have also teamed up with the DNR due to the sudden increase in robberies in the area.

On a better note, in the few traps i've had out I have picked up two skunks, a beaver and a muskrat. Also shot a coon up a tree 10 feet from my set. I know it's not much but I don't have much set.


and there was another skunk besides this guy that I didn't get a picture of. Both we're caught in Bridger 220's with sardines for bait. One in a wooden cubby box, the other in a 5 gallon plastic pail.

Mr.Raccoon:


And the beaver and muskrat. The beaver is caught in an LDL 330 conibear on a dam cross over. The rat in a den entrance.




In the inbetween trap checks I took the tractor and brush mower out and cleaned the ski-doo trail up on a couple mile stretch of what I will be trapping this year, about 1 3/4 of a mile of it is the only land splitting a very large swamp, which is FULL of muskrat and of course beavers. It has a great little approach to the swamp and I will take pictures on my next trip out there to look at things.

The remaining trapping season opened up here yesterday (Nov. 1) and now i'd like some ice and a couple inches of snow to get the trapline moving well. Got all my traps ready to go aside from the 6 MB-750's I just got which need the 6 feet of chain and drag added aswell as a swivel on each. So thing's are pretty well good to go. Going to make up a good supply of Power Snare replacement snares tomorrow night. All is well up here. How is your season going?


But I guess this weekend i'm off hunting deer with some friends. Muzzle loader season now, and rifle opens up the 14th of Nov.

I couldn't agree more!

Curious did the skunk let go when he was caught in a coni?

Nope, I find if you keep your springs strong they don't often spray if you catch them around the neck * shoulder area. Had a few spray but neither one of these two did.

Did you skin them?

Yes, I skinned both of them, only because they had very nice white stripes. I don't have forming boards for them though, I will need to get some of those.

you going to nafa open house?
you can pick them up there.
do you store you furs in a freezer?

SnoStorm - yea I go to the NAFA open house, and i've picked up forming boards from there before.

Depending on what it is, yea it gets frozen until I take it in. If I get an over abundance of fur sitting around I just take it to a local fur salesman out here, that or we have a pick up route from FHA that comes through.

November 19,2011:

First of all, sorry I haven't posted for so long. It's been a bit un eventful around here for the last couple weeks. But heres the update:

Went around investigating a beaver colony with the neighbor, this particular colony has been left in a swamp on my property for about 3 years now. I've never even attempted to trap it. But we went for a walk out there the other day and counted 6 beaver at once, some in the water, some on the ice. There are two lodges on site, and one very large feed pile. I didn't have my camera with me unfortunatly, but the neighbor did. How great the pictures turned out I don't know. But if I get my hands on them i'll be sure to post.

So since the last post we've gotten a fair bit of snow on the ground and about 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch of ice on most of the water ways here. The forecast is calling for snow still every other day so it's starting to add up. Temperatures are well below 0 C, this morning as I write this it is -18 C ( 3F ) and it's very good that it's freezing things up first before we get too much snow.

Here's the first weasel of the season in a cubby with a few good gobs of beaver meat as bait:


Also did some exploring of another beaver colony in which I ADC trapped a bit this summer, here too is a large dam (down the road) and two lodge's:



and here's the smaller of the two lodges on this particular colony:


Also earlier before the snow started I brush mowed a 3/4 mile long trail on the split of two swamps. You'll see more pictures this season from the snowmobile, but here's the very start of the trail:




And to end of the post, it's currently General Rifle season for deer here in Manitoba. And I ended up seeing 2 little 3 points yesterday at two different places on my own property... and no rifle either time. This guy stopped on the road right in front of the truck and then slowly walked in to the field...




Also fired up the snowmobile the other night, so that's good to go when we get a couple more inches of snow.

*Post's will be closer together now that there is snow and it's easier to trap*

November 26 - 29 2011:

Well, we've had some mixed cold weather and snow and some mixed above 0 weather here. It's not that great! It's melted 80% of the snow on me again. On the bright side its going to be a good season for muskrats! I set a few traps a few nights ago in some houses because of the warmer weather right now, and was walking on about 1 3/4" to 2 inches of ice.
Here's a shot off of the one small side of a swamp I trap, quite a few rat houses and a beaver lodge.

Also put up some pelts, Snostorm@home had mentioned wanting to see some put up pictures. And I am by NO means a professional fur handler




And the next night went back to check the couple rat traps I had set and pulled out a half decent muskrat, and shot a squirrel on the way home.


Got them on the stretchers and the squirrel is shown above, the rat will most likely be in the next post when it's done. Got a call to remove some beaver tonight, so I went out and set a 330 under ice, never thought to snap a picture. But the trap is between the lodge and the feedbed in the main run. So I should have good luck!
On the way home also set a trap for mink, and caught the following.

A big muskrat, it didn't go down and drown which isn't un common, so I pulled him out and he met my shovel.



and another red squirrel, this one in a live trap at the neighbors. There outdoor cat ended up eating it when I went inside, but needless to say he won't be giving them any more problems!


But, now that we have got alot of good ice up here, I wouldn't mind about 6 inches of snow to start the snowmobile trapping! It'll come one day I suppose!

I've forgot to mention that I also have a YouTube channel in which I upload almost all of my trapping videos too. If there was video that goes along with the post I will now post the link at the bottom. Here's the muskrat video:


And a bit of video on the squirrel


And a little video of the few pelts I sent to Fur Harvesters yesterday

Really good put ups do you use wire strechers for muskrats