I've always heard to leave the saddles on the fox, coyote and mink.. I always remove them but never had any problems.i got a top lot award for red fox last time I sold fur and I removed the saddle on all my fox. I removed the saddle on 3 mink and tanned one of them so far, no slippage. I also noticed you didn't flesh the heads at all on your coons. I always flesh mine pretty clean. Am I wasting my time fleshing the heads or you think it's worth the extra few minutes? I also don't pin out the coon tails all the way, as most of my coon are dried on wire. Thanks for the post your fur looks real nice. Nice and square.
Do you remove the septum on your beaver?

Great questions. Leave the saddles on mink, muskrat, and red fox-unless there are significant fat deposits underneath. Northern coyote will usually have too much fat and require the saddle to be removed. Given your location I think most often you would be safe leaving it on for those species. When tanning the saddles are removed in the dressing process, so if you were to home tan you also would remove the saddle. After pickling is the easiest time to do this, or during rather.
For the coons, no I don't flesh the heads. But I am careful when I skin to only remove what I need without having huge globs of fat at the base of the ears or excessive tissue elsewhere. In my opinion fleshing them is a waste of time. During dressing they are cut off behind the ears and mainly discarded. As for pinning tails that only matters if you have troubles getting them dry. I do it to speed things up. If they dont dry properly the tails will rot. Wire screen and staples is popular too, just wasn't my style. Perhaps if I put up more it would be.
On the beaver the nose, whiskers, and lips have been removed. When I'm in the mood I remove the ears too. Trimming the head of the beaver is easily done by placing the first nail behind the nose and making the oval shape as it is tacked out. Any bits outside the oval are simply cut off. Now I just don't skin those parts and save a step.

Hope these answers help.

Very helpful. Very few fox have any fat under the saddle down here.. actually most coyotes I skin out have quite a bit of fat. I knew they didn't use the face I always figured it just looked better fleshed. I'll probably keep fleshing them as it only takes me literally a minute or 2 to slice thru the cheek and top of head.. your answers were very helpful. I appreciate it.

For my Northern (I guess compared to most) skins, I only leave the saddle on muskrats. Everything MUST go because of the large amount of fat under the saddle.
I couldn't even imagine leaving the saddle on a coyote, it would be stiff like the cedar board it came off when dried.

As a good "rule of thumb", if a finished pelt is stiff, it is under fleshed. These will always be Section II pelts, in extreme cases with coyotes in particular, section III pelts.
This of course doesn't apply to heavy leathered animals like Beaver and Otter.

Spruce

With mink I lay them head down over the beam. If the saddle comes of without to much pressure its removed. If not its left but I try to squeeze all the fat out from under. Some yotes here have more fat than others, the saddle comes of all being careful not to cut hair roots.

Gary, I would guess the earlier caught ones and pups would be the ones to watch carefully when fleshing so that the root isn't damaged. Also a possible scenario where the saddle is left on? I always removed it on coyotes...

Here is a winter fox I done up for taxidermy a couple years ago.You must leave the saddles on these canines,taking it off these type of winter pelts will leave the leather like tissue paper,and they will have problems tanning it.

Boco, do you leave it on during the pickling process? You tan with the saddle on fox? I've got one pickling now and planned to do my final clean up tomorrow before finishing the pickle.

Yes those very thin skinned winter fox,or any thin skinned animal like rats that also have a very light saddle,are tanned with the saddles on.
Thick skinned and or animals with heavy saddles,the saddles should be removed before or during the pickleing.

Hey Boco, do you dry your furs in a heated building or do you freeze dry them. How long does it take?

Thanks

I dry my fur in a cold room about 10c.

Here is the put up on red squirrel(you guys call em pine squirrel)for reference.

Now that I am in the south and catching nutria, it got me wondering: anyone care to post some nutria fleshed and stretched? I have not boarded any yet, but here is my first attempt at skinning and fleshing one. Not sure if it was right but I skinned it much like I would a muskrat: heel to tail to heel and peel.

Looks good,never had a chance to process nutria,or possums.

I dont think you are missing much. However they are each unique in their own way. Much like opossum, nutria seem to have very thin skin. But they flesh more like a muskrat.

I need to find some dimensions to make a few boards. Unless someone has the information on which "standard" board to use.