I have to admit that skinning this coyote was the hardest animal I have ever skinned. I brought it home yesterday and put it in the garage to thaw, kept a fire going since I put it in there and then skinned it this evening, the head still wasn't thawed out. The smell didn't bother me, after ready how you all said they smelled terrible I was worried about when it was thawed it might smell horrible, it wasn't till I started pulling the skin by the penis that I smelled anything but the most surprising thing was the beast had started getting green belly already, not bad and just on the membrane, not in the skin.

If I am to continue chasing coyotes for fur then I am going to have to build me a skinning machine for sure, I can already see the value in one just for these buggers alone!

Note: skinning a frozen head is near impossible! make sure it is thawed too! lol

Don't worry about it, every coyote you skin will most likely have a green tint to its belly. The effect of green belly is often over stressed by many. Although green belly can be serious it is common on a lot of fur animals. It is not a serious defect until it turns really dark brown or black, then you will start to see some slippage of fur. I often have coyotes hanging for 2-3 days (even 5) in the shop at 40 - 60 degree F temperature with no problem. If you’re worried about it, wiping the area with vinegar or 3% hydrogen peroxide solution will kill the bacteria causing the rot. The initially frozen coyote in this picture was hung face down for 5 days and is perfectly fine re fur slippage.

Good to know. I would have thrown that one out!

You can skin a coyote without a skinning machine, but the machine makes it so much easier on your hands and shoulders. If you have any welding ability you can build your own at a reasonable cost. I only put up a fraction of the fur many do, but I wouldn't want to be without it.

I've had green belly on a few too. Yours probably had the green belly before you even picked it up. Probably went green after being snared is my guess. I made a simple version of a skinning machine that works good and it was cheap. I already had a hand crank winch on the wall for hoisting deer. So I welded up some vice grips with rebar jaws, and a short chain on each. Screwed a board with a eye bolt in the middle onto a few studs below my winch. Slipped a cable through the eye bolt and attached the vice grips. My ceiling is low so I'm pulling at a angle. It works good and way easier on coyotes and

coons. Only thing is Im bending or kneeling. Horizontal would be even better, but this is working.

How high of a celling do you need for a skinning machine with coyotes ? My pole barn is 8' 6" from the floor to the bottom of the joist, but I have at least anther 6 to 8 feet to the roof. A skinning mach. is #1 priority before next season. -Thanks

I skinned all of mine by hand.Didn't use my machine on these tender coyotes.

With the hand crank winch I took it easy on the coyotes. Get good tension and do a few cuts, then crank some more. Helped me a lot with them. Now coons I cranked most of them off.

Mine is on a 12' plank. Have to choke up the coyotes but not the coon. Used to be only for yote and 16 feet long. I got hurt awhile back and used for coon. Been using it ever since. Why not? I have no money in it.

I like 12' and you will be able to skin anything.

If anyone is in the market Northern Tool has electric hoists on sale. I added a link if you want to check them out.

Hoists

I have the 220/440 lbs model and it works great on coons and deer. I am able to skin coyotes faster by hand and I don’t have to worry about tearing a pelt when I pull to hard with the hoist.

I saw the hoists on sale, was wondering what the minimum poundage should be on the hoist for skinning? The 220/440 is only 89.00 right now. I can do government jobs at work and the steel is cheap so I am good there!

I would guess that the 110/220 would be fine, but I wanted to be sure I could hang and skin deer as well. That’s why I went with the 220/440.

I just used a 2500lb, 12 volt atv winch on my skinning machine. Bought from Harbor Freight on sale for $59.00. Rather than buy a battery, I just hooked up my battery charger to the winch.

I was told that I should hook up my winch to a battery first then hook up the charger to the battery. The battery dosen't have to be any good.

Theres guys would have a coyote skinned before you could hook up the skinning machine.

Lol! Exactly...

Technique makes all the difference. Body position, hanging height, a burlap sack and stuff like that. That and it’s probably helpful if you weigh 200+. I’m not as fast as some of those Canadians I’ve seen on YouTube but I’m getting there.

I have used just the battery charger for 2 years now. I don't see anything wrong with doing it.

After 5 back surgeries and having arthritis in my hands and shoulders, I don't have much choice. When I was younger, I would have laughed at using such a thing. Now just getting old and broke down.