I've used several ideas from this thread to improve my fur shed this year. Great info and ideas! I expect to be able to do more, easier, than before. Some real time and energy saving ideas here.

I'll say it again, I hope this goes in the archives!

Thanks for all the good info. It is always the little things that end up making a difference. I put a rag in front of my apron when fleshing this weekend and wow did it help.

Lots of good stuff and much appreciated.

Eagleye could you give me dimensions on that table you have. My fur shed doubles as a catchall when seasons out so I need as much room as possible.

The inside dimensions of the outer frame 32-3/4” x 48 -1/8”, this allows (3) beaver boards to be cut from a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood and also lines up well with the saw horse cut-outs. I bought the saw horses from Home Depot awhile ago but they still have that type, you could change it around to accommodate any saw horse and if you do, the 32-3/4” dimension can be 32-1/8”. The interior frame is just recessed ¾” below the outer frame so the beaver boards are flush with the top of the 2 x 4 frame. I coated the skinning table which doubles as a worksurface with Spar Varnish, blood easily wipes off.

Thank you eagleye.

Back up when pulling a hide...
When skinning a Fox or Coon, I see guys get to neck/head area and squat down or get on their knees to finish the head.
Don't squat or get on your knees at this point.
Just walk backwards holding hide tight with a rag. Back far enough that you are now skinning at a great angle.
While keeping tension,the head will be right at your chest level and easy to see and finish the job.

Once I get the hind legs skun and tail pulled, I begin to back up pulling the hide off.
Holding a rag against the fresh hide prevents hand slipping during pulling.
(I'll take pictures when I get some traps out )

up for the giant marine

For the water trappers . . .

Drying critters prior to skinning can be troublesome at times, especially if you're racking up big numbers. And especially if you've got the critters at the end of a drowning system for a couple of days. They're soaked.

My "fur shed" is the double garage attached to the house. The drying area becomes a one-car garage when not in use. But for the river boat line, it comes in very handy to have this extra space.

You'll see colored tubs under the drying rack. These have 3/8" holes drilled in the bottom to allow water to drain through. It's important, if you toss wet critters into a tub, that the tub has a way of draining off water. That really helps. No problem pulling the plug on the boat occasionally while planing to get rid of excess water in the bottom.

I've built a small "cart", just a square of 3/4" plywood with nice casters on the corners. There's a rope attached to one side to allow for easy pulling. When I pull up to the driveway, this cart has another tub on it and I wheel that down to the boat on the trailer. Grab critters out of the tubs in the boat and toss into the tub on the cart and pull up into the garage. As one gets older, one needs to find other ways of doing the repeated big lifting.

After skinning the previous day's catch that night, I use the same tub/cart to pull carcasses out to the boat and load into the bow for disposal the next day. The bow has a thick sheet of plastic in the bottom for this purpose that keeps the yucky stuff from seeping down the grooves of the runners to the stern. Also if it freezes that night, the carcasses aren't stuck to the floor of the boat. Once carcasses have been disposed of back in the bottoms, the plastic sheet can be washed off, folded up, and stored in a bucket behind the back seat.

Back to drying the critters. The big Sears shop vac comes out and I shop vac each one. This really helps to get the water out. Then each critter is hung by the front foot from the drying rack. Important to hang from the front foot, as this allow water to flow away from the body. This is my opinion, and have seen fellas here state they hang theirs from the hind foot. Whatever works.

The drying rack is 4x4s and 1/2" rebar. It assembles quickly, and can hold many, many critters at one time. Newspapers line the floor below and are recycled every couple of days. Once the river boat "season" is done for me, I take this apart and is easily stored along one wall. Winter catch is mostly 'rats, mink and beaver and are suspended from the same 1/2" rebar back in the fur shed area and don't take up that much room on a day to day basis.

This works for me. Maybe it will give some of you some ideas on how to deal with large numbers of wet critters at a time.

Here’s another space saving idea- we use our overhead hoist for hanging deer & bear and usually back the trailer or ATV under the hoist. I mounted the lower section of my skinning rig on a base plate with casters (made from some old hitch parts) - I roll it under a work bench so It’s not in the way and I’m not tripping over it.

Ttt

Thanks Flint Hill fur for bringing to top. I forgot about this thread.

Thanks everyone for sharing their tips and tricks, we can all learn from one another. Trapping & fur handling is never ending learning.


Man who knows everything
Has alot to learn
~Confucius

Yessir. Brought back to top hoping this will get archived

Email a copy of the entire thread to yourself in case it does not get archived. I did that very thing earlier this morning.

^^^^^good thinking!

Eagleye. Dumb question. When in use what holds your base plate to the floor.
Thanks

Cut the boot part off those old trashed waders and use them like muck boots.

Actually a good question- the first one I made was too light, had to wait until it returned to the floor lol. This one has about 2-1/2" of MDF under the stainless, that plus the casters and hitch parts is plenty of weight to hold it down.

Any idea how much it weighs? Hide comes off our coyotes real hard.

That is great if it does what you need it to do. I just can not see it working very well on cold coyotes or otter without some way to anchor it to the floor. But it would keep some tension on the hide while you do the knife work.