Had to sign up so that I could contribute to this one.



First coon ever a week or so ago in an FB1 dogproof. Trapping a small 1.5 acre lot that I just bought on the river a mile from home. I know the coons aren't worth much, but I want to thin the egg suckers out for the ducks (so I can shoot more ducks next year of course ). Have a colony trap out for 'rats too, but haven't connected with anything yet. Skinning was a trip, I'm curious to see what I ended up with after I pull it out of the freezer. I didn't own a gambrel so I used some rope to kinda tie it up in the air for skinning purposes. Messed up the tail as I didn't have a tail popper. I don't think it had quite as big of a mohawk though.

How big of a deduction can one expect to take selling stuff that has the head and tail messed up? My goal is to get to 20 of this size, tan them, and then turn them over to a relative that is pretty handy to try to make a blanket. But in the event that I decide to sell to Groenewold or the auctions, how much is that boof going to cost?

A bob tail or two is no big deal. If your whole collection is bob tailed , the fur buyer might start lookn for other signs of miss handling. A suitable sub for a tail stripper is to use 2 16 penny nails, one on each side if the tail bone. Works ok in a pinch, but a pain in the a-- to use compared to a proper tail stripper & not a lot cheaper
Dennis.