Welcome John, this place is a wealth of knowledge.!!!

Welcome, John.

Welcome and way to go! I'm sure most would agree that's an awesome 1st year trapping catch

Welcome aboard.

Welcome. Pull up a chair and your favorite drink. Thanks for sharing your catches

Pour a shot of Beaver Burbon.....I like stories.....and Welcome to the Tribe !

Cheers everyone!

Welcome. I'm bending the elbow myself this evening.

Hello John, this is why I also love this forum! Your situation seems much like mine (little area to trap). I'm still just learning, and very frustrated, but I enjoy the chess game with nature. I would be interested in your tanning process, because I would like to venture down that path myself.

Since we are welcoming...

Hi there, Yukon. I’d be glad to tell you what I do. Please keep in mind I am no professional and self taught. I have, however, spoken to several taxidermists and picked their brains.

I’m a pretty detailed person, so I can give you the full essay version or just the CliffsNotes. Whichever you’d prefer.

Welcome aboard. Enjoyed your pics and really enjoyed visiting your state at NTA Trapping Convention last summer, folks in Missouri really impressed me.

Don't be afraid to get that camera right in the coyotes face!!!!!!

There really are a lot of good people here. I’m proud as punch to be a Missourian.


Will do! I get really focused on the scenery and trying to capture what I see when I first see my catch. Next year you’ll see nose hair!

Welcome, John, from another newbie! It's nice to see another 30-something trapper! I'm almost 37 and this is also my first season trapping. I would love to get the detailed version of how you tan hides, please. I am a fan of detailed explanations. Helps me learn better.

I love your description of the perfect moment! That is beautiful!

If I may ask, what do you do for a living? Curious to hear what kind of job gives you those stretches of time at home. I'm really struggling with getting out trapping since I have a full time 9-5 job.

Please keep posting pictures. Your pictures are great and I, for one, really like the scenery!

Kris

Nice to meet you! Thanks for such kind words. I’ll put a few words together regarding my process. A couple more pics for ya...

Nice season!

Here is my process for tanning cased skins. I've been doing deer rugs for several years and they are all still going strong. That process is similar to what I'll describe below.

After the animal is skinned, I do one of two things. Flesh it on my beam, or get out the power washer. I only power wash deer hides (they are thick enough to handle the meanest nozzle, a "turbo" tip does the best job) and coyotes. Everything else I flesh by hand. Coyotes (in my experience) can only take what I believe is the yellow nozzle. My power washer came with four tips and one had no color. Yellow is the only one it didn't have. Seems to me that the angle is between the red and green.

I power wash just like I flesh, go with the grain. I have also found that if you start at the bottom of the hide and just take small bites at a time, pieces and chucks will fly off and wont pile up on you and create a cavity that sprays back and soaks you. I wear glasses, and I won't lie, it's infuriating. I'm going to try and make a clamp on shield of some sort this year. You'll find the angle pretty quick. About a 30 works best. Start far off and get closer. You'll see hair when you've got too close.

I go up to the base of the ears. The more I did, the more comfortable I got with doing the face, but you can mess it up pretty quick. Cut slices in the ears, etc, so be careful. So, after the power washing is done, I wring it out real well and get it on my beam. I made a little fleshing tool out of a putty knife that I put a blunt, rounded edge on and it works perfectly with fleshing the face. I think it's 1.5" wide. I use a Havalon Piranta to skin and I love it. I use that to turn the ears, eyes, lips and nose. I also use the knife to "shave" meat off around the ears and nose. There is more there than it looks like, but be careful with the whiskers. You don't want to cut the follicles too deep. It's ok to leave thinner pieces of meat and membrane on the face for now. You can take care of the rest after the pickling process later. With a deer hide, you'll get it completely clean with the power washer.

My ex-wife is a dog groomer and I have access to all kinds of useful tools designed for fur prep. Probably the most useful is a blower/dryer designed to dry motorcycles and car parts. They are kind of expensive, but it makes it so much easier and quicker. I'll turn it fur out and run a 1'x4' through it. It takes about 10 minutes to blow the water off while its resting on my tailgate. You don't need to fully dry it (that would take hours.) I stop when I no longer see water spraying off of the hair. I just fold a deer hide in half, lay it flat and blow dry half at a time. Next is the salt.

I've used plywood and OSB before, and it works fine and is a nice hard surface, but it soaks up moisture. Ive found that cardboard does the best job for me. Take it and lay it on a table. Flatten out your skin on the cardboard. I start with the belly up. Rub NON-IODIZED salt everywhere. Use as much elbow grease as you can. Then flip it and do the same with the back side. After you've worked the salt in hide, I use some salt and kind of make a rough outline of the hide as it lays flat with the belly down. The idea is when you remove the hide from the cardboard, you can see the footprint of the hide. I make a bed of salt about 1/2" to 3/4" thick, then lay the hide belly down on the salt bed. Make sure there aren't any creases or folds under there. The arm holes will want to lay goofy, but I just pile salt under them and they will lay flat with a little work. Then I cover the face, back and tail with the same amount of salt. You really can't use too much. I fill the ear cavities and make sure the nose is pushed out, if that makes sense. You just want salt on everything. The idea is that this salt will be on the hide for 24 hours. The drier the hide is to start, the longer the salt will last. After a few hours, I check on it and the salt usually has started to crust over. I just use my fingers and break the crust up. 24 hours later, you are going to do the same process again but turn the hide belly up this time. I still will fold the tail back over so it's facing up. For some reason, the tail seems to take the longest to dry. Make sure the "bed" of salt for the face is good and thick. The whole time the hide is salted, I have a fan on it. Just enough I can see the hair just barely moving. Also, I put a 2"x4" under one end of the cardboard/OSB. This does two things. Allows water to drain down and away from the hide and also get air circulated under it. That's why I like cardboard. It will dry quicker than OSB. Especially with a fan running. Almost forgot, after the first salting, take the hide out and scrape off the old salt. I just use an old broom with the hide hanging on a fence. Save the clean looking salt from the two saltings. You can use that in the pickle. If its dirty, I just pitch it.

Next is the pickling. I use a plastic storage tub. Don't know the size, but just a regular tub that everyone has. Maybe 15 gallon? You want a 50% water 50% white distilled vinegar solution along with 2lbs of salt per gallon of liquid. So, for one deer hide, or 1-2 coyotes, I use 2 gallons water, 2 gallons vinegar and 8lbs (12 cups, I believe) of salt. This is where you can use the old CLEAN salt. Stir and stir and stir. It takes a while for the salt to dissolve. Once it is, add the hide. I put it in for about 15-20 minutes fur out, then turn it. You'll need something to weigh it down. Water bottles work really well. I usually use 4-5. Just make sure the skin isn't folded up on its self and is completely submerged. Put the lid on and let it sit for 3 days. I stir it and stretch it once or twice a day. Don't use anything metal if you use something to stir it. I use my hands. I think that's the best way.

After about 72 hours in the pickle, mix 12oz (volume) baking soda (100% sodium bicarbonate) and 2.5 gallons of water in a 5 gallon bucket. Just like with the pickle, hair out first for about 10 minutes then turn it and soak another 10 minutes. I usually agitate it the whole time but that probably isn't needed. With a deer hide, I double the neutralizing mix and use another tub.

Next, lay it flat and rinse it clean. I spend a good amount of time doing this. I lay it on a piece of OSB and use the hose. Both fur sides, both leather sides, then both fur sides again.

With the fur in, squeeze as much water out as you can. Then turn fur out and repeat the blowing process with the motorcycle dryer. The take the hide inside, fur in, on the 1"x4" to get to room temp. You can also do a final fleshing here if needed. I usually spend a little time cleaning up the face.

While the hide warming up, I do two things. Clean up my mess outside, (don't forget to dump the baking soda mix into the pickle. After the bubbles are gone, you can pitch it.) and warm a bottle of the generic orange bottle tanning solution buy placing it in hot water. I use a big beer mug I have.

After 30 minutes to an hour, I'm done cleaning up and come inside to put the solution on. Nothing fancy here, just rub it in everywhere. I have found the harder you rub it in, the better the finished product. I soak the face. I try to time this so that it's about 2pm. That way I'm turning it 16 hours later. About 6am the next morning.

Once the solution is on, turn fur out and hang for 16 hours. I try to make sure no skin is exposed to the air. Clothespins can come in handy here. I made little hangars out of rebar that I slightly bent and they run through the eyes and allow it to be hung easily from a hook. I put a fan on one side of it to help dry the fur all the way. Before I go to bed, I put the fan on the other side. I have found that completely dry fur when you flip it the next morning is key.

Ok. Flip fur in and hang it on a wire stretcher, making sure no skin is touching skin. Newspaper in the arm holes and paper towels in the ears work well for me. The tail will want to stay closed. Again, clothespins fix that real easy. Just pin a little hair back. I still leave the fan on it.

The tip of the tail and the face will dry first. About 24 hours later you'll see it start getting dark on the thin spots of the legs and belly. You can stretch it with your hands, but I have found that the easiest way is to use one of those flat pry bar/nail pullers. It's so much easier on the upper body. Take it off the stretcher and scrape and scrape. One scrape session a day for 3-5 days. You'll see the fibers turn white as you stretch. That's what you want. You'll see and feel when the whole thing is dry and tanned. It will be white.

That's my long winded process that works for me. I've not seen any slipping at all. Even the ears. I'm sure I've missed somthing. I'll re-read it in a while once my eyes settle down.



I get salt and vinegar at Sam's club. $4.28 for 25lbs of salt and I think the vinegar Is $4.50 for two gallons.

What part of sw mo...I lived In sarcoxie for 8 years and trapped alot of coyotes n cats down there and way north into the prairie area

I currently live in Walnut Grove. Was born in Springfield and grew up in Lebanon.