Not looking to start a finger pointing thread, but if you are putting up numbers, what is your start to finish time on skinning, fleshing, and boarding beavers? I’m a little out of practice and wasn’t satisfied with the time required to put a few up last night. So what is your process? Do you skin em all and freeze the skins to flesh and board later, or do it all at one time? Looking at trying to run a river line and wanting pointers on how to process faster, and not spend all my free time on the fur shed. And Clean skinning beaver is not an option. Been there done that.

After years of practice, I could not get my clean skinning time down to less than 15 minutes. Don't remember the hooping or boarding time. I am not sure FOR ME if it is better to clean skin or rough and flesh on beam.

20-30 minutes tops start to finish. Stapling on boards is the fastest method to board.

Having knives shaving sharp is the biggest key.

I start out clean skinning and boarding a few at ice out, but when I get tired and the pile gets too big ( I can store beaver for a week in a cool building in springtime) then I start at the oldest ones, rip the hide off of them as fast as I can get it done by rough skinning, and freeze till later. The pile gets to big about when I have too many traps out and dispersal kicks in.

Take your days catch and put them on something so they can completely dry. 2 days won't be a problem. Then after they are completely dry you can rough skin. Then roll them up fur out so there Is no flesh Is showing. You can get away with leaving them this way for several days In a shaded cool area. Once you get the hide off the carcass you have some lee way. So once you get a routine going you can finish a few every night and you won't get overwhelmed. Well unless your catching 20 a day.

I've done 1000s of beaver and It takes me about 5 min to rough skin a beaver. Then It takes me about 10 to 15 min to flesh. And another 10 to board.

Start with your rough skinned hide centered on the end of the beam flesh all the way around edges. By doing this you have complete control of the hide. When done with the edges you should end up with about a 5" strip right down the middle. Know you can hook the nose over the end of the beam and do that center strip.

Good luck

todays will be hung and combed in my cold shed.i like to let the blood set if i can.i'll skin all 4 in a day or 2 then back in the cold room,fridge or whatever till i'm ready.catch when the weather says catch and keep warm and do put up when the weather says so.half hour max total for me i'd say.

When I am finally in good shape in the spring, after a few beaver, and me and my knife become as one, 8--9 minutes to clean skin your 2 year old size. Big old grisely beaver take longer, but I have found I can do them on the beam quite nicely, and I've only been beaming them up for a couple of years. Any winter caught beaver, or fall caught, get's clean skun.

There is at least a half dozen ways to process beaver.Go watch some trappers do up some at a convention or a trapping workshop and then get the right tools and pick a couple ways that appeal to you and practice.
I am a clean skinner and can skin about 5 or 6 an hour once I am on a roll.I freeze the skins and board later.I have done beaver every way,but this is the way I prefer to do them.
The beav is correct,fresh beaver will keep better than all other furbearers on or off the carcass

and for me i've done thousands for eastern buyers and learned to be most efficient from that.

Clean skinner and about 30 minutes per beaver including boarding, castor and oil sac removal, etc.

You just made me feel better about my timing, cause I know you have put up a metric ton of them.

Thanks for the responses so far!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPYDoLW4Ca0

Get my brother to do it for you! That’s him in the video. We could put up 140 rough skinned beaver in about 6 hours when we were doing it full time. Get a pattern down and do it the same every time. It will make you faster the more you do it. Skin the same every time, flesh the same every time, board the same every time. I could tack out in under a minute. Repetition makes you smoother.

I rough mine out on the line, take castor and oil sacs, skull and hide. I'd say 15 minutes for that, and 30 minutes to flesh and board. I use staples also . Got enogh boards to do 12 at a time.

Clean skin 20-30 minutes depending if it’s a two year old or a buffalo. 10 minutes to board. Only done a couple hundred not to the thousands yet. I don’t get in a hurry and enjoy even when the wife is crying at the shed door. All the far northerners laugh at us for putting up beaver anyways. It don’t pay.

Wow. He's flat out moving there. I use to think I was pretty fast at five minutes to flesh.


I was going to say fifteen minutes start to finish. Five to skin, five to flesh and five to board. That was mid season form. I'm sure I couldn't do it now as I haven't even put up beaver in a few years.

i'll admit to noticing i'm slower than back in the day but nobody but me is paying me so i guess its good.

Caught and skinned 55 in 2 days a few years ago, that made the hands ache a little.

My hands hurt for you.

must say also there is quite a difference in fleshing beaver from different areas.big mississippi beaver would take almost twice as long to flesh as a similar sie n-east beaver.learned this the hard way and was the hardest 545 beaver i've ever saw.never again.

Clean skinning is tough.