I am not a trapper as of now, but we do hunt beavers. The animals we take have ranged from 20 to 60+ pounds this year and we are taking headshots on swimmers. We skin as carefully as possible when cleaning them, and we cut off the heads since a hit with a centerfire rifle at close range leaves a mess. So my buddy and I now have several frozen skins awaiting our attentions. I am planning to use what we have to learn (read: make mistakes on) to tan the fur. I bought a tanning kit and can follow the directions, but first I need to figure out how to flesh and prepare the raw skins. If some of the more experienced don't mind offering a few pointers, I would be grateful.
I understand I need to flesh the skins. What would you use to flesh them? Pin them to a board before fleshing? How do you know you have gotten enough stuff off? If I am going to go directly from fleshing to tanning I don't need t worry about drying them, right?
We have been having great fun hunting them at night, and the ranger in charge of the places we are hunting regards them as a nuisance so it is a win-win. I now want to learn a useful skill (tanning) and make something out of the resulting furs. My mother in law is a retired custom seamstress, so I imagine I can get some tips on stuff like making a hat.
