I noticed in the March sale that possums went for $3.66 average. Never thought I'd see a possum worth more than a muskrat.

Anyone got some info on how to skin, flesh, and board a possum, and what to watch out for?

the fresher and sooner you get them put up the better, they are a pretty fragile hided critter.

BuckNE, hopefully Don Wolf will respond, but basically, skin possum similar to coon, flesh off similar to coon, but be careful not to flesh too vigorously, or you may start pulling hair through the pelt. At least some possums seem to have hair pull through. They are much thinner skinned than coon.

I put possums on the same boards I use for skunks/fox, but also I put them on wire stretchers, even though I don't use wire for much else that I catch. I also don't bother skinning the black possums, as currently the fur market doesn't seem to want them at all. Maybe we can wire up the black ones and make possum gas to improve vehicle mileage. Sorry, I couldn't resist, please don't hate me.

Phil Brown made an excellent video of putting up possum a few months back.

yep, check the archives, might be there

they tear easy by the pouch of the females and belly is what i learned

Personally, I no longer fool with the little ones or the black ones...bring less than a buck.

Handle similar to a coon, except flesh gently and stretch on a fox board.

Last time the topic came up, somebody said the ones caught before late december are not worth anything because of the fur/leather quality. Makes sense to me, I sent a 5x that was well handled to the last auction, was graded damaged. All the ones I have at the current auction graded well.

here's the link
http://www.trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/620554/fpart/1

Thanks

Buck you comming over this winter? That would be a good bit of info for you to take home with you. That will be part of the learning experience,

You trying to get these ' furbuyers taking advantage of green horn trappers' threads started up again Don? lol.

Don, seriously, I'm going to try to get over there for a couple of days. My outage season should be over around Nov 7. Then I'll coon trap in Nebraska and maybe Iowa until about the 2nd week of December, depending on the weather. Like to get over to your place for a couple of days after that, and then head down to Mississippi with the family over the Christmas holidays. Trap in Mississippi over the holidays for about two weeks out of my brother's place, and then get ready to start the spring outages in January. Hope to have a total of about 6 weeks of full time trapping.

Got family down there in Mississippi with some land, and everyone else in the county knows me and my family. We've been in the same county since not long after the Revolutionary War. Getting ground is as easy as making a couple of phone calls.

That's the plan right now, anyway.

what part of ms. buck? If not too far id like to join you for a day or two if you didn't mind.

J, I'll be up around Holly Springs and Potts Camp.

J what I offered some of these trappers is far from taking advantage of them. It is a no strings attached except that I get all their fur free for 10 yrs deal in trade for grading instructions and fur handling instructions for them. Buck probably a wk. before, give or take a few days, Christmas, would be ok. You don't want to come to early. I never get to much fur untill just before Christmas, then it slows down a bit and starts back up about the second wk. of jan all the way through feb. and earl mar.
PSB thanks for putting your vid. up. Saves me a lot of typin.