Bash me for not watching the vid, but was it implied to not waste one's time fleshing and boarding? I was under the impression that "processed" beaver would bring more at the "rat wagon".

Pretty much. The implication is that why spend half an hour or more finishing beaver vs let GFW finish it in a couple minutes. Still get more money finishing them yourself but if you can make more money catching extra beaver vs working in the shed all night, id not finish them either. I just got a deep freeze so if they come my way again this year, depending on my beaver catch this year i might not finish any beaver.

Yeah, the idea was that maybe there are trappers out there not going after beaver because of the labor inputs, so relax about the labor and sell them frozen just folded over like a taco shell.

In the recent past, aout $2 more for put up beaver versus frozen green because they can flesh and dry them for about $2.00. If you want to flesh and dry them for $2, more power to ya!

And the fleshing machines used by tanneries are not designed anything like the machines GFW uses. The GFW machines would not work on case skinned critters.

Their machines are two parallel rollers. One is the drive roller. The other is the cutter. Think about the old style reel type lawnmowers. That is what the cutter looks like. To flesh a beaver, the rollers are separated, the pelt put 1/2 way in between the cutter and drive roller and the gap closed to the finish thickness and the pelt is pulled under the cutter by the drive roller. Then the rollers are separated and the pelt rotated 180 degrees and the process repeated to flesh the other half. Two quick passes and done.

I am sure the machine is a little more complicated but that is the basics of how it works. I do know that they have a waste collection system incorporated to take the fleshings away also.

Good place to get bait.

Wonder if a beaver skinner is in the works?