Do you guys ever skin making the first cut down the back instead of the belly. Would this be better for making your own mittens and crafts? Also better for taking meat out early in the process?

Never.

Do ONE and see how you like it. Have it tanned for yourself, I'm still waiting on the one I did, other than the cloaca(sp) I don't see how it should effect anything.

Boco, you’re getting a nice stack .

Nice stack of beaver pelts there boco cool to see

Thats an old pic,most of my current year beaver are still in the freezer,but I;m working on a new stack.

Got out of work a little early, got the feet on couple otter skun out. Not sure who I got the idea for the clamp, maybe Hern, but I use it a lot, I have a small piece of pipe to weld in the jaws, I just haven’t got it to shop.

Tedious but fun work NF. We can't keep otters here. I've put up a few years ago out of state. Only caught three around here by accident. We have trigger regulations that are suppose to let more otters go through the 330's without being caught. That clamps a nifty set up.
Is that a door hinge it's welded to?
I could see doing it with an oarlock

First check boatload again today. 15 beaver, 2 nutria, 1 otter out of 27 traps.

Awesome job BP looks like some supers in that load

Dale, I have a grade 8 bolt welded to back of vice grips, on the table I have the barrel from a bolt and barrel latch. When I’m not using it I slide it out and hang it on wall.

That looks like a beaver hiway BP,nice load of 50 dollar bills.

We're right on the cusp of the breeding season. There's beaver sign up and down the river. Unfortunately, I've gotta pull the line tomorrow since the river is going to raise 8 feet over the next 3-4 days. So only two checks...

Boco, don't know how I'm going to get beaver to FHA this year. I don't think I can afford to ship beaver pelts and it looks like the nearest agent is in Wyoming. About a 18 hour drive from me.

That sucks BP
Shipping a big bunch of beaver would be prohibitive,not to mention the uncertainties shipping across the border.
Hope you do well just the same.

Thanks NF, I'll make one to use. It'll be a nice little afternoon project one day this winter.

Way to get at them again BP

That's some fine trapping water you're at I'm sure. Great catch percentage as usual.

I have one crick by me like what you trap but 98% of it is Indian reservation (no trapping) and the rest has lots of city steelhead fishman that I've found out will steal your traps or set them off unfortunately

Here I've got thin ice, not enough to walk on and everything frozen
The creeks are running slush on the edges making trapping for me hard if at all. May have to wait for a spring thaw for my last couple spots.
Maybe through the ice if it gets safe but Miss Aalaiya would rather wait till open water, and this year I've dedicated to nurturing her love of what i do.

Dale, that’s awesome. My oldest granddaughter used to go with me, but they moved away, the newest granddaughter was watching me skin the other night, maybe she’ll take an interest.

BP, your stacking em up, looks like some hogs.

Sorry the pics are sometimes not the best. Got my cell phone in my waders and the lens fogs up.

Funny how we find different solutions to the issue. NF has a great one for skinning out feet. I always just drove a nail thru the upper skinned out portion of a foot and then hung it from a cable so I can pull hard on it.

Here is a little better pic of the clamp, tried a sleeve in table first, I like this better, I think I might have squeezed the barrel a little to tighten it up.

I think I read that George Brady's son in law Frank is taking over as the new FHA guy in WA. His email is theherberts@hotmail.com. I'm sure it's probably a long drive for you but maybe better than Wyoming lol

I trimmed my pear tree today. Would the branches work for bait sticks on 330’s ?