Ok, so I love to trap coons. But the one thing I hate is. FLESHING

It takes me SO LONG to flesh and at the end it's pretty clean but places like the arms and stuff are always bad.

Was wondering how can I speed up and get more clean
Have a pretty good knife . Gonna watch next Gen trapper tutorial for the 90th time lol

Google Coon Creek outdoors fleshing a raccoon.

Stu has some of the best skinning, fleshing and putting up tutorials out there.

Keep at it NTO. Lots of people are not fast. It takes a long time to become fast and proficient like people on the internet. Learn to enjoy the process and don't focus on speed. Speed comes on its own with its own pace.

Glad to hear you're putting up your own furs. At your age I was extremely slow and made lots of mistakes. I'm not a speed demon now but I love putting up fur as much As I like catching it. Just part of the whole experience.

And remember most guys on the internet have put up thousands to be that fast and good. You're coming along just fine. Experience is the best teacher

Thanks you. Boyts go check some traps. Off work this evening but morning checks feel way better

Speed will come with experience, just concentrate on doing a good job now and speed will pick up along the way. Go get yourself a pile of coon and have at it

Skin them and freeze them until it's colder
The fat is easier to remove when it's cold
I like below freezing temps for fleshing anything
It was in the 70s yesterday

I've never seen a coon with arms, but if you referring to front legs, don't you cut those off anyway?

Watch a few different videos. As mentioned, Coon Creek is good but watch a few. The good ones are when they make a little nick or hole and don’t edit it out. I used to get frustrated at nicks, but it happens to the best. I don’t look at the clock anymore, just put up the best you can and you’ll be proud every time you look at it as it’s hanging to dry.

Thanks you. Boyts go check some traps. Off work this evening but morning checks feel way better[/quote]

Yes, morning checks for coons are much better.

80% of fleshing a coon is done with the dull side of the knife and is just a matter of pushing the fat off. It's more a game of positioning on the beam and angles of pushing than knife work

Put the coon in the freezer for about 45 min. to its stiff then flesh.

X2

I bet the 1st few coons and beavers took me an hour each. I fleshed them all with a skinning knife. They were freaking spotless though LOL! I was probably 14 years old at that time and the fur buyer said he had never seen critters fleshed that well. I was on cloud 9. Then I told him how I was fleshing them and he just laughed.......... he then proceeded to make my life much easier and faster by showing me how to flesh both.

Right now is the perfect time for you to practice. Once coons are worth more you will be a pro.

wws

I second looking up coon creek professional fur handling. He has great videos on all the different animals to put up. There is 3 parts to this and I promiss this will help your skinning, fleshing, boarding and finished pelt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTP-XZtxRSY

Cut off the front legs so you only have about 1" of leg fur.
When you start out position the coon hide so one leg hole Is up in the middle of your beam. Now you can flesh right over that area.
If you have ever shoveled snow, you will find that the more snow that Is In front of the shovel you have to stop and throw It away. Wel it's the same when you're fleshing any animal. You get a buildup In front of your knife. So what I do Is start out about 6" up from the bottom of the hide and start there. Now there Is less build up. And then you start about 6" above that clean area and start again. The other advantage Is that you don't get a buildup of fat and grease on the skirt fur.

It's not about PUSHING off the fat It's more of a slicing motion. And the angle of the knife should be just about flat so you're going under the fat and gristle. And you won't have cutting damage to the hide with the flatter angle.

I tried fleshing a coon that had been stiffened up in the freezer and I lost the feel with the knife against the hide. I would rather flesh a nice greasy hide any day.

Most people are too scared to put any pressure on the knife when scraping. You can really bear down on it. Keep adding pressure till you start getting down the to hair roots .

Oh and if you have a necker, you have better luck using the so called sharp side to scrape than the dull side as the dull side is too rounded to do any good.

Check out Top Lot Coon Handling with Leon Windschitl.

That's why you take your file to the dull side and square It up. It's not very sharp but It has a nice square edge that makes fleshing a breeze. You should do that with any knife that has a so-called dull edge.

It's all about the user not the knife.

Not with the sharp side of any of my fleshers (Zeph & Post), takes very little pressure. If I'd bear down on it I'd be into my beam pretty quick.

Pushing you bear down on the hide. When using the sharp side, if you put any pressure on the knife and it doesn't cut, your knife isn't sharp enough.