Comb the fur out. Make sure the hide is dry.
You will ruin multiple hides. No worries
Keep the knife sharp. May have to experiment with different draw knives
Looks good. Heat for coon. The neck area is the hardest. Need a sharp draw knife to remove. Keep it up. You will be a pro!!!!! Soon!!!!

Ha ha considering that’s pretty much all I catch!!!

Thanks Danny! Right now I want to keep it all , but I’ll try to make this a new practice

Same here. Coon Capital!!!!

Growing up I learned from my father to simply put another handle on the end of a machete and flesh with that.All we ever used for beaver,otter,and coon.

When using the sharp edge of your fleshing knife on the grissely neck,hold it fairly flat to the hide as you slice.Raise it just enough for the edge to barely bite.
When scraping off the fat use lots of dry sawdust or old cobgrit Makes clean up much easier also.
After you get the pelt on the board remove the sawdust from the leather with a stiff brush.

Yep for sure and try not to go to far all at once

I'm glad your still plugging away at it smash. You have to learn to use the sharp side. Plenty of YouTube tutorials out there. I usually refer people to Coon Creek videos with Stu. As stated with coon I just use it from the ears down to the neck. You can see on your coon just where to switch using the sharp to squared off side of the knife. It's right where your saddle is still on the hide. Take your time and stay with it. Your progressing fine

I love CCO’s videos and thank u!

If you can put your beam down a bit lower or say flatten it a bit then when you are slicing with the sharp side your angle will be flatter on the pelt and thus ride better on top of the pelt and still slice. I have found that getting started right right at the ears helps get under the gristle better and and yes do short sideways strokes. I also start on the side between the ear and the front legs and that is easier then starting right down the back. It also tells me how hard that coon will be. Males are always harder then femals and in older large males that membrane goes from the shoulders to the tail and can get really hard to push. With females watch for the nipples as they rip easily. To a certain extent from my perspective it is good to have your knife flush to your beam as the more area you cover with the knife fitting the beam well the less likely you are to but your pelt. When using the sharp edge you will be able to feel or even hear the difference when you knife reaches the area below the gristle.

Bryce

Don’t worry about the time you did a pretty good job. Like said above shave the neck a bit more.

Throw them in the freezer for about an hour. Fat comes of aTON. Easier

Who you selling to? If groeny from what I’ve seen sell then green not fleshed. Time you spend boarding them spend setting more traps. Or drinking!

… getting there Smasher

Better than I could ever do, I never did get good, I hired others to flesh my coon over the years.

Agree it’s a learning process for sure . Find a way that works for you , I start on the side jaw and work each side down then I do the belly then the back and upper grizzle last works for me and takes about 4 minutes but when I started took forever it seemed lol

I always did the belly first as well, push whatever will push off that way all you have left is the gristle, shave it off with the sharp side. First convention i ever attended it was announced a guy was going to skin, scrape and board a beaver in 15 minutes. Since it took me 2.5 hours to skin one with a DULL knife i knew that wasn't possible! I watched the guy in amazement do all that while talking! His name was Larry Johnston and when everyone moved away i told him my plight and asked how it was possible to go that fast? He told me after i do 100 id figure it out and kind of rubbed me the wrong way, lol. Later in life i understood.

In other words the more you do the faster it will get. On a fleshing beam you have to get the 'feel' of it, no one can teach you that.

Correct and it takes time and practice to get the feel of it.

Hey, I’ve been there too. Sweat pouring off, not from effort, but from concentration…..lol. Then a slice followed by a loud eff bomb that everyone within 1/4 mile can hear. What helps is watching videos of pros that make little mistakes and they say “don’t worry, it’ll happen to the best” and that they post them, not reshoot for a perfect vid. Any trapper that says he’s never nicked anything is like a lineman saying he’s never blown anything up…….maybe so, but they’ve never gotten out of the truck….lol