In the past, I've always skinned my catches almost immediately (less than 24hrs, at most) and have never really had to worry about any type of fur slippage. I'm currently living in more of a concrete jungle where it's much more difficult to find places to trap, plus the hours I work don't lend itself to a state with a 24hr trap check law.

In my desire to still put up fur, I have started going after roadkill when I come across it and have found a lot of critters in excellent shape. The problem I'm now running into is - I have no idea how long they've been sitting there. Obviously, on some roads, I drive them every day and would have noticed them if they were there in the past day or two, so I know they haven't been there for multiple days or even a week+. Other times, it's just a complete guess.

If anybody has any tips or tricks to identify which are worth skinning/fleshing and which are worth just skipping, I'd appreciate any info you can provide. I'd rather not go through the entire process of skinning/fleshing/boarding only to then find out that the pelt is trash. Probably good information to know anyway, I was just never in a position where it mattered before. At what point in the process can you tell if the fur is going to slip or be a waste of time?

Thanks.

Tug on the hair in the belly and flanks,if it comes out in clumps,toss it.
If just a few guard hair comes out its good to skin and dry.
If you dont know how long it has been dead skin flesh and dry right away,or at least skin and freeze the pelt flat.
Most animals keep pretty good in cold weather,warm weather problems can start quicker.

Thanks for the response. I'm only picking up during the cold or cold-ish weather so I'm hoping that I have a decent chance, but identifying clumps of fur coming off the pelt ahead of time is a good indication. Thanks

Another thing that can indicate that an animal is good is if it is still in rigor mortis.
Rigor mortis will leave the animal after a while depending on ambient temperature.

Now this is where this all started. I found a good sized red fox in really good condition, picked him up and (I thought) hadn’t even hit rigor yet, so he must be fresh.

This was on a road I travel almost daily, figured if he had been there long I surely would have seen him before so it made sense. I thought I had picked him up mere minutes after he’d been hit.

Then somebody I work with said they saw it there a week ago, which I have trouble believing but I don’t know why he would make it up, either. So then I thought that, maybe, what I thought was a fresh catch had already hit rigor, gone through the whole process and come out of rigor already - in which case it’s probably less than ideal.

Before I knew all that, I took the fox home and gave it a thorough brushing before putting in the freezer to be dealt with later (not ideal but - time constraints) and I would have noticed if the fur had come out in clumps or anything like that. Felt normal to me.

So I started second guessing how long it had been laying there before I picked it up. Haven’t skinned it yet but need to soon.

If no clumps of fur came out when you brushed it,it was likely good for skinning at that point.
A animal the size of a fox takes a while to freeze,and also takes a while to thaw.
Ideally you should have skinned it right away after picking it up and brushing it out.It doesnt take too long to pull the hide off a fox.Then you could have frozen the skin flat for quick freezing and also quick thawing when you had time to put it up or tan it.
That said,I would thaw it out when you have time and skin and dry it,it will probably still be good.Any bit of hairslip if any will likely be on the belly which can be cut out and sewn before boarding or tanning and you will still have a good bit of useful fur to work with after tanning.

Thanks for all the info. Always appreciate your insight on here.

Boco's advice is good. Just to add to it, if the gut is busted inside and stomach juices/acid contact the inside of the hide slippage will occur much faster. I once had a nice tom bobcat that the dogs "treed" on a large rock rim and when I shot it off it fell probably over 150 feet and landed in a boulder pile, even though I skinned it immediately and fleshed it once I got home, I had hair slippage on the belly where stomach acid had contacted the inside of the hide, that I had to fix. This is not generally an issue that trappers have to deal with, but you could have this issue when dealing with road kill trauma.

As far as the fox in question is concerned, hang it head down to thaw, and skin it as soon as possible, I would not let it completely thaw but rather skin it as soon as it is thawed enough to remove the hide, the longer it sits on the carcass while it unthaws, the more decomposition will occur. Flesh it as soon as you are done skinning. Also, get yourself some Lysol (or the generic equivalent) and spray down any green or brown spots on the hide as soon as it is fleshed. This will stop decomposition where it is, rather than it continuing to decompose until the hide dries. Sometimes a couple hours can make the difference between slippage and not slippage.