I can see how salting would save me alot on shipping. Those odd shaped awkward boxes I make for beaver or long fur bearers add up quick

They still need to be fleshed before salting, donner. You'll never get good at it any other way than by practicing it.

For salting you don't have to flesh as well. Fat can still be problem. The salting gets messy and in high to medium high humidity drying does not happen. Salt attracts moisture.

When I used the salting method I did not get too detailed about my fleshing job, just get rid of the thick red flesh, spend zero time on the head, etc.. Their fleshing/thinning machince will take care of the rest.

If you clean skin like me then there would only be the salting process to deal with.

Turtle, I've had maybe 3-4 different folks put up beaver over the years. The first guy also skinned and we split the fur check 50-50. In later years, as recent as 2012-15 I was paying $5. I can put up 3-4 per hour. Usually my help took a little longer for some reason.

Go to Alibaba.com and search for "Hide fleshing machine" some of them are adjustable and cost under $5K USD. Groeny uses one of these. You better catch a lot of beaver to pay for the best ones, or begin buying a lot of carcass and skinned beavers.

Wonder what the tariffs are on that machine from China?

Only slightly more than the Chinese tariffs on imported US goods.

You ain't kidding. The USPS hits you with a Nonstandard Characteristics Fee, then Length and Volume Fees for odd shaped packages, it really increases shipping costs.

say what.

It's been 10 years ago but had a customer want the beavers I caught
tanned.
I charged $20.00 each to skin, scrap and dry.
And he paided for shipping and tanning cost.
If I remember right I got like a $50.00 tip.

Any skinning, fleshing and boarding for people who want to tan the fur, I charge $25/pelt. tanning is an extra cost.