I know I've read about this here before, but I forgot. I couldn't find it in the archives and I'd hate to be wasting fur.

So, I've been laying them flat in a plastic bag fur in, I figured they would defrost better that way. I thought that was what I had read here also. However, I just read in one of the trapper ed books to freeze with fur out. In your experience, which is best?

I have always heard freeze fur out and not in plastic. You can stick it in plastic later on but should freeze out in the open

Have always frozen my green skins fur out and rolled up not fleshed(less freezer burn) until ready to put up or sell green.

fur out

You need to put the fur into the freezer to freeze it. If the fur is out of the freezer it is thawing.

Thanks for the replies. So should I roll them from mask to tail or from the sides? It seems like a big ball would thaw so slow with all that fur.


Joseph, pretty soon my whole state will be a freezer!

I have alway's rolled them tail to nose, then when I am ready to thaw them for sale, I hang there nose, or eye hole ove a nail and they unroll as they thaw. Right or wrong? It works for me, and rolled up you can get alot of coons in a freezer.

Like mentioned. Start at the nose and roll to the tail.The eyes and nose need to be inside the ball because that is the first thing to freezer burn.Thats the way most taxidermist reccomend doing it.

My fur buyer has told me exactly what TexA just posted. For the same reasons.

You may have a good point Tex. It will be something to think about.

most I know roll em head to tail. Hung from the nose till frozen then stack is another option

Once again, I freeze thousands of furs each season and I never roll the fur up. I lay out flat just as Tex has said. It is a no brainer and requires no thought to if it is right or wrong.
Tex I think we may need to copy and save our post about this. It has been less than 2 weeks since you and I have posted the exact same words. Furs will last a couple months very easily frozen flat.

I rolled and froze them last year the guy who i sold to told me if i did that again not to come back. He said they must be flat and they can be slightly frozen when i bring them to sell.


Same with beaver he wants his beaver folded in half along the back and no other way.

Don't know where this roll the fur started but have a suspicion it came from some who never had enough room for storing fur or have never ever seen fur slipped from storing it this way!!

I've told everyone for years to end this practice, it's pure waste for manufactures buying fur and will eventually cost the buyer a client.

Most of you will never see your fur tanned, if you did and had it stored this way for several months you would be storing like has been mentioned flat and folded, or you would have no fur.

Freezer burn takes so long to happen it's just not a real concern for most processing fur from harvesting, it will happen to exposed flesh not covered though.

Place the fur as flat as you can in your freezer, let it freeze then fold it after and place in a paper sack, this will help keep moisture away. If you have a frost free freezer you can place them in plastic bags.

Don't ever thaw them in the plastic bags, the fur folded will thawed out in two thirds the time it takes for rolled fur to.

i do fur out with the head and tail tucked underneath flat,on a peice of cardboard, then when frozen,i put it in a plastic heavy duty garbage bag.so its cardboard ,pelt,cardboard,pelt,etc.i dont know if this is the proper way.i have read that cardboard should not be used with cats for long periods of time in the freezer

Cats have a very sofy fur, it's very delicate and can be damaged pretty easily, probably the reason your were told that is because the card board will have the frost stick to it and may cause more fur to stick to it if it's touching it.

If your fur is inside the bag and away from it theres no problem with it, one needs a small space between layers to help the cold travel thru the freezer.

how do you fold a fur after its frozen flat? mine are so hard and stiff they would break in half!
when its cold enough out and the chance of above freezing days is past,I hang the pelts in a unheated shed where they freeze solid,mice cannot get to them as the shed is all steel and smooth on the inside,then take into the furshed to warm up for further poccessing when I have time. this usually happens about the same time I run out of freezer room,and I try not to let them hang for more than a week or two.

I'm not trying to start any argument but I have rolled and froze furs for over 20years and have never ever had one single problem.I sell nothing but green fur and my buyer has never once said anything about what I'm doing and he has been buying fur for over 30 years.I agree that it takes a long time to burn a hide.I just roll them for more space in my freezer.

KS, how many of them furs have you ever seen tanned? How many of those fur has your buyer seen tanned.

As an end user I know just how much it takes to make a fur slip, and it's not very much when those fur are rolled into a bundle and then frozen. Especially not being fleshed or green.

Early on when I was just starting to do my own fur work I rolled fur up as well, placed it into the freezer, imagine my surprise when a month later I'm taking that fur out to flesh to tan and it's still soft in the center and when I began to flesh the pelt the pelt would break in the middle.

No not all the pelts will do this and not all will be lost, happens more with thick pelts such as coons and badgers, however I have found that if you do roll thin pelts up tightly they will have soft centers as well. Happens enough though to cost me dollars I could use for more fur. I lay mine out flat now if I do not have time to stretch.

To me as a small buyer and end user I advise those selling me fur to never roll fur up, I've lost to many furs that way to advise other wise. I've also talked with many people who handle fur as an end user who state the same thing.

I'm not arguing either, I'm just stating that most fur harvesters or buyers know not any difference in it because the damage usually does not show up until the tanning process is well under way. Then its obviously to late to do anything about it, and the manufacter is out, he still has to pay the tanning cost whether he gets the pelt or not tanned!

If it's working for you as trapper to sell, fine, if your buyer takes the fur this way fine, everyone is happy.

always freeze fur out