Okay Newbies........

Take us down memory lane and post some pics of those "big eye" coons, coyotes and foxes. lol

Nobody wants to share a skinning mishap?

I remember my first coon. I was so scared I was going to cut the pelt when I got done the pelt weighed more than the carcass. Matter of fact I think I sold the pelt as a boneless meat coon.

I wish I still had my first season pics. Talk about a hack job!!! They all looked like I fleshed um with a chainsaw!!!!

Newbie? Heck, I big eyed a coon just the other night trying to hurry. Sorry, didn't think it was pic worthy at the time.

tell the buyer,"scared that one to death,look how big his eyes got."

LOL, some good stuff!!!!

I had no one to teach me trapping or proper fur put up.Also,when I started trapping,,trappers were real tight lipped about everything.First time I brought some coon pelts to the local buyer,,he told me,,next time bring them in whole,,and he would show me proper skinning and fleshing and stretching.LOL.Skinned em pretty good but was a little lacking in the fleshing department.I would show pictures but cameras weren't invented yet.

When my daughter was young I would have her help skinning rats. Almost to the count they would all have cyclops eyes. I still praised her and paid her well.

I didn't big eye my first one last sunday, but I mangled the heck out of his mouth pretty bad bad.

Alright guys, here come the photos, at my own expense. I hope you all enjoy.

This coon was the first fur bearer I have ever skinned, and no one taught me anything in person, and I didnt think to wacth YouTube until after the fail on the face. This was the week before last, and I am 35 years old. Tail came off in 3 or 4 pieces.


Here is the first fox I ever caught the next day. I watched Coon Creek Outfitters after the first coon. Helped a lot with the fox. I actually caught a pair of fox the second time I checked my traps. I have a line of 7 traps. Tail in 3 pieces, no puller.


Fox #2 was much better, but he had a funny look on his face, and two tails.


Coon #2 was obese. He was a complete fat butt. Made my 2nd coon a learning experience that much more. 2 tails


Coon #2 again. He was super fat.


Stuck both my fox on a piece of red oak I cut out. Im freezing all the fur I get until the end of the season and buying proper stretchers. I learned that much.


I also caught a opossum, but wasn't dumb enough to take a picture of that, I want to forget that one. The opossum was 5 min before the 1st coon, I was proud of that coon originally. You may notice a razor blade in that first coon. Yeah, I used that, and the exacto knife you may see. I was second guessing myself on using my butcher kit for stuff I eat. Then I remembered, Christmas BEFORE winter bow season! So I used my processing kit from then on and will buy another for stuff I eat.

Just stick to busting my chops over the skins and not my messy shop. It was spotless like a month ago, but that was because I prepped for a bunch of work, did the work, bought a bunch of stuff, and havent had time to clean it up because trapping is addictive. I also heard skinning fur bearers next to dana 44s is good luck. JK I am going to devote a corner to trapping, Im hooked.

I had catches the fist three checks. a opossum and coon day 1, 2 fox day 2, and a coon day 3. Now I have nothing 3 days in a row. That made it more addictive. At first I thought this was too easy. Now Its more like fishing, not catching. I like that.

doing put up for country buyers for 30 plus years has given me the opportunity to see it all BUT,i've always tried to help all i could and am more impressed with those that try and fail than those that make no effort.

HAHA I'm glad i'm not the only one out here getting slapped in the face by the branches of the learning tree!!! This is my first year and i have done well on the coons but nothing else. i did try to skin my first coon, which was much different approach than the butcher job i used to do on all my rabbits and deer before starting trapping, however i had almost the same outcome. I got to his front paws and realized i couldn't pull the fur over his feet so i cut them off...in my excitement that i may have learned something new i immediately cut off his back feet to which was unnecessary and also made it impossible to hang him back up...grr.....i then got to his ears and did pretty well with those actually but i did triple the size of the eyes. Then there was the mouth....my coons face turned out exactly like the one in the pic from SwoleTrapper. I didn't pay any mind to the tail until this point, which i regret. needless to say that was an adventure all on its own as at that time i did not own a tail stripper..... my 8 year old daughter and my wife had fun at my expense over this one lol..

I have since then purchased a tail stripper, watched videos and practice on all rabbits (like they were coons, coyotes, or cats. I have also vowed to never skin a cat or coyote until i can get a coon worthy of only a few chuckles and not 5 minutes of laughter.) this is absolutely the funnest thing i have ever done...now if i could just catch something other than coons lol.

Use a set of tree trimming loppers to take front feet off as soon as you hang the critters. I use them on all my critters except muskrat. Seems like every year I will end up with a few big eyes when I skin my first few. Not near as many as I used to. Seems I forget where the eyes are. Lol.

This wouldn't be as funny if we all hadn't experienced it one time or another. I love that bttrapper shared all that with his family. lol

admitting i don't see as good as i used to and a pair of skinnin glasses has helped a lot too.

That top coon pic looks like the carcass has a mullet,,,HAHAHA,get it to sing achy breaky heart.

I'm in my 2nd year and so far the only coon that I didn't rip the tail in two was my first. I've yet to skin another coon without leaving a ball of fur halfway down the tail. My biggest problem tho is all my catches freezing before I can dry em enough to skin/flesh them out. Ice chunks in the fur, holes in the leather. Soon they'll be hanging in the house to thaw.. She's gonna love that

Oh to be a Canadian and be born already knowing how to perfectly do all this stuff eh!

Thats not what fancy pants Trudeau says about you guys when he is in Mexico

with their legal mary jane,you will still be born with those abilities just won't be able to remember them.

Had to sign up so that I could contribute to this one.



First coon ever a week or so ago in an FB1 dogproof. Trapping a small 1.5 acre lot that I just bought on the river a mile from home. I know the coons aren't worth much, but I want to thin the egg suckers out for the ducks (so I can shoot more ducks next year of course ). Have a colony trap out for 'rats too, but haven't connected with anything yet. Skinning was a trip, I'm curious to see what I ended up with after I pull it out of the freezer. I didn't own a gambrel so I used some rope to kinda tie it up in the air for skinning purposes. Messed up the tail as I didn't have a tail popper. I don't think it had quite as big of a mohawk though.

How big of a deduction can one expect to take selling stuff that has the head and tail messed up? My goal is to get to 20 of this size, tan them, and then turn them over to a relative that is pretty handy to try to make a blanket. But in the event that I decide to sell to Groenewold or the auctions, how much is that boof going to cost?

A bob tail or two is no big deal. If your whole collection is bob tailed , the fur buyer might start lookn for other signs of miss handling. A suitable sub for a tail stripper is to use 2 16 penny nails, one on each side if the tail bone. Works ok in a pinch, but a pain in the a-- to use compared to a proper tail stripper & not a lot cheaper
Dennis.