Square Coon

That thread some time back got me thinking. So I decided to give it a go.
This is what I ended up with.

That's all the cut off on the bottom of the board
I tore a back leg(back foot catch) and I made 2 bad cuts.
And the next one I will leave the bottom lip on. It was a 3x coon on an 8" board. Did that to see what size it was.
Now it is 26" long x 21" wide.
Please don't bust my chops to bad about the put up, I just wanted to get a square coon. And I hurried
Any guesses how I did it?

I like it. Looks really good for a first attempt. It is a lot squarer than some of the other attempts I've seen recently. The nose sticks out a bit. But over all Good Job!!

Now what are you going to do with it? I bet your local fur buyer will freak when he sees it.

Looks square allright,handling looks fine.

I remember when that was quite acceptable for badger.

Looks pretty darn good to me Wetdog.

Every now and again I see a square badger, figure it to lack of either access to info, they don't care or some old timer told a youngster starting out how to do them. I don't see many badgers any more just flat most now are cased with paws on for a bit extra !

Looks good and clean to me, drying on board should look the same either on board or stretcher one should have it fleshed clean before pinning any way, would not make any difference in dried appearance on the flesh side how its put up, it would appear different on the fur side, just looks odd in this day and age.

Only thing I might have done different is fan the tail out a bit better with a screen for drying.

I used to do my badger so they looked like a square with a tail on bottom and a triangle on top

Looks good!! are you going to tan it? I did two a blonde coon and hooped them square with ! inch sticks like beaver .

Mine 55 years ago were poorly done. Yours look very good w/o the leg regions sticking out and adding a lot of low value fur or hide and taking away the very square shape you have.

Bryce

that was a 20.00 coon at Helsinki today!

I'm the one who asked about it. Thank you for sharing. Now how did you do it?

Looks good ! Would you walk us through the process, what cuts were made ?

I case skinned that coon. He was the sackless coon I caught a month ago.
After fleshing I cut him up the belly and stopped just before the sternum. Then I cut up the back of each front leg, where the fur changes color. Then I finished the cut to the mouth. Next time I will leave the bottom lip on, it will look better, no pointy nose.
The trick was to start in the middle and work to the head. Then work to the rump. It took a little doing to figure out the proper stretch. My thumbs got sore and I ended up using a small hammer.
I stretched the center hard and kept stretching to that size up to the head. There was a bit of adjustment to get the corners close to square. The nose and the ears are turned.

As you can see in that pic my put up was hurried. I've had a busy day, but was determined to get this off my to do list today. I will turn the ears and nose when they dry some.
I think the only way to display it square is to nail or pin it to the wall or a board. I think that will be the hardest part, but I have a space for it and brass nails to fasten it. I plan on nailing it in place before it is to dry to work with when it comes out of the tanning solution.
Hope this helps.

Thank you . You did a awesome job on it

Thanks! That brings back a few memories, I used to have to buy some like that in West Va. and KY. on the road in the 1970's.

How long did it take you to do it?

Almost an horn and a half Nittany. That's fleshing to boarded. It went faster when I got the hammer for the push pins.

In the early 70s they still were putting a few southern coons up that way. I did a few myself. Just took to long and a lot of nails.

In the early 70s they still were putting a few southern coons up that way. I did a few myself. Just took to long and a lot of nails.

my coon hunting uncles used to tell me about putting all coons up square.
reckon that was a long time ago and i am glad of it lol.

t went faster when I got the hammer for the push pins.
Use your pliers to pound push pins. Thataway, if you need to reposition pin, your pliers are at hand.

Thanks for the tutorial , looks great , very nostalgic ! Does anyone see any issues sending one to a tanner that way ?

Can’t help but think the same nails used for beaver would work great .

It would not look like that when it comes back from the tannery. It would return to it's unstreached shape, for the most part. I'm going to use taxidermy tanning cream. Then nail on the display frame while it's still plyable.

I am 51 years old and I remember seeing the " old men " skinning and stretching square coons when I was a little boy. There used to be an old tobacco barn near my house and one entire side of it was covered in coons skins that were nailed to the side of the barn with the fur out and nailed up in squares. I don't know why they did it just figured some old timer did it for fun. As you can imagine the barn was covered in deer horns as well. I wish I had a picture of that old barn.

I started trapping in 1949 and the "Tips for Trappers" By Sears had a tutorial for putting up a coon and it was done to form a square.

Would it be possible for you to post the final picture of your Squared tanned Raccoon pelt ? I think it would interesting for all of to see how the old timers did it and maybe others would like to make or for them selves. Thanks. Marty l

I bet the old timers nailed them up square and then did the fleshing.

The Frisco railroad used the shape of the squared coon with FRISCO across the square as the railroads emblem. Story went the president of the railroad was riding on a train and saw a coon hide nailed to a barn wall and thought that shape was just what he needed for the logo. Frisco was big around here but was bought by BNSF.

Yes that's the way we did it back then in the late 60's.

I don't have a pic of it tanned and on it's frame.
My mother told my uncle about it, he just so happened to be when I was finishing it up.
After a long conversation about my grandfather, I sent it home with him.
The look on his face was priceless
And I can always make another
This was just turned, not tanned. I made it a little more even in the end.

great read , great job wet dog looks awesome !!

one of the fur buyer I used to work for when I was a kid actually had some spring loaded square strechers for coons

In the mid 50's I clean skinned them, stretched them square and sent them to F.C.Taylor fur company.

When I was a teenager, buyers were buying coon put up in any of 3 ways, cased like we do now, square like your picture and theyalso bought them open skinned and nailed out on a wall. We did ours open skinned and nailed out. I have been trying to find out for over 50 years how to do that square skinning and stretching. Would someone that knows how to do this, PLEASE do a picture series or video on how to do this.
Thanks,
Rickey

I like this. I'm going to do a few myself for wall hangers. Very cool.

X2. I would like one for my hunting cabin , nice nostalgic look to it .