Predator Hide Preparation

[Ardent]

Looking for advice on hide preservation, and any time saving tidbits or tricks you may be aware of.

Until now, I've always skinned starting up the belly from the rear, up the insides of the legs, ringed the paws (don't bother with paws), cut the bone at the tail, and then worked the hide rear end foreward pulling it back towards the head at a sharp angle, doubling over itself, and following the edge with a sharp knife. That's the laborous part, but I'd like advice on preservation especially. A lot of my hides are loosing too much hair and the hide itself doesn't have the appearance I'd like.

My preparation's pretty rudimentary, I live in the land of big trees most of the time, so I usually scrape then stretch the hide around a large tree and tack it along all the edges (underside out, of course) and then I rub it with salt liberally. I let it sit in the sun with the salt for a day, then bring it down and salt any moisture again. I've always been lucky with sunshine, and have never used smoke or fire warmth to prep a hide. Advice, your techniques?

 

[gth]

Are these skins to be sold, for taxidermy or you just want some skins to keep around the house??


Sounds to me like you are skinning them rug style?? Thats fine if thats how you our the buyer wants them.

For skins to be sold from weasels to wolves its all the same, some are just easier than others.

Hang critter by back leg(s). Cut from ankle to anus on both rear legs, cut all 4 legs off at ankle with pruning sheers.

Slice underside of tail for 3-5" until you can get a stripper on the tail bone to pull it out. Then slice the rest of the way down the tail to open it.

Pull/skin hide down towards head. because the front feet are cut off they should pull out nicely.

Keep skinning right down to the nose, be careful at ear nubs and eyes.

Flesh hide until all fat and mebrane are removed. Place hide on a stretcher board with flesh side out. Done and ready for sale. (except coyotes, fox and wolves: they should be dried on a stretcher until they start to get stiff and then turn them fur side out and put back on the stretcher.) they should last quite a while now.

Heat is your enemy, it causes bacteria that causes hair slippage. Coyotes and fox are hard to keep the hair on the back of the ears from slipping. I always turn the ears and split the lips but if you havent doen it before its not something I would attempt on a trophy with any sentimental value..


If you are looking for long term preservation go to www.predatormasters.com and check out the Trapping and fur andling section. There are some good stickies there.

 

[gth]

This is a good site also. http://alligatorfur.com/fur/pelt.htm

 

[Killzone]

If you plan on selling you have to case pretty much all predators.

 

[sjemac]

Best prices are gotten for pelts that are clean, have intact eyes and ears, and have been properly stretched and dried on a standard sized board. When I trapped I was getting top prices even for pelts that had large holes shot through them.

I would case the animal out, roughly sew up any holes in the hide, and then flesh on a beam with a two handled scraper, using lots of sawdust to soak up the fat. I would also turn the lips and trim them to the edge of the black line and take all the cartilage out of the ears and nose. I then took the rough stitching out and then washed the entire hide in warm water with Dawn dish soap before letting it soak for an hour in COLD water with Dawn. Take the hide out and rinse it inside and out to get every last vestige of soap out of it and then hang fur side out to drip dry for a couple of hours.

I then tumble the hide in dry saw dust to remove most of the moisture, before blow drying the hide with the blower of a shop vac to blast out the major bits of sawdust. Now is when I would take good waxed thread and really sew any holes up tight -making sure that you are not getting any fur caught up in the stitches.

When pinning to the board you put them on fur side in for the first day and then take them off and turn them CAREFULLY fur side out and pin them back on. It is then that I take a fur brush and the blower on the shop vac and brush AGAINST the grain of the fur while blow drying to get the underfur really fluffed up. Leave on the boar for a week in dry weeather and then take off and send to auction.

Sounds like a lot of work and it is. Each animal required about 30 minutes worth of actual hands on time (not including soaking time and drip drying time). But for me it paid off in that my prices were 15 to 20 dollars higher than the average paid.

I once submitted a small red fox that I had literally shot in half with a 22-250. After sewing, washing, fluffing etc. I still was able to get nearly $40.00 for that pelt in an auction where the average was just over $20.

I used North American Fur Auctions nafa.ca/

 

[asphalt599]

Is it legal for anyone to sell pelts in Ontario? (Without a trappers license or anything like that) If so where can you sell them. If you can't sell them what can you do with the pelts to get rif of them that wont get the MNR after you?