About 6-7 years ago I trapped beaver and raccoon. I quit because of low fur prices, and the amount of time skinning and fleshing beavers. I am now self-employed so I could possibly find the time to run the traps again. My question is how long does it take for you to go from a beaver intact to one circle stretched?
If you say 1/2 hour PLEASE tell me how.

I have also heard fur prices are on the rise. How are prices in your area?

There was a skinning competition that my brother in law saw. A Hutterite fellow was the winner and could skin a beaver in under a minute!! Wow. I imagine it still needed fleshing. Splinterhands do you have a fleshing beam? That makes a tough job a lot easier.

the chef

quote:

Originally posted by calgarychef1:
There was a skinning competition that my brother in law saw. A Hutterite fellow was the winner and could skin a beaver in under a minute!! Wow. I imagine it still needed fleshing. Splinterhands do you have a fleshing beam? That makes a tough job a lot easier.

the chef

Yes I did have one, I'll need to make a new one though. One minute!!! I would love to see that. Is Canadian beaver fur bringing any money this year?

If you're doing flat pelts a piece of pvc pipe is great for fleshing. A log etc. has bmps on it and those bumps are where you will cut through with your drawknife. The pvc is smooth and won't do that.

good luck

quote:

Originally posted by calgarychef1:
If you're doing flat pelts a piece of pvc pipe is great for fleshing. A log etc. has bmps on it and those bumps are where you will cut through with your drawknife. The pvc is smooth and won't do that.

good luck

Thanks Chef.

There are those who "clean skin" their beaver in the field, but it's time consuming as well.Depends on the size of the beaver so "1/2" hour is kinda arbitrary.
Beaver are a lot of work, to trap, to transport, to skin and flesh, to strech and dry......

There was a guy back in N.MN. an old trapper. He would trap remote lakes and beaver ponds, access by snow shoes, and some by snow mobile. He would build a fire and skin his beavers from each lake/pond. The skins were clean and it did not take very long I used to go with him just for company and I was amazed how quick he could do a beaver. An otter is another story, they are hard to skin by anyone the skin is firmly attached to the body fron the tip of the tail to the tip of the nose, you have to cut all the way

It used to take me a hour or more to clean skin a beaver. But then I was young so I suppose it would be faster now that I'm an old fart with an attention span. Clean skinning is ok but you have to be very careful not to score the skin-that reduces the value a lot.

If you want to see a pro do it, the Alaska dept of fish and game has an instructional video on handling furs. Percy Duyck of Nenana does the beaver skinning part. He and everyone that I know does clean skinning. It isn't fast but that's the way it is done here. Everything in this area is skinned clean. Clean skinning takes time, no matter who does it. Beaver trapping thru the ice is a lot of work. The fact that the carcasses are worth nearly as much as the pelts makes the effort almost break even.

There is a guy around here that used to do a demonstration at the trappers' rendevous. He would skin a beaver clean in 6 minutes. I gave up trying to skin them clean and flesh them now.

The main thing with clean skinning is the set up and the angle at which you do it. if you have constant pressure on the skin coming off and the angle of your knife is more of a 45 degree downward than straight 90 to the hide its relatively easy and you won't score anything.

you should still flesh around the head and tail though. And contrary to what most people use, a razor sharp fleshing knife used in the proper way is the fastest method for getting beavers clean.

also, make yourself a table that spins so that you don't have to be walking around the table wasting time when you are putting beaver up on the boards. instead, spin the table around and stand in one place. And if you really want to speed it up, instead of pounding nails use an electic or pneumatic staple gun with boards that have the correct shape drawn in.

quote:

Originally posted by daryldouthat:
If you want to see a pro do it, the Alaska dept of fish and game has an instructional video on handling furs. Percy Duyck of Nenana does the beaver skinning part. He and everyone that I know does clean skinning. It isn't fast but that's the way it is done here. Everything in this area is skinned clean. Clean skinning takes time, no matter who does it. Beaver trapping thru the ice is a lot of work. The fact that the carcasses are worth nearly as much as the pelts makes the effort almost break even.

What do you do with the carcasses?

Bear bait!! Don't forget to remove the castors, they are great for making your own scents. We used to be able to dry them out and sell them althought I never did.

the chef

Beaver is the preferred bait for Fisher trapping as well.......

quote:

Originally posted by calgarychef1:
Bear bait!! Don't forget to remove the castors, they are great for making your own scents. We used to be able to dry them out and sell them althought I never did.

the chef

got ya. Baiting bears is VERY strongly discouraged down here. I dug out my conibears the other day, but still haven't set any out yet. I used to do good with the killtraps but couldn't catch anything with a foottrap, except one front foot and several raccoon that just happened to be in the wrong place.

I've skinned a few beavers and still do. When fella's clean skin, there is stilla fair amount of fleshing the needs to be done. I personally don't see much difference to clean skinning versus skinning with some hunks of meat left on. It all still ends up as a pile of goo at your feet. Even when clean skinning you still have to squeeze the fat out of the skin. If you dont it will rot...quick.
I do things a little differently and most of it is cause i don't like to spend alot of time doing the stuff that eats up time. like sharpening knives ect ect. I use a small pair of ViceGrips that I use to hold single edge razor blades (every hardware store has them). I start skinning and when that edge getts dull I flip it 180 degrees and use the other end. I use one blade per beaver. Now keep in mind I can skin, flesh and board a beaver in about 45 minutes or so, but I take my time.
After that I throw it on the board and start fleshing. before you start to pound nails, take a one hand fleshing tool and fleah the edges of the pelt all the way around. Now this method is for one handed fleshing tools. If you want the two handed beam method let me know, I just don't want to type all night. Than start your nails in a box pattern, when the nails are about two inches apart start fleshing, Start at the side, use two hands on the tool with some pressure and scrape, hard in kind of a half moon toward the middle. Once you meet in the middle, start fleshing from the middle down to the tail and from the middle to the head. When you get to the tail, you'll have some work and the edge on the fleshing tool will need to cut the flesh away (in the half moon again). Work the eyes and ears carefully.
I have a couple of other tricks that if you are really interest let me know, I have one that is worth its weight in gold.

M

P.S. I was a N.A.F.A Top Lot trapper one year. At least thats what they said and I got a cool hat from them.

quote:

I have a couple of other tricks that if you are really interest let me know, I have one that is worth its weight in gold.

Yes please.

Email me at thekauz@comcast.net and I'll give you a few tips.