A tail stripper is 3.95, skinning gambrel is 5.95. Stretcher prices vary...muskrat is 12.50/6 Racoon is 34.95/12 or 39.95/12 for large Coyote is 49.95 doz. Stretchers are easy enough to make yourself if you have any scrap wood. I like to use the bottoms of old dressor drawers for muskrat boards. The wood isn't soft so you have to hammer your tacks in, but it's usually nice and thin.
Plinker
Plinker
aim small, hit small
Posts: 1522 | Location: WV | Registered: 24 August 2003
I have not trapped 'rats in years.But, when I did I used wire stretchers I felt they were faster and if the fut was damp it would dry quicker. I was at a garage sale last summer and there was a big pile of coyote, for and bobcat stretchers mad fron wood the adjustable kind I bought them all for $1.00ea!! Also a dozen wire fox stretchers same price.
Posts: 1072 | Location: Pine Haven, Wyo | Registered: 14 February 2005
Save your money!!! cut the tail down the center, and then down along the sides from the base of the tail to the tip. Then set your knife down. Starting at the base of the tail push your middle finger through between the tail and the hide then lay your index finger on the opposite side of the tail. Clamp them together tight against the tail. And then pull down. This will strip the tail free from the hide. It's just like anything else, it takes practice. You'll get the hang of it.
Maxbear, your way prob works fine for you, but it never seemed very easy to skin around a tail. Like on a coon, the stripper won't work till you get about a third of the way down by hand. That tail is easy to nick, so i like get part way and then use the stripper. Squirrel tails are the easiest to strip.
Plinker
aim small, hit small
Posts: 1522 | Location: WV | Registered: 24 August 2003
Plinker603.....Yes, It does work well for me. I have known a fiew people who were in a hurry to spend there hard earned money on differant gadget's , and so be it. Sometime's they work for people and sometime's they don't . If they don't it's alway's nice to have a plan B, which won't cost a thing.
I used to know a trapper back in N.MN. He would keep all his mink till the end of the season, in the freezer, and skin them all in one session he had a slick tail stripper on his bench, but I don't remember all the details. I remember it took maybe 10 seconds to strip a mink tail.
Posts: 1072 | Location: Pine Haven, Wyo | Registered: 14 February 2005
I have a folding plastic or nylon one with 2 different size holes, works in a heartbeat and then just split the tail with a knife. Just used it on a mink last night.
I was at Ganders last night and I saw they had a metal version, they also had a few sizes of stretchers.
In the past many times I used pliers that have the nearly round open hole in the center. Cut the tail off, depending on the tail diameter skin down the tail so you have a little bone to grab, put the round hole around the tailbone with the metal just lightly touching it, take another pair of pliers and pull the bone out through the hole. The size of the pliers does not have to match the tail diameter. It is basically just getting something with a round surface against the bone so you can pull it out. I used the same pliers for everything. The pliers work well but I like the one I have now better.
Posts: 178 | Location: NE Pennsylvania | Registered: 24 December 2006
I made one when I was trapping that worked very well. Get two small pieces of hardwood, clamp tightly together, and drill a hole through the middle. put a hinge on top, and away you go. I also used the pliers method and it works well.
