OK some of you old farts, help the guy out. I'll tell him how I do it and you can fill in as needed. 1st do you have a gambrel? If not, just tie the back legs together and leave about 2 feet of slack, more if the critter is bigger. I'm assuming you are talking about a coon or mushrat. Hang this over a rafter or something sturdy. Take a sharp knife and make a small slit inside one of the hind legs, cut a staight line to the anus, repeat on the other side. Use your knife, make sure it is sharp and stays sharp, dissect the hide from the flesh all around the legs and base of the tail. Depending on the critter, leave the feet on for fox/yote, cut off for coon/rats. I then cut the tail off-just the meat part and skin the tail out later. From here on its not hard, just tedious. Pull and flesh all the way down around the genitals and to the front feet. Again leave feet on for fox/yotes, off for coon/rats. The skull and shoulders are the tricky part. TAKE YOUR TIME. It's very easy to cut holes in the flesh! Don't worry about leaving too much flesh on right now. The eyes, ears and mouth are the hardest. There is not a lot of room for error between the bone and hide. Work from side to side all the way down and try to visualize the animal inside out. Cut the nose off, it is a small porous piece of cartilage. Hopefully at this point the hide is off. Now you can skin out the tail of a coon, and feet of a fox/yote. Start underneath, you can use a tail splitting guide or just a knife if you are able. Remove as much, if not all the bone from the tail. You should at this point be ready for fleshing. Stretch the critter over your fleshing beam (fur side in) and flatten it out. Here you can remove large pieces of flesh with your knife. Fleshing is an art. Start from the nose end and work your way down to the tail end. The idea is you are scraping the meat and fat away and leaving only the hide. You may need the knife to loosen muscle, especially around the head area. Be warned! Coon and rats are very fatty and time consuming to flesh. Remove as much flesh and fat as possible. After you are satisfied you have removed all you can, put them on stretching boards, again fur in. For rats, let them dry completely this way. For fox/yotes/coon, dry until tacky, then turn fur side out. Buyers like to see the fur. For drying, keep them in a place that is dry. Otherwise you are risking rotting. This is just a simple "how to". Your best bet is to find someone in your area to show you. Hook up with a trapper in your area and let him mentor you. Get a book that has pictures. Strat out with something less valuable; squirrel, rabbit, until you feel comfortable. Good luck!
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