First you secure a hind foot, I use a sharpened 30d nail, held in a vice, then run it through the foot. Then grab the other hind leg and pull it towards you. Then run the knife from the foot your holding all the way to the other foot, passing just under the nuts or female parts, like so:
After that cut, cut along both sides of the anus, starting from the underside of the tail, so that it makes a V, like this:
Once you've done that, work the hide off along the legs and rump, using your knife and fingers, until you have the hide free, you can cut the leg hide loose from the feet anywhere you want, whether it be close to the toes or hock, it doesn't matter, it should look like this:
Now everything is loose except for the tail,
skin the tail slightly by cutting up the
underside and pulling the hide back gently, so
you don't accidently cut the hide from the tail.
The bone needs to be stripped out. Once you have
some of the tail bone loose, you can wrap your
middle finger around the bone and grip and pull
the tail hide off the bone, it's tough at first
but once it comes, it'll slide the bone right
out, some use a flat piece of 1/8" steel with a
V notch to do this.
Now it should look like this
Now that the tail is free, hang the critter by the back legs so it's up higher for when you get into the grunt work of pulling the hide. Then take and cut the front legs off at the elbow (I use a large pruning shear), then I put an old sock over the animals head so it goes past the ears onto the neck, this helps prevent excess blood from getting on the fur when you start pulling the hide. It should look like this:
Now your ready to pull the hide, grab the hide by where the rump fur is and pull down, using an old towel or rag helps your grip, or a pair of cotton gloves. Pull the hide until you get to the shoulders, like this:
Once your to the shoulders, you need to work the front legs out, I usually run a steel through the arm pit, between the hide and the upper leg, until it goes out the otherside, then grab the steel on both ends and pull down:
Now your critter should look like this:
Now pull the hide down some more by wrapping the towel around the whole hide to give you a good grip, until you get to the ears, they'll look like 2 big bumps.
Now with a sharp knife, cut the ears loose, cutting close to the skull, they should look like the following:
And both ears free. Now pull the hide even more, until you get to the eyes, they'll be 2 small bumps:
Once at the eyes use a sharp knife and cut as close to the bone as you can, while pulling the hide, it should look like this when your done, notice the blood, that's where the little sock trick helps, theres always blood, when you get to the head:
Now continue pulling and cutting down the muzzle until you see teeth, then cut the bottom lip right off about 1/2 way down the jaw, just cut it straight across. Like this:
Then continue pulling and cutting until you come to the nose, then sever the hide from the carcass by cutting it off the nose, you'll have two parts, a carcass and a hide. Turn the hide fur side out.
Now you can after letting the hide cool about 10
min., fold it in half and put in the freezer,
after it's froze you can put it in a plastic bag
for longer storage in the freezer, don't put it
in a plastic bag before it's froze, or leftover
heat can't escape soon enough and could cause
the fur to slip.
DFronek
wild-about-trapping forums
