Had a visitor last night.

At 10:30 while turning off lights daughter noticed Momma cat inside the house with tail up looking at back porch.

She turned on light and saw a racoon eating the some left over dog food outside.

Mide you we live in the country our nearest neighbor is 1/2 mile away and the other dozen even further.

So gun fire is not unknow, and we even have a range in the back yard.

Anyway I grab a .22 semi auto pistol and take a shot, 1st shot went between the eyes and out the bottom of his jaw.

2nd shot he turns side ways, after disecting found it went thru one lung and the heart.

He died.

Now I try to make clean shot and do as little damage to the hides.

This one will become a hat so a nice job of skinning is a must.

Big boy



Big teeth



Right between the eyes, not a good shot, it didn't kill him. His head went down just as I shot. bullet went thru the head and out the lower jaw.



Ring each leg right below the 'good' hair line




Cut along the back of the hind legs and connect the leg cut in front of the anus.
Then ring the anus.



Females you would include the vagina with the anus ring cut.
This is a boy so be cafeful not to cut the penis which is just below the hind when you connect the leg cut.
Carefully skin up the belly towards the penis don't cut the 'tube' that runs from just in front off the anus foward. Ring the penis opening.



I say be carfull cause you cut the 'tube' you can get pee on the meat and fur and it smell bad. And will ruin the meat if you want to eat it. And just make a mess.

Using a very sharp knife or razor blade run a cut from behinf the anus ring up the underside of the tail to the very tip of the tail.



Pull the skin from the tail, stop pulling about three inches from the tail tip cut the hide off from here on. Or else you will break the hide. The hide is very weak attached to the tail bone and meat.





Just like pulling a t-shirt off work the hide off the hind legs. Then off the back side. Then continue up the hide just like a t-shirt up over the front legs



When you get the front legs cleared work up the neck .



Once to the clear of the neck, easy stuff. Start on the ears. this take time to do it right.



slowly skining  off the ear cartridge as far 'up' the ears as you can go. And between the ears also




Keep going work between the ears and under the neck towards the jaws



sharp point is the jaw line and the inside of the gums

red knife is the eye



Keep going after a while cut the cartridge off the ear. cut the ear hole down into the hole as far as possible to have a nice ear canel when finished




Ear seperated and eye cleared. Now working on the gum line



Sharp kinfe on the front teeth, you want to keep the black lips.



Now the nose. work you way up the cartridge of the nose. You also want to keep the black nose and the nost holes, but as little cartridge and meat.




BOO



Hi you look framilar OR "I'm beside myself!"





Nice clear mask with whisker attached




Great diet plan



Say ahhhh
(notice black lips are attached and not damaged.





We home school so of course we had an anatomy class...



salted the hide and into the freezer he went

musta been last years pup  or are all your coon pretty much same size?

another 1 1/2 back on head and only  one shot would have been needed.

Leave some dog food out on a regular basis and you won't believe how big those danged things can get.

Had a buddy do exactly that.  He fed 'em Iams... gives them a beautiful coat (that's important, cuz you're going to harvest them later, just as he did )

forgot to put this on last night  great tutorial post.

I made a sticky, cool.

We normally don't leave food outside. We live in the country nearest people are 1/2 mile away and only a dozen houses and every one is seperated.

This guy more than likely showed up here, first time we had any signs of coon, because we had a processed a sheep and a lot of odors were coming from the trash bins. Yotes wanted to come closer to the house , too. Trash was dumped today.

Been out here for a year and this was the first coon. we have no trees in the area, just sage brush. he came from the river more than likely, about 1 mile away.

He is going to be a hat for the kids!

Great work!

Thanks for the info I was looking for the how to info

Nice pics NGO!
I wound up doing quite a few this past season.
Stared out as incidentals on my fox line, but once prices started rsing, I started targeting coon.
I hang them by a gambrel on the back feet and use my weight to peel them.
Been spending the last few evenings putting all the teeth back in the beaver/fox/skunk skulls that I prepped.
Take care

Wow cool,And I have been feedin the dead raccoons to the coyotes. What have I been missing.

excellent post! thanks for sharing.

I'd like to see a post of how you tanned the hide and made the hat.  I've always wanted to do it, but don't know how.

Great job skinning it by the way.

That's really cool. Thanks for the info.

The skinned carcass looks like one of the dogs from resident evil.

Shot me a 40 lbs raccoon 2 days ago with my bow. This is my 1st raccoon. I should've looked at this page before I started skinning. I didn't know how to skin the head so I just cut the head off, I got everything else skinned though. Anyways, what do I do next with the hide? How do I make the fur soft? I couldn't really find anything online on how to take care of your hide after skinning.

any info on how salting the hide went?

this definately needs to stay tacked!

Great job on the Skinning job, just one sugestion though. Instead of cutting the tail all the way down to the tip, try cutting around the anus and working the tail off of the bone and you will have a tail that is intacked. Don't know how to tread the inside of the tail, I sold  all of my streached pelts to a wholesale buyer.

I would really like to see the how to skin a Yote or a Fox.

Would also like to see a yote skinned.

Thanks for sharing, very interesting.

I also like your dry sense of humor

Nice clean young coon!!! The last one I skinned was some stinking grizzled old war horse. I have the pelt somwhere I think total length was close to 3ft with the tail if i remember right. Nice skinning job also... definatly doesnt look like your 1st rodeo thats for sure.

I also have a visitor.... hes been crafty enough to give me bad shots but the Bowtech Guardian is at the ready!!! tuesday night he tossed my trash .... I scared  him off multiple times but he came back the only shot I had was him eating trash infront of a cooler on the deck!! I had to pass Thats my beer cooler  wednesday night all was quiet and lest night he tossed my trash. Also a small coon similar size to your coon..... Tonight he dies if he dares come back for more

what do you use to spread the hide out?

This I would love to keep the hides of the critters Im killing. It would be funny as hell to make a haloween costume for the dog out of a coon skin .

I would be interested in any skulls you have from doing this.

I'm not sure how he keeps the pelts, but I'll tell you how I do mine.

Salt the hide very well and let sit overnight.  Then scrape all that salt off the next day and keep doing this until the skin is very very dry.  Take a dull knife and scrape the hide to get the rest of the fat/flesh and all that crap off.  Then I like to sand the hide some with about 200 grit sand paper.  Now your pelt is ready to be tanned.  Unless you can get supplies locally to tan you'll have to order this kit http://www.vandykestaxidermy.com/product/102983/potassium-alum-tanning-kit.  The kit has instructions saying to let the hide soak in the alum mix.  I let it soak in a plastic bag for a few days.  After that take it out, wash with dove kitchen dish soap.  Then i dry it somewhat with paper towels and rub the oil into the hide.  Take the hide and work it over a table edge, side of plywood, or anything like that by pulling it side to side making sure to work all of the hide.  Then stretch it out and staple it to some plywood and repeat the oil/breaking process in another half day or day.

I have no idea how to make a hat, would like to know though.

Awesome NGO.....I'm with Chicken_little....how do you process the hide so it wont be ruined or degraded?

Look at the post directly above you.

GREAT TUTORIAL!!!


Wish I'd seen this a couple weeks ago, I got one that was eating my chickens...  After dispatching him quietly, he ended up in the burn pile.  The next one will end up on my wall.


here's a possum my dog told me was hiding in the bushes; he went quietly as well:

Anyone ever skin these?  The blood on the hind quarter is the 9mm exit hole...

you skin a possum the same way you skin a raccoon

I just got done skinning my first coon!  This helped a lot and it turned out great.  Got it salted down and drying now.

Thanks!

I have found that CB shorts in the brain does the trick.

This one was 17 pounds.

A gambrel would make your life alot easier

I just found this section.

I gotta ask, why are you guys salting your hides?

For a few bucks you can get a #4 wire stretcher, then all you have to do is flesh it out and stretch it to dry.