Another Season

[assateague]

I do keep a bottle of Mane And Tail detangler (that I steal from the wife's horse barn every chance I get) and spray them lightly and brush before I skin them. Does it make a difference? I don't know- fur buyers fuck you every way they can, but it makes me feel good to at least send the nicest furs I can. No mud, no dirt, no burrs, no tangles, no blood, and brushed again after flipping fur side out. I brush them before skinning because the coons stay fur in for sale.

[assateague]

Worry about jr bring fleas home to the critters, he told me about the ticks in red fox, how does he know this shit? Internet generation...

Leave them out somewhere before skinning. Fleas will leave a cooling carcass pretty quick.

[QH's Paw]

Assa, you tube your hides or stretch on a hoop or board?

[assateague]

Tube. Everything needs to be sold cased, except beaver (at least for the eastern auctions), which is stretched round on a frame as the only acceptable way for sale. Everything is sold fur in also, except fox and coyote, which need to be flipped fur out.

[QH's Paw]

Tube. Everything needs to be sold cased, except beaver (at least for the eastern auctions), which is stretched round on a frame as the only acceptable way for sale. Everything is sold fur in also, except fox and coyote, which need to be flipped fur out.

Fur in? is that to make it easier to see the damage to hide?

[assateague]

Supposedly, only canines have large variation in their hides, so they need to see it all. With other critters, the pelt on their ass will be the same as the rest of their pelt. Also, coons are graded on the color of their skin- the buyers can tell the condition of the fur from looking at the skin, whether it's cream, yellow, or brown. If the hide starts to rot or gets freezer burnt (from hanging in extremely low temps), the skin will blacken/get streaks, and they'll hit you for that, too. Although "extremely cold temps" have been the least of my problems the last few years. I even got the big barn fan out of the horse barn and moved it over to the hay barn (where I hang my furs) to get some air moving- it was 74 degrees, and they were starting to sweat. I was getting a little concerned.

[assateague]

It's so effing hot. I'll be lucky to clear $200 this year. I did get the biggest coon I've ever caught this morning, though. Big boar coon, half his tail chewed off, ears scarred up and chewed down to nubs. He was a HUGE bastard, and wanted to kill me.

Scale is a pound heavy, but he was BIG.

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[JGUN]

Would have been a real trophy next year.

[assateague]

[JGUN]

Talked to my uncle yesterday who has coon hounds. He said they killed 68 in a four day period this fall.

[assateague]

All the furbearers are getting out of hand here. Because nobody does a damn thing besides deer hunt.

[Flightstopper]

Did you pair the face of your scale with blood??

[assateague]

That's "character". 80 year old rust.

[DeadEye_Dan]

Damn! That thing was nearly as heavy as a goose!!

[Flightstopper]

Damn! That thing was nearly as heavy as a goose!!

Wonder how many rings it had inside?!?!

[3legged_lab]

Would have been a real trophy next year.

Damn! That thing was nearly as heavy as a goose!!

Wonder how many rings it had inside?!?!

All gread material. Made me laugh.

[BrewGUN]

Talked to my uncle yesterday who has coon hounds. He said they killed 68 in a four day period this fall.

and all the carcasses are in the brush pile in front of my deer blind, i wondered what stank around there until pops told me!

[Ajverret]

It's so effing hot. I'll be lucky to clear $200 this year. I did get the biggest coon I've ever caught this morning, though. Big boar coon, half his tail chewed off, ears scarred up and chewed down to nubs. He was a HUGE bastard, and wanted to kill me.

Scale is a pound heavy, but he was BIG.

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Now that's some good eatin. I actually miss shootin coons

[assateague]

Just got another this morning. Not nearly as big, but absolutely beautiful. Looks like a perfect coon, like you'd see a picture of in some nature magazine. But I need to get out of these coons and back to some damn foxes. Coons are nice and all, but for twice the work I get 1/2 the money.

[Ajverret]

Eat em. Get all the glands out and clean em up roll the. In corn meal and deep fry. Game over

[assateague]

I boil the hindquarters and then roast them like a pot roast.

[QH's Paw]

It's so effing hot. I'll be lucky to clear $200 this year. I did get the biggest coon I've ever caught this morning, though. Big boar coon, half his tail chewed off, ears scarred up and chewed down to nubs. He was a HUGE bastard, and wanted to kill me.

Scale is a pound heavy, but he was BIG.

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I hate coons! Kill them all!

[one2many]

my barn cats have befriended a monster boar coon at one farm. he sits on his big fat ass and eats cat food with them

[Eric Haynes]

I boil the hindquarters and then roast them like a pot roast.

Do you keep the meat from all of your coons? What about anything else you trap?

[assateague]

Only coons, and only the hindquarters from the smaller ones. They even smell sort of good when you skin them, almost like a pot roast. They don't taste quite THAT good, and I tried it once without boiling first,m and it wasn't very good. They're extremely greasy- when you skin them, they will have between 3/4" and 2" of fat on them. Crazy fat, and the meat is similar. I do eat muskrat, which is good, but I don't trap them. Too much time, and too wet. I'm going to try a groundhog as well- I've heard they're pretty good, and based on what they eat, I don't know how they could be any different than a rabbit or deer. We'll see.

[Eric Haynes]

Only coons, and only the hindquarters from the smaller ones. They even smell sort of good when you skin them, almost like a pot roast. They don't taste quite THAT good, and I tried it once without boiling first,m and it wasn't very good. They're extremely greasy- when you skin them, they will have between 3/4" and 2" of fat on them. Crazy fat, and the meat is similar. I do eat muskrat, which is good, but I don't trap them. Too much time, and too wet. I'm going to try a groundhog as well- I've heard they're pretty good, and based on what they eat, I don't know how they could be any different than a rabbit or deer. We'll see.

Ive heard a lot of people say groundhog is good eating, never heard about coon though. Muskrat and beaver I heard was good too.

[3legged_lab]

Just got another this morning. Not nearly as big, but absolutely beautiful. Looks like a perfect coon, like you'd see a picture of in some nature magazine.

Except for the "dead" part?

[assateague]

"Nope".

[QH's Paw]

Only coons, and only the hindquarters from the smaller ones. They even smell sort of good when you skin them, almost like a pot roast. They don't taste quite THAT good, and I tried it once without boiling first,m and it wasn't very good. They're extremely greasy- when you skin them, they will have between 3/4" and 2" of fat on them. Crazy fat, and the meat is similar. I do eat muskrat, which is good, but I don't trap them. Too much time, and too wet. I'm going to try a groundhog as well- I've heard they're pretty good, and based on what they eat, I don't know how they could be any different than a rabbit or deer. We'll see.

I think the toughest part of eatin' coon is getting past what they smelled like when you skin them. Especially if you don't kill them fast. All the coons I've been around stink like hell. Their meat is similar to a "bad" bear.
I'd rather eat beaver or nutria anyday than a coon.

[assateague]

Must be a different diet. Around here, they actually smell good. Seriously, they smell like a pot roast cooking in the oven. By far the nastiest thing skinning (personally) is a red fox. They stink like hell to me. Grays smell good, sort of like a drying off wet dog. But the reds just stink. And they're so damn delicate when it comes to fleshing them. But they're where the money's at.

On another note, I just got to that other farm this morning. Wish I would have got there sooner. No guarantees I'll catch anything, but I've never been in an area with so much sign. Red fox tracks, gray fox tracks, coon tracks, and I may set a couple colony traps for muskrats, since the ditches were just cleaned out last week, and there's a lot of sign, and plenty of choke points visible now. We'll see. I hate carrying my waders around with me.