# Air skinning



## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

I just built a skinning machine last night nothing fancy just a wood frame and a boat winch all stuff i had laying around , now today i see air skinning 

I am going to have to give this a try on my next ****. It seems very popular for coyote , even saw one guy with a video on air skinning a squirrel.

going to hit the store at lunch and see if they have a blow gun with a straw , you cut a little slit in the leg then slide the straw of the blow gun up the leg a bit squeeze to keep the air from coming back and the hole animal blows up like the old cartoon characters when they blew in their thumb. separating the hide from the meat 

there are a bunch of videos but this one is short and you get the idea well
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvA7saqCRBQ[/ame]


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

I saw that and thought... . "it sure would be hard to dribble him... "


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

There must be a reason why it's not in widespread use but I can't think of any.

I've thought about building a skinning frame that is foot operated so you just use leg power to pull the hide down. That should be plenty of force for skinning animals like fox and ****. Coyotes have a lot more sinews but with your hands free to cut them it should work for them as well.


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## ||Downhome|| (Jan 12, 2009)

Air Skinning works well enough, I use a ball needle that I ground a point like a hypodermic on.
Just slide it on in and go.
Start the farthest away from any holes in the hide.
Once it gets to the hole the air skinning is done.


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## ||Downhome|| (Jan 12, 2009)

I just had a thought that if its a trapper employing this method they may well tie a cord around the neck area (every animal I ever dispatched in a trap was a head shot) then they just need to skin out the head.


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

I haven't tried it on fur bearers but it works great on snapping turtle!


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

if you snap a body grip like a 160 or 220 over there heads you get no holes and no shots and no blood there are ways to put them on the end of a pole brackets and such.

but i have been shooting them in the ear with a CBee long that way i don't have any extra holes , and they die fast , but no blood does sound nice , i will have to build myself a sleeper stick next to put a 160 on 

my garage is doing double duty as fur shed , the compresses is just a few feet away


the skinning machine i built last night will also help , maybe if the fur check is good i will build a electric skinning machine , using the harbor freight cable hoist those look like like they would speed things up a lot , but for now the boat winch should really save my hands and arms.

my hand is stiff today after doing just one old boar yesterday with nothing but my hands and a knife , if i had 20 to do at once , i would be beat.


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

I can't believe your season is in already! Ours don't start 'till the middle of Nov.! Are yours prime already?


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## oth47 (Jan 11, 2008)

I always tried to avoid catching **** because of the work in skinning them.I could skin a half dozen mink in the time it took me to skin a ****.Wish I'd tried this air skinning back when..


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

1shotwade said:


> I can't believe your season is in already! Ours don't start 'till the middle of Nov.! Are yours prime already?


season doesn't open till oct 19th , and this one didn't look bad but not prime yet nights have been in the 40s but we should freeze any day now

no I couldn't convince a land owner to wait till season , they needed them out of the barn , so i left them a few traps and showed them how to set them , and they gift me the *****. land owners here can shoot or trap ***** causing damage or nuisance any time.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

||Downhome|| said:


> I just had a thought that if its a trapper employing this method they may well tie a cord around the neck area (every animal I ever dispatched in a trap was a head shot) then they just need to skin out the head.



if i can get it to the head i would be a happy trapper , have to stop and cut the ears any way , then at least there is plenty to pull on


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

I'll bet he'll be a bluebelly!It's just too earlier for him not to be,at least around here.I'd be sure to pull the back fur up on the board and make sure it's square at the tale so it appears to be a better hide.
If you hold him over till later in the year you might get by with the blue appearing that he's been frozen it water.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

for now I have him rolled up in a plastic sack in the freezer , when i get enough to make a day of it I am going to see the fur guy , he has a setup that you can come work in his shop , and he will show you how to flesh and get them on the board just right so he can top value for them at NAFA if he takes them to auction for you he gets a cut. 

it seems worth it at least the first time to figure out what i need to do and get it right.


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

NAFA is the only place to sell if you know what you are doing handling furs. I started trapping about the same time I learned how to walk,Well maybe a little later,and did everything right to insure I got the best prices at the local buyer.When the market went south I ended up selling at NAFA.They have a free downloadable fur handling guide that's well worth the time to read.
For instance I've been stretching mink on wire ever since they came.Well,seams i've been getting docked on every fur for all these years.The wire Gives you a 3" wide fur,NAFA wants males on a 4" board and and females on a 2 3/4 board so my best mink were being knocked down to large female and loss of $5 per skin. And there is a half dozen other little thing that hurt my selling price " my older buyer wasn't up on what NAFA wanted.It's a grate read and will increase your prices!Wade


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

Thanks , I will have to read that , Greg seems very up on exactly how to get top dollar.
the NAFA auction in Stoughton Wis is near by.

I picked up a blow gun yesterday with 4 inch metal tube, I will give it a try on the next ****.

I also built a skinning machine with a boat winch


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

Sound neat! That's on my never ending list of things I want to do.As for the hides,it's unbelievable how many little things you don't do "right" when you go by a local buyers advise! Not that they are deceptive but rather misinformed..One of my friends sells on the June sale every year and really rakes in some hard cash! So many little tricks like if you don't cut a large enough inspection window the grader automatically thinks either this an unexperianced trapper or he's trying to hide something. Either way he'll pay extra attention to that hide and/or selection. Good luck. Later,Wade


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## Badger (Jun 11, 2010)

OK, so I tried this out on a couple of headshot squirrels this afternoon. It blew them up just like on the UTube video, but the skin was still stuck tight once I started cleaning them. Any idea what I did wrong? I really wanted this to work, squirrels are tough to skin.


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## ||Downhome|| (Jan 12, 2009)

Badger said:


> OK, so I tried this out on a couple of headshot squirrels this afternoon. It blew them up just like on the UTube video, but the skin was still stuck tight once I started cleaning them. Any idea what I did wrong? I really wanted this to work, squirrels are tough to skin.



got to get the needle between the right dermis layer. sounds like you went to deep.

pinch the skin, pull it a bit , slide it around a little should give you and idea where to slip in the needle. if its not right you should hear it, just like when you pulling a hide that little "ripping" sound as it separates.


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## Badger (Jun 11, 2010)

OK, Thanks, I really thought I had it right. I pulled up the skin on a hind leg, made a small slit, inserted the tube of a blow gun and inflated. I'll try again next time.


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## KIT.S (Oct 8, 2008)

Yes, I thought it looked like a wonderful idea too. The grandkids wanted to know if the sheep-balloon was going to explode, but it also didn't actually separate the hide from the body. We were going to try poking several different sites with the next sheep, to see if we could get it to work. Thanks for the extra information, and we'll try it out this weekend.
Kit


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

some other things that can make life easier on the skinning line , fish skinning pliers , they grab the hide and are easy on you hand 

a skinning machine 
I built my fur skinning machine with a frame of wood , and a boat winch the clamps hold the started legs then the crank is turned raising the animal crank till it gets hard make a few cuts pull the front legs through then crank some more make some more cuts , not as cool as the electric hoist with the foot pedal but sure a lot easier on the hands than by hand.


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## AndrewOSpencer (Jun 18, 2013)

Of course you guys probably have seen the power washer to flesh your hides right? Messy, but sure fleshes greasy ***** and beavers pretty fast. Down here in Texas, the hides can still be blue in December.


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

As a kid trapping we didn't always know how to do things right. **** were a pain to flesh. I now comb out the fur as soon as it's peeled out then wash it. Fleshing a wet **** it's a lot easier to tell what's fat and what's hide. At least for me. Give it a try.


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