Sell hides unprepared vs. prepared?

R

rugerider

New member
I know it is a little early to be preparing for the trapping season, but I scored a deal on 32 traps and am picking them up today. In the picture they all look pretty rusty. Would it be good to take a wire brush to them?

What I am wondering is how one sells his furs for more money. I just skinned and froze the few I got last year and at the end of the season I took them to a fur buyer. If I were to prepare them myself -fleshing, stretching, and drying- would I take them to the same kind of fur buyer and I would get more money, or do I have to figure out how to ship them off to an auction somewhere? I have read about when guys " sent my fur to the auction and got 30 bucks a coon" but I didn't understand how that goes.
 
I personally put up my furs.. I got $10 for a coyote that was green (just skinned) and averaged $32 for the ones that i put up. It takes me less than 30 minutes to do the neccessary work for putting each up (it gets faster with practice) So for me, its worth it, and actually very relaxing for me to do.
I learned a painful but valuable lesson.. Do a few, then go to the buyer, and let them do their thing, then ask what you could do better.. I was skinning them wrong, and not skinning out the gental area, and was leaving a patch of fur between the legs (very wrong) you should only be left with fur around the bottom of the legs, and a baseball size or less patch of fur around the vent area. It cost me a lot, but now i know better and have averaged top dollar for the area i am in.

I would suggest you get or make a Fleshing beam, fleching knife, some victornox pairing knives, a pair of small plyers, unwaxed tooth floss, water proof apron, and a sewing needle is as thin as possible and still can thread the floss into (then i bend it in a curve to make sewing easier)

I had just learned from a buyer, and people were asking how I put up my hides after that lesson, so i made a couple of videos. I am not the expert, but hopefully this will shine some light on it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVbYh_4JCfc&noredirect=1
 
Hey, I know you, T-bone! (Or at least your channel!) I just watched your bobcat skinning video a few weeks ago when searching for tips on doing ears. It was very, very helpful.

Ruge, fleshing out your take really is not difficult; it does take practice, and expect to make mistakes the first several times, but once you get the knack of it the skill is beyond handy. I got my start on roadkilled deer. Not only do you feel too bad if you rip a hole or two (because they probably have some anyway) but you get a really good feel for the tools on a variety of thicknesses on something that you have no fond memories of a hunt with; and hopefully some leather to boot. Just remember to go VERY easy on furs until you are used to your blades. The first skunk I ever did I took down to the membrane . . . not the inner one, the outer one. Took the actual leather clean off and left a beautiful fur on something thinner than tissue paper.

I bumped into a fur buyer over the winter (I don't sell what I skin yet, still have way too many things I want to do with the furs) and he said that if it is not at least prepped, it's usually automatically a Grade V if he even takes them at all. Learning how to flesh and stretch will make you a great deal more money, and it would be a shame to get bottom dollar for a normally excellent hide when a few weekends of practice could change that. Check the laws where you are; out here we can pick up, skin, and sell roadkill with a varmint license, and animal control gives me all the small furbearers they remove from properties. Between these two you could easily be well practiced and ready to go before trapping season starts.
 
If you drop those rusty traps in a mixture of vinegar and water it will remove most the rust and makes using a wire brush on the rust easier
 
You will want to let them sit in vinegar and water mix for a night then spray them off good to neutralize the acid from the vinegar. You want the light rust coating so your dye sticks better
 
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