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A whole lotter fun (putting up otters) tutorial #2440132
02/12/11 02:31 AM
02/12/11 02:31 AM
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 266
alaska
T
trapped4ever Online content OP
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trapped4ever  Online Content OP
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Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 266
alaska
Well, here goes for the otter fleshing PM's. I picked up a couple little ones today, before the weather came up, and sent me home early. I did a demo of fleshing, for you all, with the 2 little guys this afternoon. This is how I put them up for the auction houses.

Before we get started, always comb dirt, dried blood, or really any sort of clumps, out of the fur, otherwise tears can happen when you hit these while fleshing. Be especially careful around conibear/ snare marks, bullet holes, nipples, and under arms. All are potential tears. If you do nick or tear, sew it up with dental floss.

My fleshing pole is just 4" PVC that I beach combed. Price $0. I cut the top end at a 45 angle. I've been using this one for years. There are a few advantages and disadvantages to using PVC pipe, but we'll get to those later. Here's my set up.



I use the beaver knife down to just below the front legs, all the way around. Like this....



If you have problems with the fat on the front legs, you can put them on a marten board or something for fleshing. I don't usually need to, but showed how, just to illustrate what I'm saying. Here's the front leg over my marten/ mink fleshing pole, which is 2" PVC, also beach combed. This helps stretch the skin taut for fleshing. I use my beaver knife on the front legs also.



Next, I lightly score the membrane into 5 separate lengths. I split down the center of the back, where there is a natural separation. Then, on the belly side, where the fat and membrane meet, I kind of fillet back towards the membrane, with the knife held very flat to the hide. Next, I split each of the now two pieces of membrane in half. This makes two pieces of membrane on each side, and a row of fat down the belly, for a total of 5 separate strips to be fleshed. NOTE: when scoring the membrane be EXTREMELY careful not to score into the leather. Most adult otters have a layer of fat between membrane and hide, so it's easier with them. Juveniles are much thinner skinned, so great care is needed, and I sometimes all together omit this process with little ones. It does make adults much easier to flesh, as you don't ever have to reposition the hide. Just rotate the fleshing pole slightly, and start a new strip.



These strips are then individually fleshed down to the skirt area, taking care to keep fat, grease, meat, blood off the fur, or pole. I usually cut off the strips as I go. This takes maybe 5 minutes. Depends on the otter though. Some older ones have a lot of gristle. My fleshing knife is a piece of 1/4" X 3/4" X 22" bar stock I scrounged from an old homestead site 20 odd years ago. Price $0. It's all I ever use for a flesher on otter. I did add duct tape to the "handles" about 15 years ago, as they kinda dug into my hands otherwise. Here it is after the strips are fleshed.



Next, I move the hide up the pole. Notice the front leg is now on the pole tip. One advantage to using the pipe here, is that the head is dropped back down the center of the pipe, keeping blood smears off your nice clean white leather. I usually have a lot of live foot trapped otter, that I dispatch with a .22. So some blood in the head area is common for me.
Moving the hide up the pole like this, gets the skirt/ tail up to the right height for working on. NOTE: When working on the skirt area, you don't need to worry too much about the last little bit of fat on the belly side, between the legs, as this area will be trimmed for an inspection window.



Then, I trim the last couple inches of fat from the skirt and back legs, using the beaver knife again. Be very careful around the nipples, as they tear easily. When done, it should look like this.


OK, now comes the fun part. I get the most questions about the tail. I just fillet it off with the beaver knife, starting from the top inside, of the "veins" of fat that run the length of the tail. Working from the center towards the outside edge. A super sharp knife helps a lot here. This is how I start...



Then, just carefully work your way out to the edge.



Here is where a wooden pole works a little better, as you can temporarily tack the tail open, to make fleshing easier. I hold my knife very flat to the hide, and pretty vertical to the tail, while doing this "filleting", like this....



Here's the finished tail.



Last area to do now is the head/ neck. For this, I lay the pole across my knees, and keep the neck area tight by pulling down on the front leg holes. I flesh back towards the head, using a longer, more flexible bladed type knife.




Finished products. NOTE: Inspection window cut out on belly side, lower lip removed for auction tag, and I try to remember to tack an eye hole open for CITIES tagger.




The tools I use for both skinning and fleshing otters. The safety razor rarely gets used. Only on older, more gristle laden necks. The older otter seem to have a lot more of this. Little ones tend to be much thinner skinned, so be especially careful on them.



Todays catch before processing.



I'm sure I left a few things out. I hope this helps some of you. Questions, comments or input, feel free.

My favorite picture of the day. One of daddy's little helpers.


Re: A whole lotter fun (putting up otters) tutorial [Re: trapped4ever] #2440148
02/12/11 02:42 AM
02/12/11 02:42 AM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 43
Juneau Alaska
A
alaskanbuckshot Offline
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 43
Juneau Alaska
Thats great. Thanks


Happy trapping, Jake
Re: A whole lotter fun (putting up otters) tutorial [Re: trapped4ever] #2440150
02/12/11 02:47 AM
02/12/11 02:47 AM
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 8
SE Alaska
Sleepycreek4.5 Offline
trapper
Sleepycreek4.5  Offline
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Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 8
SE Alaska
Great presentation!



Re: A whole lotter fun (putting up otters) tutorial [Re: trapped4ever] #2440153
02/12/11 02:53 AM
02/12/11 02:53 AM
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 4,549
The Panhandle of Alaska
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mad_mike Offline
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mad_mike  Offline
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The Panhandle of Alaska
Thank you for taking the time to show your methods on otter. I cuss everytime I get into fleshing one. Most helpful was the segmenting into 5 parts. This should go into the archives, White/Otterman??


Advice? Wise men don't need it. Fools won't heed it.
Re: A whole lotter fun (putting up otters) tutorial [Re: trapped4ever] #2440154
02/12/11 02:53 AM
02/12/11 02:53 AM
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 490
Fairbanks AK
Aknative Offline
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Aknative  Offline
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Posts: 490
Fairbanks AK
Thanks much for putting this up!


Rumors of my assimilation have been greatly exaggerated.
Re: A whole lotter fun (putting up otters) tutorial [Re: Aknative] #2440161
02/12/11 03:15 AM
02/12/11 03:15 AM
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 138
Lake Iliamna Ak
watarrat Offline
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watarrat  Offline
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Posts: 138
Lake Iliamna Ak
Thanks so much for all the info! We have been taking a break from otters but now will use your pvc beams idea and go pop a couple. thanks again.



Last edited by white17; 02/13/11 01:18 PM.
Re: A whole lotter fun (putting up otters) tutorial [Re: trapped4ever] #2440172
02/12/11 03:31 AM
02/12/11 03:31 AM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 43
Juneau Alaska
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alaskanbuckshot Offline
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 43
Juneau Alaska
I agree on it going onto the archives...


Happy trapping, Jake
Re: A whole lotter fun (putting up otters) tutorial [Re: trapped4ever] #2440185
02/12/11 03:53 AM
02/12/11 03:53 AM
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 1,286
Tok, Alaska
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northway Offline
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northway  Offline
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Tok, Alaska
Thanks trapped4ever, that was a great tutorial for otter fleshing!

Re: A whole lotter fun (putting up otters) tutorial [Re: trapped4ever] #2440201
02/12/11 04:41 AM
02/12/11 04:41 AM
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 2
Alaska
sharksinthesalsa Offline
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Posts: 2
Alaska
Wow nice write up!! Your hides look awesome when done. Just an idea for your tail. You said that it would be better to have a wooden beam to tack the tail flat. What if you had several rubber bands that you could put one above where your fleshing and one below. And maybe a fewdown the pipe that you coul slide up if you cut one. That might hold it better for you. Just a thought


Beaver, as many as stars in the sky!! Fighting one another to get in your trap, screaming take me Bill Tyler, take me!!
Re: A whole lotter fun (putting up otters) tutorial [Re: trapped4ever] #2440210
02/12/11 05:34 AM
02/12/11 05:34 AM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 2,255
Homer, Alaska
Family Trapper Offline
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Family Trapper  Offline
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Homer, Alaska
Well done. Thanks for taking the time. This is the kind of endeavors that makes this site so special. Archive YES

Re: A whole lotter fun (putting up otters) tutorial [Re: trapped4ever] #2440359
02/12/11 09:58 AM
02/12/11 09:58 AM
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 954
PWS, AK
FishinHank Offline
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FishinHank  Offline
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PWS, AK
Awesome!!! Thanks for posting this, it's going to help me out a lot.


[TravC]: an educated coyote is like a fat girl on the diet....she dont slip up with a cheeseburger but sooner or later she goes for the bigmack
Re: A whole lotter fun (putting up otters) tutorial [Re: trapped4ever] #2440588
02/12/11 12:04 PM
02/12/11 12:04 PM
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 10
Kentucky
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limabean Offline
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Kentucky
Great post. Can I ask what beach combed is for the PVC?

Re: A whole lotter fun (putting up otters) tutorial [Re: trapped4ever] #2440594
02/12/11 12:06 PM
02/12/11 12:06 PM
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 5,513
juneau, alaska
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alaska viking Offline
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alaska viking  Offline
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juneau, alaska
That's a great lesson. Otter are about my least favorite critter to put up, and these southeast otter can be incredibly fatty. I can easily spend an hour or more on one!


Made it almost 3 years without censor!

Re: A whole lotter fun (putting up otters) tutorial [Re: trapped4ever] #2440634
02/12/11 12:26 PM
02/12/11 12:26 PM
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 35,102
McGrath, AK
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white17 Offline

"General (Mr.Sunshine) Washington"
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McGrath, AK
Outstanding ! Thank you very much. We'll leave this on this page for several days so everyone gets a chance to see it and then move it to the archives. If it's OK with T4E I'll put a link to this thread on the main forum.


Lima Bean: he means he found the PVC on the beach.

I have a comment about the beaver knife. I use one on larger animals like otter, wolverine and wolf. They are easy to get very sharp but I find that I never use the back part of the blade. I also found that while concentrating on the knife tip I could make an unwanted cut with the rear of the blade. I duct taped over the rear 3 inches to prevent that.


Mean As Nails
Re: A whole lotter fun (putting up otters) tutorial [Re: limabean] #2440638
02/12/11 12:28 PM
02/12/11 12:28 PM
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 4,549
The Panhandle of Alaska
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mad_mike Offline
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The Panhandle of Alaska
Anyone have pics they could post of their PVC fleshing beams?


Advice? Wise men don't need it. Fools won't heed it.
Re: A whole lotter fun (putting up otters) tutorial [Re: mad_mike] #2440695
02/12/11 01:04 PM
02/12/11 01:04 PM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 51
fairbanks alaska
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scandiclt Offline
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fairbanks alaska
VERY nice T4E! Pictures help to clearify anything that words could leave out. Someday i will have to do one on skinning feet,lips, and ears for taxidermy. Have a whole series of pictures i've taken on that subject. Just not sure how to post the pictures. Don't want to steal from your thread though. Nice Job!

Re: A whole lotter fun (putting up otters) tutorial [Re: trapped4ever] #2440774
02/12/11 02:15 PM
02/12/11 02:15 PM
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 2,064
Wasilla AK
HFT AK Offline
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HFT AK  Offline
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Wasilla AK
Awesome write up!! Thanks for taking the time to show how you do it, extremely informative!

Re: A whole lotter fun (putting up otters) tutorial [Re: trapped4ever] #2440851
02/12/11 03:08 PM
02/12/11 03:08 PM
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 10
Kentucky
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limabean Offline
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Kentucky
Thanks white17. Got a pm about it also. I thought it might have been something that was done to the pvc to hold better.

Re: A whole lotter fun (putting up otters) tutorial [Re: trapped4ever] #2440892
02/12/11 03:29 PM
02/12/11 03:29 PM
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 266
alaska
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trapped4ever Online content OP
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trapped4ever  Online Content OP
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alaska
W17, yeah go ahead on the link. Just hoping it would help someone out. Otter seem to be one a lot of people have problems with fleshing. Don't move it yet, as I have a few things to add tonight, after I get back off the line. Also going to try to do a post on otter blind foothold sets soon.

Re: A whole lotter fun (putting up otters) tutorial [Re: trapped4ever] #2440955
02/12/11 04:16 PM
02/12/11 04:16 PM
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 35,102
McGrath, AK
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white17 Offline

"General (Mr.Sunshine) Washington"
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Joined: Mar 2007
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McGrath, AK
We'll leave here for at least a week so you can answer questions.


Mean As Nails
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