I had a few stretchers that needed hooks replaced. When I went to open them they were so brittle they snapped. I had some wains coating and some duck tape and fixed them. I also put a seven inch lath at 30 inches to avoid over stretching. It really stiffened them up also.






Curious if anyone has done this? LLL

Everyone knows you shouldn't stretch coon on wire.

No one do this? I thought it would work well. LLL

I just done away with the hooks altogether...click on the trapperman.com link in my signature to see how I went about it...I do see you have the option of using the hooks. Tom

I don't have the wood. I still want the speed of wire but uniformity of wood. I had a package of Wains coating so I used it. I had a finished coon from last season and put it on to see where the hooks lined up and I should have no problem with any size coon on the stretcher.

I like it! If you know what your doing with wire you will get just as good of prices as wood. IMO I saw a guy when I shipped my furs that would have been a lot better off useing wood. His coon were 4" wide at the sholders and 8" at the skirt.

my buyers dock price if on wood. Also will dock if over stretched on wire.


It looks like these stretchers were made of rebar.

They are old peerless stretchers. The steel is VERY brittle. Never heard of a buyer docking for a coon stretched on wood. You really don't get docked for overstretching on wire. They pay you for what it really is.... One size smaller than the length is. In other words if it is stretched to a 2X and narrow they will pay you for a 1X.

If a byer docked me for putting up on wood, I'd look for another buy as that one is just looking for a reason to pay you less. I'd bet if they were all put up on wire he'd tell you that was his reason for docking you too.

Old coon stretcher with the ends cut off, two thicknesses of political sign poster boards cut to 6 1/2 inches width. Duct taped to the stretcher, total length is 48 inches for fox. Can use push pin or just regular pins that come in new shirts. With a wideer belly board would I need to turn the pelt, just put it up fur side out? I do not know the answer but will find out next month......jk

Coon are done fur in.

Jeremy, read his post again, slowly this time, lol!

I'm just giving LL crap. I'm in need of some lath now for this new project. Maybe I will just tear a hole in the wall and pull out a few sticks?

Got all of them done and I think this should work well. If they are 2x or larger I can pin the tail and hang them from the base. LLL

I watched a guy at the NTA put up a coon on wood and I liked the skirt best of all because it was "pleated" on the tail side giving it a fuller fur at the base of the tail. On wire, you don't get this fuller look. I have been a wire guy for decades but now I've added a 1 X 8 about 18-inches long at the base of the wire, like trmschessie did and I'll get the flexible stretch on top and fuller skirt at the bottom.

Looks good Larry. Will be giving that a try.

Teacher, all the pleating in the world won't change what that coon really is and any buyer worth his salt knows it. Smoke and mirrors doesn't help our product.

Good job Larry looks like it will work slick, I knew that head was good for more then keeping your ears from touching.lol

Traps are ready, stretchers ready, bait made and line all checked out, but you shop looks like it could use a litlle attention. Stretchers look great. Need to get DJ in the wood shop and get some wood ones done.

Gene

Gene you will Never see my shop like that. LMAO. My OCD kicks in when I put wood chips down for the grease. Dennis is almost done with the wood stretchers. LLL

If I were doing a handful of coon and had nothing better to do I still would not pleat a coon. I don't want to use pins or staples because of the time taken. I know it takes less time to staple but it sure isn't faster taking staples out. In a race it would not even be fair if it was hooks vs. staples. LLL

That picture was taken before that was the fur shed....2x4's line the ceiling in two of the rooms now with nails every 10 inches on center. There is an outdoor wood burner hooked up and fans for circulation. Two freezer on the wall for fur over load. Post fleshing knives on the back of the door. and a tube of skinning knives ready and waiting. Tom

Teacher I'm with you, like the idea of flexible wire plus ability to tack down to save length. I'm doing this with some of my rat stretchers.

Tom that was an excellent conversion in your post.I will definitely have to do a few this year and see if I like.Do you have the numbers for fox??think I'd like to convert some wire stretchers with the plywood for fox too just for the finished look

How are you saving length by pinning? I can really bear down on this set up and I don't have to pull staples. What good really does it do to pleat coon? They get thrown in the same pile as other like size/grade coon. They don't even use the tail. Never could see the point. LLL

i also use the wire with the full wood in the base. staples are
not that hard to pull out, actually. i use needle nose pliers,
and i do not drive the staples all the way in. that way they have
a little to get ahold of.

works great

Gene, I am down to sanding the coon boards then all(rat, mink& coon) boards be done. I still have to router& sand the coon belly boards, then everything done for now! That old basswood tree of Larrys made 44coon, 6rat& 9mink so far, & there is still 2 12"+ limbs at the sawyers to be cut into boards yet!
Dennis

Up until last year, I just stretched my coon on wire and didn't give much thought to how wide (within reason) a big coon butt got. Then I stretched one on wood last winter and the fact that the tail side base was even and I got $29 for it made me re-think just using wire. Yack put the wood bases on all his stretchers taking his cue from the NAFA furhandling manual and I've seen his coon and they looked darned nice. He did well with his buyer so I thought it wouldn't hurt to take some direction from a guy who makes decent money on his fur.

Dave, in your video, don't you try to get a uniform skirt on the coon you stretch after scraping?