I have heard from other trappers that coyotes are hard to skin. I have only skinned a skunk and a raccoon and would like to try a coyote. Are they as hard as I have heard? Any special tips on skinning them? I checked the archives and only found info on keeping the paws while skinning which I want to do. Thanks.

i would rather skin a yote than a coon,if you can skin them warm and its a snap

It depends on what people think is hard. To me they are not.

It is frozen right now so I guess it won't be as easy as warm. Anything out of the ordinary you have to be careful of?

not too bad when they are warm, but let them hang for any amount of time and your fingers will be cramped until you are done.

no nothing out of the ordinary

cold coyotes do not skin easy at least the ones out here dont. You have a lot of knife work and the arm pits are a pain. I use a hammer and wack the area between the legs to loosen the hide. You will know what Im talking about when you get to that point.

for about the 90th time lol, coyotes are not hard to skin, they do not require alot of knife work, they do not require a hammer unless they are frozen at the time of skinning, they do not have to make your fingers cramp, warm ios easier than cold but not much difference, not enough to worry about, im almost 49 years old, have stiff sore fingers most of the time, back trouble, sore shoulders in cold weather yada yada yada, and i can skin coyote after coyote on the line or at home, get yourself a good pair of pliars or visegrips if ya dont want to learn hopw to skin the back legs to the paw, or better yet learn to do that in a minutes time and then ya have handles, the rest of it is a matter of you being heavier than the yote hide is tuff, and usin a large screwdriver or a trap stake to pull the shoulders out, the ist 10 are a bit hard, the next 90 are a bit of an effort, after that itslike walking outside and starting your truck in the morning, another day.

Thanks possum5676 you gave me the confidence to try it. It is a black coyote which is rare around here so I don't want to screw it up. Do you use the trap stake like a pry bar to get the shoulders out? The first animal I skinned was a skunk and I had no problems with that so we'll see what happens with the yote.

Something that works for me on the shoulders is when I get that far I pull the hide back up like a glove over the belly and then use the round end of an old broom handle between the hide and body to work the skin loose around the shoulders. Pull the hide back down and work the broom handle in front of the front legs and pull until it's past the elbows.

are you sure you want to put up a black one?there is a pretty good taxidermy market on them from what i see at Taxidermy.com

I hear they are worth some money to a taxidermist but it is too nice of a Coyote to sell. It is all black except for a small patch of white on its chest. If I had the room I would mount it for myself.

Just take your time and be careful. If you get in a hurry you will put a slice in the hide, especially the face.

Stewie's got it right, I use the rounded end of a screwdriver handle. It is not as bad that way.

The thing hard about the coyote is peeling the skin while he's just hanging up, with no winch. I actually lifted myself up off the ground trying to peel it, and the skin didn't budge, I just hung there like an idiot.

So, I just did it the long way...I just didn't peel, I just held the skin tight with one hand, and cut the membranes with my scalpel in the other hand.

Hardest part was the tail. Without a tail stripper, I destroyed my first two. Ripped em right off the carcass.

Get you a stripper, or clothespin, put the tail in the hole. And pull SLOWLY and GRADUALLY with FIRM but GENTLE PRESSURE. :P
No yanking!

Just use a rebar stake or screwdriver to pull out the elbows.

Keep the feet on, if it's for taxidermy. But I'm not skilled at keeping feet, that's another difficult part. Maybe the pros can advise you on that one.

Take one of those big garden pruners, the huge ones, and cut his leg bone off at the wrist, leave the foot in the skin, and work on (extracting) it after it's off the carcass. Maybe that will help you keep the feet on.

this should help ya skin em.

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/forum/showthread.php?t=195505


nice pictorial demo by nc

tm

Thanks. Great pictorial.

Max that was great.

Nice Pictorial.

Get ya the DVD Practical Fur Handling. Covers about any animal you're gonna get. Tom shows a very good way of doing the elbows, and shows you how to skin with feet on for taxidermy. All on video. It's great.