Hello! I just started trapping this year and have caught 5 coons off our property so far. But a problem I am having is that i dont have any place to hang them and keep the ideal drying temps. The house is too warm at 70? I had them in my garage/shop but its winter so temps inside are 50 by day and 40 at night (outside highs are 30s/teens). But I cant keep them in there because I do a lot of wood working which creates a ton of dust. I could hang them in my garden shed, but again, its winter.
Any suggestions on what i should do? I caught 2 coons 3 weeks ago and although they are stiff, they are damp to the touch. Will they rot? Will hair slip?
Thanks!

Wipe them down

Is it possible to put a little heat in your garage? A milk house heater would do the trick. I keep my fur room at 50 degrees and fur dries fine. You need to have some air moving also, a small fan is better than nothing. Is it possible to partition off a small area for fur drying?

Make sure ahead of time you get everything set up and you know what you're doing so you can do it right. Or else I wouldn't do it at all. Junk fur never does anybody any good

Like Snowpa said , wipe them down. keep them hung up in your shop with a smallfan to keep the air moving some. Floating sawdust in the romm is not a problem. I will help soak up the coon grease. Just wipe them down while they are on the stretcher once every few days until they are dry and ready to come off the stretchers. Then keep in mind if you have mice in the shop you my need to set a few mouse traps around to keep the mice from chewing on your furs.
Hope this helps.

You sure you got all that fat off of them? Coons will sweat maybe that’s what your talking about from a damp feel. Put them out in the garage with a fan, never seen a properly fleshed coon not dry in 4-5 days not matter what the temp is.

I use alot of saw dust on mine the finer the better it sucks the grease out and drys them nice, i blow them off before i sell them it also wicks the water out of the fur, when i first skin them i put them in a big bag and shake it real good, when put on the stretcher i rub it into the skin side. Old fur buyer taught me that back in the 60s he also tumbled fox in sawdust and corn cobbs i love saw dust.

Thanks for the replies. I've been wiping them down about every other day or as I saw the "sweat." I have experience fleshing deer hides but admit case fur was a new experience. It took me awhile but once i made a board fleshing beam instead of my log for deer, it got easier and feel as though I did a good job, but maybe not good enough. I have kept a box fan running (not directed at the fur). It seems like the mornings that were in single digits would "bring out" more "sweat" as the day warmed up.

If dust isn't an issue, I will keep them in there.

Im not trying to sell my fur but would like to use it for personal projects. If i take the animal's life I feel I should do what i can to use what i can.

Our season is coming to an end here and I was looking to reduce the nest raiders on my land to give the turkeys a better chance, but have already picked up 3 new farms for next year who want me to trap for them so I figured this year was about getting my feet wet and learning all I can.
Thanks!

Just keep wiping them.They should be fine.

Small fan or on windy, dry days move the hides outside...as long as no dogs are around.

One thing that really helps the sweating on hides is when you get the hides boarded, take a dull scraper and run it from the tail of the hide to the nose to squeegee the oil out of the hide till its dry. You'll not have to wipe them again unless you left solid globs of fat on the hide.

Temps mean little. It's all about humidity. 70 degrees isn't too warm if the humidity isn't high (which we know can be an issue in the south).

I blow the fan right on my coon and beaver.

Always windy I have a light pole with several nails in it I snap mine like a towel then hang them by the nose on the shady side of the pole. I finish them in front of a fan on high if needed or if it’s wet outside.

^^^^^^ THIS

Just wondering did you scrape the necks right , if you left the gristle from the ears down the upper part of the back then they won't dry correctly, and they will have no value in this market. Were I live we have low humidity but my shop is below freezing most of the time except to thaw frozen critters to finish ones a week the coon should dry just fine even in high humidity with a fan at 40 to 50 degrees.

Just wondering did you scrape the necks right , if you left the gristle from the ears down the upper part of the back then they won't dry correctly, and they will have no value in this market. Were I live we have low humidity but my shop is below freezing most of the time except to thaw frozen critters to finish ones a week the coon should dry just fine even in high humidity with a fan at 40 to 50 degrees.