How many "KIE-yoat" pelts are

[jonmyrlebailey]

usually needed to make a man's fur coat?

What is the best season to hunt coyotes for clothing fur?

Winter because the fur will be fullest and heaviest?


Do California 'yotes make good fur coats?

Please note that I don't want to make the garments myself but hire somebody else to do that work AFTER I harvest the animals.

I am looking for somebody to possibly HIRE to convert coyote pelts into something nice and warm to wear.

I have no coyote shooting experience but I am intrigued about a guy I read about who made nice coats for his wife and him outta the coyotes he personally took himself.

[westtexducks]

I was referred to usafoxx.com yesterday by another member. Once you get on their website click on their catalog and they have a list of how many furs it takes to make different kinds of garments. I am wanting to say that they said 11? but I am not real sure. And yes you definitely want to kill them in the winter so that you get a nice full fur, not their scraggly summer fur.

[Nomercy448]

I've been leatherworking for over 20yrs, and I'll warn you up front, you might be biting off more than you realize when you think about making your own fur clothing.

Yes, in general, winter is the best time to harvest coyotes for fur, since they'll have the best undercoat and longest outer coat at that time. This basically lets you choose how to use the hide. You can trim the longer "bristle" hairs, leaving the shorter, softer undercoat, or you can thin out the undercoat to reduce weight, leaving the longer and more durable outercoat.

Obviously, how many hides you need to make a coat will depend on the size of your coyotes, and the size of your coat. If you're making a floor length coat for a 280lb, 6'7" man, you'll need more hides than you'd need for a waist length coat for a 120lb, 5'4" woman.

There's actually much more to making fur clothing than simply gathering enough hides to cover the area of your pattern. Say your pattern requires 17sq.ft. of fabric (about 12 for the body of a 3/4length coat, and 5 for the arms), and you get less than 3 sqft from each coyote (12" x 36" of usable fur is asking a lot from most hides, usually you get half that much), if you get 6 hides (18sqft), you will NOT have enough to make a coat.

First off, you have to figure the color and quality of the fur. Not all coyotes will be the same color, nor will they all have the same "shag" of fur. Yes, you can dye the fur to match, but it's complicated and time consuming (not to mention a mess and royal pain in the arse), and you can also trim and/or thin the fur of thicker shagged hides (again, time consuming pain in the arse), but ultimately, it's just easier to take more coyotes, and more fun too! You CAN get away with transitioning the colors, say have dark on the back then fade lighter and lighter with the hides as you move to the front, but that's again a time consuming process.

Naturally, all coyotes will be different sizes as well, and if you catch a hide with mange, ringworm, etc etc, that's more and more coyotes you'll have to harvest to get a useable hide (but honestly, shoot every MANGEY coyote you see, to help prevent the spread of disease).

Beyond that, you have to consider the lay of the fur. In general, a fur coat should have the hair all laying "down". The challenge is that on the animal, the hair is also laying "down", but "down" on a coyote isn't the same as "down" on a fur coat. Getting the fur to all lay in the same direction might mean you have to section out the hide into smaller pieces, which complicates the color blending process.

Then there's the complication of how the hide was stretched. Most coyotes are "boarded" for stretch, which can mean you'll have weird stretches over part of your usable hide. If you're harvesting yourself, then you have the option to stretch the hides flat, giving you better workable "leather", but it's more challenging to deal with than boarding.

So ultimately, if you want to make a professional looking product, you'll need to harvest a LOT of songdogs. I made a 3/4 length (knee length) coat a few years ago that took more than 20 different dogs to piece together.

My personal recommendation is to work with your fur buyer on an exchange basis. Pick a color and coat density you like, then try trading him your "off spec" coyotes for some that he gets.

[jonmyrlebailey]

Originally Posted by Nomercy448

I've been leatherworking for over 20yrs, and I'll warn you up front, you might be biting off more than you realize when you think about making your own fur clothing.

Yes, in general, winter is the best time to harvest coyotes for fur, since they'll have the best undercoat and longest outer coat at that time. This basically lets you choose how to use the hide. You can trim the longer "bristle" hairs, leaving the shorter, softer undercoat, or you can thin out the undercoat to reduce weight, leaving the longer and more durable outercoat.

Obviously, how many hides you need to make a coat will depend on the size of your coyotes, and the size of your coat. If you're making a floor length coat for a 280lb, 6'7" man, you'll need more hides than you'd need for a waist length coat for a 120lb, 5'4" woman.

There's actually much more to making fur clothing than simply gathering enough hides to cover the area of your pattern. Say your pattern requires 17sq.ft. of fabric (about 12 for the body of a 3/4length coat, and 5 for the arms), and you get less than 3 sqft from each coyote (12" x 36" of usable fur is asking a lot from most hides, usually you get half that much), if you get 6 hides (18sqft), you will NOT have enough to make a coat.

First off, you have to figure the color and quality of the fur. Not all coyotes will be the same color, nor will they all have the same "shag" of fur. Yes, you can dye the fur to match, but it's complicated and time consuming (not to mention a mess and royal pain in the arse), and you can also trim and/or thin the fur of thicker shagged hides (again, time consuming pain in the arse), but ultimately, it's just easier to take more coyotes, and more fun too! You CAN get away with transitioning the colors, say have dark on the back then fade lighter and lighter with the hides as you move to the front, but that's again a time consuming process.

Naturally, all coyotes will be different sizes as well, and if you catch a hide with mange, ringworm, etc etc, that's more and more coyotes you'll have to harvest to get a useable hide (but honestly, shoot every MANGEY coyote you see, to help prevent the spread of disease).

Beyond that, you have to consider the lay of the fur. In general, a fur coat should have the hair all laying "down". The challenge is that on the animal, the hair is also laying "down", but "down" on a coyote isn't the same as "down" on a fur coat. Getting the fur to all lay in the same direction might mean you have to section out the hide into smaller pieces, which complicates the color blending process.

Then there's the complication of how the hide was stretched. Most coyotes are "boarded" for stretch, which can mean you'll have weird stretches over part of your usable hide. If you're harvesting yourself, then you have the option to stretch the hides flat, giving you better workable "leather", but it's more challenging to deal with than boarding.

So ultimately, if you want to make a professional looking product, you'll need to harvest a LOT of songdogs. I made a 3/4 length (knee length) coat a few years ago that took more than 20 different dogs to piece together.

My personal recommendation is to work with your fur buyer on an exchange basis. Pick a color and coat density you like, then try trading him your "off spec" coyotes for some that he gets.

I don't want to go into the business of the fur trade.

I just want to make a garment for my own personal use.

I want a professional company to make my garment for me with the pelts I harvest.

[Nomercy448]

Originally Posted by jonmyrlebailey

I don't want to go into the business of the fur trade.

I just want to make a garment for my own personal use.

I want a professional company to make my garment for me with the pelts I harvest.

Sorry to answer to the wrong point. Your original post did not reflect this fact.

Originally Posted by jonmyrlebailey

usually needed to make a man's fur coat?

What is the best season to hunt coyotes for clothing fur?

Winter because the fur will be fullest and heaviest?


Do California 'yotes make good fur coats?

Frankly, I don't think I answered anything regarding the fur trade. In general, most coyote hunters have a fur buyer, I assumed since you didn't say "these will be the first and only coyotes I've ever shot", that you might be in that group.

Either way, the moral of the story is that you'll need a lot of coyotes to make a coat, regardless of who is making it, you or a professional maker.

[jonmyrlebailey]

Originally Posted by Nomercy448

Sorry to answer to the wrong point. Your original post did not reflect this fact.



Frankly, I don't think I answered anything regarding the fur trade. In general, most coyote hunters have a fur buyer, I assumed since you didn't say "these will be the first and only coyotes I've ever shot", that you might be in that group.

Either way, the moral of the story is that you'll need a lot of coyotes to make a coat, regardless of who is making it, you or a professional maker.

Perhaps, most coyote hunters sell off what they harvest. That is not what I intend to do. I want to HIRE somebody to make some fur goods for my own personal use. I and my gun wish to provide those coyote furs for that purpose, even if I need 50 of the damn things.

Do you know of somebody I can actually hire to make a coyote garment of what I harvest myself?

I have never yet hunted coyotes and I don't yet own any coyote pelts.

It is just something I am speculating about right now.

How many coyote furs MIGHT one need to make a fur INNER lining of a comfortable somewhat-loose-fitting leather jacket with a HOOD for a guy 5-10 and 245 pounds?

[Nomercy448]

It will be hard to get a manufacturer to "alter" your jacket that it sounds like you have in mind. The good news is, that any taxidermist or leather worker can do this work for you.

The other good news is that since it's an inner lining, you won't need the hides to match for color as well, so you can get away with fewer hides. I'd venture you'll need 10-15ish to do the job.

(Thinking of the past coats I've made that were for "rendezvous" types, where color matching was discouraged and authenticity was king, it takes about 3-5 dogs per side of your torso, then 2 per arm, so 10-15 total).

[Terasec]

might be worth just purchasing the pelts at an auction of sorts
from like a trapping club.
they generally harvest lots of yotes and can have batches of similar color
if you plan on shooting the yotes will have more damaged pelts extra work to fix
also will have to harvest lots of yotes to get enough of similar color

[A11en]

Shooting the yotes and finding someone to make the mans fur coat is the easy part. Finding the matching skirt will be the real challenge. Good Luck!