skinning squirrel

kshutingkid · 08-22-2005, 07:15 AM

i shot my first squirrel last night, but when we were skinning it, the tail ripped off about half way off down. i was wondering if we did something wrong or if this happens sometimes?

Alex The Hawk · 08-22-2005, 12:02 PM

What did you use to strip the tail ?

kshutingkid · 08-22-2005, 01:02 PM

actually my friend did it for me, and all he did was cut slits by the back legs that connected each other, then he grabbed the back legs and pulled them out of the skin, then he pulled the tail out of the skin, but it ripped off, then he pulled the rest of the body out of it, so the skin was pretty much inside out..... im not for sure if this is an actually way to do it, or if he just made it up...

Alex The Hawk · 08-22-2005, 02:08 PM

Well he went about 95% right, except you don pull the tail with your hand unless you've being doing it for as many years as I have,lol

There is a gadget for pulling the skin, but if you don't want to invest in it, then you need to skin the tail as far as it will go, without ripping it as your friend did, then you sandwich the tail bone with two small pieces of wood or even two scre driver handles and pull the skin toward the tip, by hand it takes a lot of strength on your thumbs.

kshutingkid · 08-23-2005, 08:42 PM

thanks... everybody is so helpful on this site.... im justa beginner to it all, but its nice to know that you can get information on anything about hunting on one site and get it from people that have done it....

woofer · 08-26-2005, 09:18 AM

take your knive and cut right above the butthole adn feel a bone break. then grap the squirrel by the hind legs and step on the tail and pull.. if done right the hide come right off to the head.. then you have to cut around hte head if you want to eat the brains..

Alex The Hawk · 08-29-2005, 10:50 AM

Woofer, not a good technique for taxidermy , you can actually over stretch the skin that way and then your mount will look like a dachsund hound LOL

wyomingtrapper · 09-19-2005, 06:44 PM

A crescent wrench makes for a good tail stripper. Adjust it down snug over the tail and be sure to pull the tail from the hide and not push the hide from the tail. As you pull it and the tail gets thinner, you can adjust the wrench down tighter if needed.

gicts · 10-09-2005, 09:47 AM

a pic is worth a thousand words
http://members.localnet.com/~nickdd/