Coon pelt
 

I saw a coon on the road that got hit and didn't want to waste it. I skinned it and noticed there was a lot of fat under the skin. How do you get that off? I just threw it in an ant bed. Would that work? I also left 1/2 of the tail bone in. I couldn't get it out. How can I get it out?

RE: Coon pelt
 

Zak;
First of all you need to flesh down the hide of all fat and grissle. You need a fleshing beam and fleshing knife. To remove the tail bone, a quick and easy way is to take 2 - 1/4" Allen wrenches, the long one's. put one on each side of the tailbone. Squeeze these in on hand, and pull the tailbone with the other hand. The whole tail will come out. The tail will have to be split too. Then you need to salt down the hide for 24 hours, after the hide has sat for 24hrs, remove the salt, then resalt with "New" salt. let the the hide dry hard. After the hide is dried it needs to be rehydrated, then put into a pickling solution. From the pickling solution, the hide needs to be shaved down again, then degreased. Now the hide need to be neutralized. After this the hide goes into the tanning solution. If you want the hide to be flexable, then it needs to be broke and oiled. There's really no other way to have a hide last without tanning it.
If you want the hide can be first fleshed down completely then justed salted. But it will be hard and eventually crack from handling. Trappers will flesh down a hide completely then let it air dry, but then again it will be attrative to insects. If you put the hide on a ant hill.....WELL, you might as well leave it there, because it's garbage now.

RE: Coon pelt
 

Let me tell you zak, the tail doen't always come out so easy. Especially if its and old kill. When the coon is still fresh its easy to get the tail bone out most times, but the longer it was sitting the harder it is. Sometimes you have to skin out the tail some to remove it.