Need advice-first coon
 

About to skin my first raccoon. Any advice, anything a guy should know? This guy is the first I've seen in the area, about 9 miles north of Edmonton, near the Sturgeon River. I hear he'd been raiding cat food all winter.

Congrats on the bandit?

some great youtibe videos on making the first cuts along the back legs.

i recomend the channel 'cooncreek outdoors' or 'ryan5911'

they are easy to skin, but tough to flesh.

Looks like a young raccoon. Not too many raccoon skinners in northern Alberta. Hopefully some of the southern trappers will post a tip or two.

NAFA has a good write up on pelting and boarding raccoons. It mentions the tips I would have suggested. Cool the fat and pelt before fleshing. Might be greasy too so sawdust might be handy to keep the grease off the fur.

page 6
http://www.nafa.ca/wp-content/upload...nual-E-web.pdf

Don't forget to let your wife know to get the stew pot ready. Would be good to know what cat food fattened raccoon tenderloin and drumsticks taste like. Let us know.:)

Somehow , something does not look right about that coon, It should be rolling in fat , it appears a tad rough looking , I dont know that I would be eating it, Does it have a smell?

Pretty easy to skin...fleshing isn't to bad but flesh it cold they are extremely greasy buggers
..skin is pretty thick on the neck and down the back of the older ones.
Make sure you wear gloves

Thanks for the advice. It had no odor at all, thick fur and some fat. I was surprised and it was very easy to skin. I wouldn't think it would be very fat after a long winter but don't really know and it hadn't bothered the cat food since the fall.
I can get my wife to flesh and tan it but I don't think she'd ever to cook it, nor would I eat it.

I have processed many many of these critters , and so far I have not eaten one, If I did eat one , I would want to be the one processing it for sure , A good fat fall coon would be my go to critter , . Same as beaver , I am very fussy on that also . clean water , ie: spring fed dam and also in the fall ,and shot not trapped . preferably a two year old. I have eaten those and they are very good . I know one thing IF ever coons catch on to the central Alberta region , as in the cities , a nuisance animal technician will be driven half crazy trapping those
They will be cuddly little monsters to start with and then the novelty will wear off ! .

Hey Doug any coon I catch I don't bother sending to the auction only the biggest best coon sell and that's for peanuts. You are far better off selling as a wall hanger or get a coon skin cap made and wear it on your line. Get a good set of buckskin we will call you dougey crocket.

I am serious about the hat though. Congrats on your first coon.

Bill

Oh and how did you get him trap or shoot?

Coon easy to flesh, just expect quantities of goodies. Don’t spare the sawdust.

Badger however, nasty to flesh. No comparison between the two .

Huge meat market in Louisiana for coon, beaver, muskrat, and possibly nutria.

Bill my wife will tan it for the cabin wall (our cabin is on our land so a little more secure), we have skunk, mink, marten, coyote, fox, weasel and fisher so far (still waiting for our first otter) she made me a very nice deer skin tunic a few years ago.The farmer caught the raccoon in an old home made live trap. One more skull for my collection.
Marty yes badgers stink something awful, last year we took four out for the same farmer. We are at about the north end of their range but have taken 13 off of about 2oo acres in 5 years.

What he said ..lol . Congrats on your first .