Fur Preparation

[Whitetail200]

This will pertain to any species you target & on the subject of coyotes relating to the top lot subject but not only them . I was at Halfords's yesterday to see their separate fur depot building out back & got a tour due to not being their yet & I was curious . From a previous comment on the forum about pelts being piled on the straight dirty concrete floor . Pelts where on the floor alright but they had big cardboard pieces on the concrete , then the pelts where on the cardboard . Ok , this is where it got interesting for me as I took notice of some of the quality of pelts . One big pile was apparently from some of the colonies which are in a big completion for doing custom skinning according to what I was told . Ok , fine , someone paid for custom skinning then prepped the pelt , fleshing ETC. , well the leather on some of these where dark & I mean dark like BLACK as BLACK & no brushing let alone washing or spot washing , or proper fleshing. Early caught ETC ? . They even had some come in full of manure , really!!. Then I asked what is the small pile in the corner, that's the poor ones , WELL , here we have ones with big hole's in the side with fat bordering on the edge , poor fleshing , dirty as Heck ?? , shape from bordering was what are they using ? Also some of these had the leg portions outside instead of inside , totally no knowledge of what should be done . The comment was they had a lot of new comers to trapping come in . Poor , I would say garbage . While I was there a gentlemen came in with about ten coyotes , the gal took his info & wrote out his slip , he then grabbed his bag , dumped them on the straight concrete floor & left . Here again these where dirty as heck , blood matted on the neck of one , poor fleshing , just terrible , absolutely no care . I was totally ****ed off when I left, how individuals show the lack of respect for the animal & not give a hundred percent in the handling of their catch . PLEASE, PLEASE , people if you want to get into the trapping world / game then take the time to learn from someone , get advice so you are putting up quality fur . You owe it to the animal you've taken , to yourself , to the fur depot, the auction , don't waste everyone's time only to have these maybe get $ 2.00 or the garbage .

[H380]

The sad part of what you saw is the question .. Do you want your pelts stored in a box with this garbage waiting to be shipped ? NOT !!

[Whitetail200]

Originally Posted by H380

The sad part of what you saw is the question .. Do you want your pelts stored in a box with this garbage waiting to be shipped ? NOT !!

Agree , but what was said to me is all the poor ones where going to be boxed togeather & marked accordingly, I hope so ! ,also Mary at NAFA in Winnipeg was told about the bombardment of pelts brought in from bigger groups not wanting them to be put in up coming auction but later one , comment from Winnipeg , let them store them until time to bring in for what ever auction they want them in .

[HunterDave]

Betty at Halford's told me that the really bad pelts were shipped separately in different triwalls than the ones where care was taken putting them up. Even if they aren't shipped together they may end up all getting drummed at NAFA together......such a shame. I'm not too keen on my pelts not going directly into triwalls and just laying on a pallet on the floor as a way to store them. The mice there must have very comfortable nests with the hair from my pelts.

[J0HN_R1]

Originally Posted by Whitetail200

...From a previous comment on the forum about pelts being piled on the straight dirty concrete floor...

Very informative. Thank you for making it known how they handle fur.

[Buck du Nord]

When I brought my furs to Halfords in December for the February auctions, I too was not impressed by some of the fur piles that I saw that day. The kind lady who tagged my pelts noticed my concern and told me the same thing that she said to HunterDave, that the nice furs will be shipped separately. I hope she was telling the truth !

[nube]

Betty is a great gal. You want her watching your stuff. She has done a ton of little extras for me that she didn't have to.

[bill9044]

I recently dropped my fur off at marty's down south. He showed me some beavers that were a complete mess. The weren't fleshed well at all greasy dripping fur, the lip's and nose were still on . It looked more like a starfish than an oval pattern. Just complete garbage. Marty took the time to try and get all the fat chunks off the hide. He told me he can't bring himself to stack those greasy messes in the same box as the others. They would just leak all over someone's hard beaver work. He said those comments loud enough so some boys in black could hear it as well.

I really don't understand.... if your trying to sell a product for the best dollar why not make the product have the best quality you can produce. The Beaver prices are very low we all know this it's a fact. Why would someone send in unsellable skins. Its a **** off.

I would love to see nafa send these horrid items back to their own at their owners cost. It's really dissapointing to see the lack of care. And then there are guys complaining that a mandatory trapping course i's a bad thing. If the said trapper didn't have the knowledge on how to put up fur. At least having the course would have given him a good start.

Thanks Marty you trying to fix someone's garbage helped the next guys beavers in the box from devaluing that animal and thier hard work.
Bill

[HunterDave]

Originally Posted by bill9044

I would love to see nafa send these horrid items back to their own at their owners cost. It's really dissapointing to see the lack of care. And then there are guys complaining that a mandatory trapping course i's a bad thing. If the said trapper didn't have the knowledge on how to put up fur. At least having the course would have given him a good start.

All the mandatory courses in the world will not make someone start caring about the quality of their fur if they don't give a ratz azz about it.

[wolfcrazy]

Originally Posted by HunterDave

All the mandatory courses in the world will not make someone start caring about the quality of their fur if they don't give a ratz azz about it.

[HunterDave]

Originally Posted by wolfcrazy

If you think that it would/will then we should make Driver's Education mandatory as well. Just think, no more speeders or other driving infractions.

[wolfcrazy]

Originally Posted by HunterDave

If you think that it would/will then we should make Driver's Education mandatory as well. Just think, no more speeders or other driving infractions.

You might be on to something

[gibb]

Trapper education especially for proper fur preparation is never ending. The sad fact is some people just don't know how to do it properly. I have done fur handling demos just about all my life and I am amazed that with the wealth of information available today that poor fur handling still exist.
It is always worse when something in the market gets high priced like coyotes right now. Seen it a few times also with cats. Both auction houses give out thousands of pelt handling manual yearly, fur handling posters and beaver patterns.
Never ending.
Jim

[Camdec]

Originally Posted by gibb

Trapper education especially for proper fur preparation is never ending. The sad fact is some people just don't know how to do it properly. I have done fur handling demos just about all my life and I am amazed that with the wealth of information available today that poor fur handling still exist.
It is always worse when something in the market gets high priced like coyotes right now. Seen it a few times also with cats. Both auction houses give out thousands of pelt handling manual yearly, fur handling posters and beaver patterns.
Never ending.
Jim

Yup. I wish I had these manuals years ago.

I had a high school teacher that had a sign in the corner of his classroom that read "If at first you don't succeed, try following the directions".