hello all. who is ready for trapping season? i have been bow hunting and coyotes have been chasing deer like crazy. ny buddy saw 2 yotes chasing 2 doe's and saw another one running around. and i saw 2 out hunting around the woods. them young yotes are out on the prowl right now. good luck everyone. thanks, denny

Can't say that I'm ready. Got some traps ready to go so all is not lost. But most of my projects never got finished. Did overhaul the skinning rig I built last year.....moved the winch to the bottom and it is much nicer and safer. This little guy showed up last month and cut short my time:



I will put my first traps in the ground over Thanksgiving. Most trapping will be in December....Bedford the 1st week or so, tidwater over the holidays.

congrats on the new son neill...good looking young man. he take after his mom or dad? thanks, denny

Thanks Denny....too early to tell who he looks like, but I think he gets the hair from me!

That pic of the garage probably better answers the question of if I'm ready. Today I'm just about finished with a dozen 220 coni boxes. One step closer.

Ready to rock in MD, some seasons are in, might lay some steel this weekend to stretch my legs a bit

wow!! neill your garage looks like my basement.....looks like sandy went right thru the middle of my basement....lol
hope you get it all ready for the season. and again, great looking son you have. thanks, denny

neil would you mind posting some pics of your skinning rig.thinking about building one need some ideas. thanks ,by the way congrats on your new addition

Here is a pic of my skinning rig after used to hoist a deer for skinning. Sorry for the poor quality it's all I have. There is a bracket with vice grip clamps that attachs to the bottom to grab coon and coyote flanks for skinning. I also use a smaller gambrel for yotes and coon. If I was starting from scratch, I would use the same basic design but build differently. As is, I have 3" square tube for the bottom, and 2" for the top. That's too big in my opinion....needless weight. I modeled on the ones ADC sells on trapperman, and started with the winch on top. That's dangerous (top heavy and WILL flip) and difficult to use. This summer I added the pulleys made the bracket to move the winch to the bottom and it's much better. It telescopes up to 10-11'. It's a must for cold yotes and makes coon a lot easier. I did not hit the coon hard last year....but one day I was able to skin 6 in about 30 minutes. If you are skinning a dozen or more a day than this is just the ticket.

looks like a great skinning machine neill. great job.

How do you telescope it up, is there pins on the back that go into the 2" square channel? So you can use this for deer too? The base doesn't look big enough to stabilize deer size game. However, I am oftern wrong. Cool all the same.

Vic

Vic, I drilled .5" holes through the top piece, and stick a bolt through which holds it at height. It will hoist a deer no problem, but I pull the hide fo the deer. It will pull the hide off coons and yotes.

Interesting. I assume they still case cut the hides off of furbearers, so do you start at the anus and do the back legs and then attach the hide to the base and raise the carcus using the winch and a small gambrell? Just curious.

My cousin made something like this that fit into the receiver of his truck. Worked okay but I think it could be better.

Vic

That's pretty much it, Vic. I started by ringing the hind legs, do a cross cut, strip out the tail, then pull the hide off with the winch. Only use the machine for yotes and coon, fox are too delicate, and only take a couple minutes anyhow.

neill, what are those camo looking box's you have in the picture? thanks, denny