Just so you know

[BilletHead]

  Saturday squirrel season started. I did not start then too much other stuff to do. However yesterday and today myself and the Air rifle got with the program. 

  There will be a Dutch oven of squirrel aurora getting happy this afternoon. 

[fishinwrench]

Dude, you've got it going on !  👍 

[BilletHead]

Yes we do 😁.  

[tjm]

There is a lot of Red Fox Squirrel Nymphs right there.  I reckon you could sell those pelts at Clinton next fall.

[BilletHead]

10 hours ago, tjm said:

There is a lot of Red Fox Squirrel Nymphs right there.  I reckon you could sell those pelts at Clinton next fall.

  I will get you some pictures of what I have done with some hides. I can tell you I have just one half of a big fox squirrel that I couldn't use up at my tying pace for the rest of my life. Some were done with salt a alum and some stretched and dried. Fleshing is the worst part. Time consuming and a pain in the rear. I will post some pictures when I get home. This reminds me I owe @Ham some fox squirrel. 

[Johnsfolly]

14 hours ago, BilletHead said:

Yes we do 😁.  

Looks delicious!

[Johnsfolly]

On 5/27/2025 at 11:31 AM, BilletHead said:

  Saturday squirrel season started. I did not start then too much other stuff to do. However yesterday and today myself and the Air rifle got with the program. 

  There will be a Dutch oven of squirrel aurora getting happy this afternoon. 

Lots of great head shots!

[tjm]

7 hours ago, BilletHead said:

  I will get you some pictures of what I have done with some hides. I can tell you I have just one half of a big fox squirrel that I couldn't use up at my tying pace for the rest of my life. Some were done with salt a alum and some stretched and dried. Fleshing is the worst part. Time consuming and a pain in the rear. I will post some pictures when I get home. This reminds me I owe @Ham some fox squirrel. 

Fleshing is always the  2'nd  hardest part, I think. Skinning for fur is a bit harder than skinning for meat, and old squirrels, like old ground hogs, are almost as tough as coyotes. Best part about a possum is how easy they are skin and scrape. 

I don't like salt and alum and haven't used it since the '60s when a furbuyer advised me not to and paid 1/2 price for my 'coons. Salt attracts water from the air on humid days and can, if used alone, actually rot the hide over time. Alum does dry things very well but tends to make the leather very hard and seems to shrink some parts of the leather more than other parts, resulting in a twisted pelt. (or maybe I just didn't use it correctly) For fur market I simply air dry, or rub borax into the hide for fast drying on fur out pelts. Borax also seems to work well for  preserving and insect prevention. I've used borax solution to wash whole pelts and also just used the dry powder to dry clean and brighten the fur. To soften the leather on small pelts (like birds) I've used 3 parts water with 1 part glycerin, worked into the flesh side.

I watched a fellow from NY  at the Mountain Home show demonstrating Whitlock's squirrel hair nymphs with the sheared belly mixed with SLF. He did  6 or 7 variations representing different species of trout food, and yes I believe that 1/2 a hide would last a long time. Whitlock's website says the flies are tied by Rainy's Flies, so I'd guess Rainy might be a potential pelt buyer, but it'd  be simpler to just package the tails and sell to Mepps.

[BilletHead]

1 hour ago, tjm said:

Fleshing is always the  2'nd  hardest part, I think. Skinning for fur is a bit harder than skinning for meat, and old squirrels, like old ground hogs, are almost as tough as coyotes. Best part about a possum is how easy they are skin and scrape. 

I don't like salt and alum and haven't used it since the '60s when a furbuyer advised me not to and paid 1/2 price for my 'coons. Salt attracts water from the air on humid days and can, if used alone, actually rot the hide over time. Alum does dry things very well but tends to make the leather very hard and seems to shrink some parts of the leather more than other parts, resulting in a twisted pelt. (or maybe I just didn't use it correctly) For fur market I simply air dry, or rub borax into the hide for fast drying on fur out pelts. Borax also seems to work well for  preserving and insect prevention. I've used borax solution to wash whole pelts and also just used the dry powder to dry clean and brighten the fur. To soften the leather on small pelts (like birds) I've used 3 parts water with 1 part glycerin, worked into the flesh side.

I watched a fellow from NY  at the Mountain Home show demonstrating Whitlock's squirrel hair nymphs with the sheared belly mixed with SLF. He did  6 or 7 variations representing different species of trout food, and yes I believe that 1/2 a hide would last a long time. Whitlock's website says the flies are tied by Rainy's Flies, so I'd guess Rainy might be a potential pelt buyer, but it'd  be simpler to just package the tails and sell to Mepps.

     I never got into stretching and drying my catches. Just sold them to the traveling fur buyer or too them to Collins. My alum salt was used only to do a tan on squirrel when I was younger just for fun. I sent in well over a hundred tails to mepps a couple years ago. I may be getting closer to that amount salted up for selling after season ends in February. 

      Some pictures of some squirrel hides. The last little piece of alum/salt tanned,

 

The rest are just fleshed and stretched and dried. Think rawhide with the hair on. I have already scraped bags of fox squirrel and grey squirrel backs. Also belly fur from both. The hides will last forever if kept from critters and dry. You are right I could probably pawn off some but I don't want a job.  Also if I remember right the first fox squirrel nymphs did not use the slf or antron mixes. The fox squirrel belly was mixed with the back fur.😄

[tjm]

Nice. Tell the truth, I use more knitting yarn than fur these days for nymphs/wets, or a mix of yarn and fur. I guess that I've never fully tanned a hide. I found though that putting the furs up gave a lot better return on the time  than selling wet or in the round, and it gave the option of shipping, which almost always got a higher price than the country buyers paid. With the current lack of garment fur market, I'm thinking about prepping some stuff for fly and craft use, just need to explore venues.