Tough rabbit to skin

[spandit]

Shot a couple of bunnies tonight (awww...) and although I normally just paunch them and take them to the butcher, I have something in mind for the skins so needed them naked. I normally make a slit down the belly (without puncturing the skin) then work my hands around the back until they meet. I then pull the rear legs through (leaving the socks on) and do the same with the front, severing the neck and leaving the head concealed by the inside-out hide. Had to remove the heads tonight, which wasn't especially nice.

Anyway, first rabbit, the buck, took all my strength to undo - astonishingly difficult. Even piercing the skin to begin with in order to start the process was an ordeal. My Dozier Hunter knife struggled. Once the skin was off, paunching (using a lino blade) was very easy.

The doe (milky...) was easy.

Made up some quick frames with willow sticks and cable tied the skins to them. I'll set them outside in the breeze tomorrow but for now they're hung up in my workshop, on a gambrel as it happens.



I know they need defleshing and I might try to defur one of them in a wood ash solution (the bonfire has been used for burning horrible painted stuff, without my prior knowledge, so the ash in there is unusable) but my back is killing me and I was getting cold so it'll have to wait for another day. They were already chilly by the time I hung them up.

 

[spandit]

Well that was a good few hours wasted. Carefully stretched them out in the sunshine to dry by pinning them to some flat logs. Mother in law’s sodding dog has ripped them down and I don’t know where they are

 

[daveO]

What's the hide on the dog like?

 

[Stew]

I know I shouldn't but I had to laugh at that!

 

[Woody girl]

Aw how frustrating for you. Please don't skin the dog!

 

[saxonaxe]

Mmmm! Well they were ok but there wasn't much meat on those two Bunnies....

 

[spandit]

Skins have turned up, fortunately not too chewed. I shall stretch them out somewhere higher...

 

[Bionic]

That story reminds me of training (or at least trying to!) our mutt to understand the meaning of recall. She won’t take treats so I ended up carrying a rabbit pelt, a squirrel tail and a freshly shot woody in a rucksack. I used to get some very funny looks wandering around the local fields brandishing such items trying to retrieve her

 

[santaman2000]

Yeah, the old trappers used to stretch hides to dry by nailing them to shed or barn walls high out of reach. Sometimes it even worked --- sometimes not (hard to judge how high wild critters can reach)