Fur Shed Help

[AR]

Went to pull some coon off of stretchers today and had a hell of a time getting them off, actually tore one luckily on the belly side but still. These are the first coon i have ever put up so any helpful advice on a way to pull them off easier or tips to prevent them from being so miserably hard to get off the boards I would greatly appreciate. I'm using solid wood stretchers too. Coon were up for 5-7 days I didn't kick the heat on until yesterday in anticipation for the cold front so temp has been around 50-55 degrees. I don't think I'm over stretching for size, I just put them on the board and where they landed for size is basically what i pinned them up as, if they were really close to the next size line, I pulled it to that.

[necoon]

Did you use a belly wedge?

[AR]

Yes I made sure to NOT forget these.

[speng5]

I have some pieces of conduit I started using for that purpose. I get a piece of conduit and cut it into about 24-30" sections and hammer one end flat. Put the flat end toward the nose, round end out the inspection window. I can make a ton of them faster than wood, the round shape doesn't give such a hard line as a wooden belly wedge does, and they double as water stakes for rat sets. Plus its cheap. It seems like at least for me they pull off better and the conduit piece gets out easier too.

[Scott W.]

The belly wedges I use are 1.25" tall, and I don't have any trouble getting them off. I used to have some from a major supply house that were only 3/4" tall and getting the hides off was a pain.

[hvtrapper]

Try bouncing the stretcher on the floor nose down a few times after removing the wedge. Take a piece of rope/twine looped through the eyes and 1/2 hitched around the head, hook to something solid and pull on the stretcher.

[trapp]

Couple things to do with belly wedges. #1 drill a hone through the end so you can put a spike through to make a handle if they stick. #2 make up some small wedges (shims to put under the base). They are easily removed and the main belly wedge is now loose to pull.

[AR]

I'm thinking that the belly wedges that were sent with the stretchers are not nearly tall enough, they're only about 1/2-3/4" at the biggest end. Going to try and use a larger wedge today and see if that does it. Thanks all for the input.

[tevins]

I had a couple that were stuck last year and I just stood it up outside with 20° temps. After about a half our, the stretcher slid right out. Worth a shot

[jeff]

Nov 12, 2013 17:28:14 GMT -6 tevins said:

I had a couple that were stuck last year and I just stood it up outside with 20° temps. After about a half our, the stretcher slid right out. Worth a shot

Yep stick them out in the cold or in a freezer for a while.

[AR]

used larger wedges and it made all the difference in the world, and putting them in the cold helped to get the ones with the smaller wedges off. Thanks all for the help.