drying wet furs

[Possum]

With fishing season dying down, my thoughts are turning to trapping. More important, I've got several magazine assignments for articles. One of them deals with handling wet and muddy furs. I've used the air nozzle on a compressor to quickly dry out muskrats. 20 or 30 seconds and they are dry enough to skin and stretch. I've never tried "blow-drying" anything else - coons, coyotes, possums, mink, etc. Any of you ever tried compressed air with any success on these or others?

[TrapperRon]

An old cloths dryer without a heat element works well for drying washed furs. If you are electrical savvy at all you can use a 110 plug to operate it as only the heat element is 220.

The best, if you can find one is one of the old Hoover spin dryers to wash and dry, again no heat.

[trappnman]

thing is, unless in hot weather, coon, beaver, mink can wait a day- so you are always skinning yesterdays fur. So I either hang them or more often lay them on newspapers- by the next evening they are damp or even dry depending on how wet to begin with and type. Rats and mink dry enough to put up, coon get hung by fans until next day- and no, the 2 day wait hurts nothing (in normal trapping weather)

canines get washed either by hand or in washer, and hung by fans until next day.

anytime I can let nature do my work, I will.

[musher]

A leaf blower can clean a lot of stuff off of fur. Blows water off also.

[TrapperRon]

I mostly do what trappnman does. Hang up by the front feet for water furs for faster drying. Back feet for carnivores to prevent green belly. keep air circulating with a small fan.

[bblwi]

For really water soaked wet coons I hang them upside down and use my old Sears wet and dry vac with about 2 HP. That really sucks the water out of the fur and off the hide or skin as well. Most of the mud etc. comes off too. I then head up to finish the drying with fans or in circulating air. I never tried the compressors, leaf blowers etc. To me air works better with most of the water gone and the hair loose and the wet and dry vac gets that done for me. Really speeds up rats too if you need to dry them quick.

Bryce

[bogio]

Skin everything same day caught. Wash every coon and coyote after skinning, ring out, snap and hang in front of a fan. In the freezer next morning. Any remaining moisture freeze dries out.

[CoyoteMan50]

I also hang mine front feet and brush them good and they are dry the nest day. but I do like to blow the fles and drit off my Beave with the air hose .

[CoonDuke]

I hate the fur handling chore from a day like this. Got a dryer set up for 110 and am going to try a few different "mediums" in it for drying. Going to try sawdust from a planer first and if that don't work then corn cob grit.