I am planning on tanning the hide and hanging it on wall in my living room, any other suggestions before I start skinning. I had thoughts on getting it mounted but I'm not sure.
Ed
I was trapping beaver one year,and a friend of mine asked for the hind quarters from one. He cooked it up like a beef roast, and thats what it tasted like. A little stringy but tasted just like roast beef. :thumbsup:
I'm guessing $500-$600 mounted, but that would definitely be nice, probably $50 tanned and nice also. Or a couple grips from the tail and lots of beaver ball silencers, ha. Whatever way you go, it's a win-win situation, good luck.
The feet are really unique. I can tan it and still get a few silencers, but how do you do the tail for a grip?
you should make a nice hat out of it.I bet it would look sharp.
I got one tanned round,no tail, and have it on my coffee table with a big shed antler on top of that. Everybody seems to like it, even the city slickers around here. Or so they say ...
I like the grip from the tail idea, as well as making a hat out of it and using some of it for string silencers.
I wouldn't spend the money for having it mounted, unless I harvested it myself with a bow or trapped it and I had a lot of money!
they use the body to bait the bears in SAS.LOL.
Congrats on even having a beaver in the freezer. First off, if you are able to save the meat, do so. It is some of the best eating out there. I've eaten beaver and served it to others with rave reviews. Secondly, you can certainly tan the hide yourself - my experience was not very pleasant at the hide turned into a huge frizbee. I tried to soften it myself and could never get it to where I wanted it. Much easier to send it out. Use it for a curiosity or hoop it on willow branches for a wall hanging. Mounting is another option though, personally I'd rather spend my money on a new bow. If you want a hat, go to your local fur buyer and ask them about it. I had the one in the picture done 20-25 years ago and I think it was $65 - just heard yesterday that some fur buyers are still offering the same deal. A note on beaver hats - they are way to warm unless the temp is below 15 degrees and usually I take it off when walking because I get too hot...............Oooops, the pic was too big.........this should work.
(http://i839.photobucket.com/albums/zz313/Petemcm/beaverhat.jpg)
The tanned skin in a sapling hoop drying frame makes an interesting wall hanging.
Cool hat Pete!
I've a chest freezer full of beaver that I feed to the bears. May have to skin one and make a hat.
I tried tanning some tails last year. Like the ones I buy much better.
I see a life time of :biglaugh: string silencers in your future>>>---> and the tail can be used to make bow grips :archer2:
Has to be one of the funniest titles for a post ever. :cool: I have have one as a wall hanging in my den...looks great.
Depending on how much experience you have, beaver skinning is a job in itself. Clean skinning takes some time if you are out of practice but it beats fleshing any day. A medium skin is 26 bucks to get tanned, I have no idea what a mount would run.
I have a beaver pelt back quiver. That's another option.
FIRST, you give your wife a KISS! There's no way my wife would let me put a beaver in the freezer.
skinning a beaver is a greasy endeavor. up here we use the carcusses for bear baiting, try to get some paint on instant tan (20-30 per container) this will tan several animals. you just prepare (scrap flesh and grease) and paint on. you can also smoke cure hide or use of brains spread on the hide for traditional tanning. Beaver tail grip sounds cool, I've cut the skin up for beaver ball string silencers ( you cut 1/4 inch pieces about 3 inches long using back fur), make sure you keep the casters (you can sell or keep for hunting scents). Intresting things with beavers they are the only animal with a penis bone! makes a cool conversation piece.
Saw this tread and a friend of mine has some in a crock pot as I read this and he never cooked it before...I might have to sneak over and try a fork full just to say I tried it... :)
Keefer,If he cooks it right you'll love it!
hummer3t, actually a bear has a penis bone as well,I have one in my man cave that I use as a swizzle stick to prepare drinks! :thumbsup: :laughing:
I was going to say the same thing, but I don't want to be known as a penis bone expert! :nono:
Lots of things to do with the hide but this is my favorite way of disposing of the meat. If the meat was not cared for properly however, then I use it for bear bait.
(http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab16/Mehikan/DSC_0789.jpg)
I might have to go shoot me a beaver!
Find someone that knows what they are doing to flesh it for you.
I don't know if you've ever made beaver sticks (jerky) but those are great using beaver meat.
Here's a picture from 30 years ago. Some friends and I roasted some beaver on an open fire. It's a dark sweet meat,..fine fixins fer sure..
(http://www.shrewbows.com/rons_linkpics/Beaver_cooking%201.jpg)
(http://www.shrewbows.com/rons_linkpics/Beaver_cooking%202.jpg)
Here is another picture I took several years back of my mother in law cooking one in a partial log tipi used specifically for that purpose.
She uses the stick to turn the beaver until the string is winded up. Then, as the string untwists, the momentum twists the string again... and so on and so forth for quite a while... eventually, the time comes to turn the beaver with the stick again to wind up the string.
(http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab16/Mehikan/img061.jpg)
quote:
Originally posted by owlbait:
I was going to say the same thing, but I don't want to be known as a penis bone expert! :biglaugh: :biglaugh: :biglaugh:
QuoteOriginally posted by PV:
The tanned skin in a sapling hoop drying frame makes an interesting wall hanging.
x2
QuoteOriginally posted by team fudd:
hummer3t, actually a bear has a penis bone as well,I have one in my man cave that I use as a swizzle stick to prepare drinks! :thumbsup: :laughing:
x2
"Ward I think you were a little hard on the beaver" June Cleaver.
You guys have taken this off the beaten path by adding the bears bone into the mix. :saywhat:
Ken Taylor...what can we say...AWESOME pics!(Ron, you too!)
By the way, racoons have the penis bone too.
Shot the biggest bear of my life over a pile of beaver carcasses on the Peace river in Alberta. Shot a beaver with the bow on that trip, gave the hide to a local, and used the beav on my bait pile. Skull green scored 21". What a monster. Bears and beavers up there in northern Canada are a natural 1+1=2
Appreciate the thread, bringing back memories!
Thanks David
And with about 45 years of bear hunting behind me (20 of those as a guide), I agree that beaver is a Canadian black bear's favorite meat.
I have several hides in freezer now, and 2 unskinned a taxadermist is buying off of me to mount for her shop. A beaver is actually not hard to skin, most important thing is keeping your knife plenty sharp, and just take your time, there are plenty of sites on here to show how to skin out, go to trapperman.com
Yes, all muskelidae's have penis bones, I appoligize for my error. I was thinking about the tanning of a beavertail has anyone done this and how.
Hahahahaha, I put a beaver in the freezer once. It was in a black plastic garbage bag. My wife wondered what was in the bag. She reached in and felt fur. Then she screamed. I laughed. Gary
"A beaver is actually not hard to skin..."
~griffin75
Easy for YOU to say. It was like skinning Jello.
Killdeer
My first year trapping I got three. Needless to say, at my first attempt the hide came out looking like I skinned the animal with the prop from my outboard motor. A really sharp knife and lots of patiences will result in a nice skin.