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How thick of pine did you use? I have a few that I made out of pine for coon, fox, and cotoye but they seem to take so much longer to dry then when they are put up on wire but they sure look better on wood. And as for the coon the ones that I shipped off and sold made almost 2x as much off the ones put up on wood vs. the ones put up on wire. I made the wood/wire one for coyote and will see how it does at Kfalls at the end of the month. I really like how fast they dry like this was going to make up some for coon and fox too.

I used 1 x 6's, 1 x 8's, and 1 x 10's. Cut to specific lengths and slopes for each of the sizes of cats. The thickness of the boards doesn't effect the hide that way. Also when you havd them hanging up drying put a fan on em that cuts the dry time in half. Air circulation works wonders.

We make our own stretchers!! I have got to know an older guy who just seems to know what he is doin. He has been a trapper for 60 plus years. He has a portable mill and we mill up our own boards from pine, or doug-fir both seem to work. He has developed a good pattern that gets a nice shape to the cats. Nice and long but not too skinny. Length is the key though they pay for size and getting that large and x-large helps.

I bought some before I met this guy and we took and redesigned them to make them more narrow and planned the boards to make not as thick.

We use a shed with wood heat just as Daniel said, we dry them till they are tacky on the head then we turn them and leave them on the board for about a week to really get them to hold the shape. if we are unable to keep the shed warm to dy them we will reverse the shop vac and blow air in them to dry them, doesn't take long that way.

There is a lot to taking care of fur.. I still learn stuff almost everytime we are working on them.


Zach