Skinning a cougar????

[Bean Counter]

If your going to skin a Cougar I recomend the skinning up the belly.  There should be no problem hiding the seam.

Even for a life size?

[cedarriver]

If you case skin, can you then slip hide on form like a sock? Or do you need to cut form in half to get hide on when you mount it?

  No, there is no way to get the legs back through.

[Huntbear]

Just goes to show, There's more than one way to skin a cat!

 

[PolarBear]

I have found that the best way to "skin" a cougar is to take her out on the town and buy her some drinks.  By the time you get back home the "hide" seems to just fall off. 

[pianoman9701]

Yeah, baby!

[Ballance1]

Belly cut is the way to go.

[flysar]

Do you split the tail?

[rebal69972]

Tag!   

 

[boneaddict]

Do you split the tail?

I wouldn't if you are thinking about life size.

[JackOfAllTrades]

OK...  So those that tag a kitty should:

Belly cut/gut...

Then I'm surmising-  tube the legs, (I think I'd start with a hind leg and start at inner thigh 180 degrees to the elbow point), Once one hind leg is done down to the ankle joint, split that joint leaving the foot attached to the hide. Cut the tail/bone/joint from the body without cutting the hide, then work on the other hind leg down to the akle as before. Work forward from there to tube the forelegs then more or less tubing over the head/ears, then eyes/lips? Then tube the tail?

I pretty much did this with a doe a long time ago just for the heck of it. You can't quite tube the legs completely, but once I got near the elbow with an inner slit there was enough slack in the hide to bend the leg and role the hid down to the ankle joint as I cut it away from the meat.

Michelle?

[cedarriver]

Do you split the tail?

 Yes you or your taxidermist has to split the tail to salt it

[boneaddict]

interesting.   would save me a lot of stress taking the core(tailbone) out if I spilt them(any critter).  I sewed one up once and thought that was aweful.

[cedarriver]

OK...  So those that tag a kitty should:

Belly cut/gut...

Then I'm surmising-  tube the legs, (I think I'd start with a hind leg and start at inner thigh 180 degrees to the elbow point), Once one hind leg is done down to the ankle joint, split that joint leaving the foot attached to the hide. Cut the tail/bone/joint from the body without cutting the hide, then work on the other hind leg down to the akle as before. Work forward from there to tube the forelegs then more or less tubing over the head/ears, then eyes/lips? Then tube the tail?

I pretty much did this with a doe a long time ago just for the heck of it. You can't quite tube the legs completely, but once I got near the elbow with an inner slit there was enough slack in the hide to bend the leg and role the hid down to the ankle joint as I cut it away from the meat.

Michelle?

 you can do it that way or just cut it like you would a rug. Just need to make sure you make nice clean cuts. Keep your knife under the hide, as to not make a bunch of jagged cuts, and not cut the hair.

[cedarriver]

interesting.   would save me a lot of stress taking the core(tailbone) out if I spilt them(any critter).  I sewed one up once and thought that was aweful.

 Yes they are a pain to sew up, but there's alot of fat on the skin that has to come off to salt, and just easier to get salt on it when it's split. Then when mounting it takes alot of test fitting to get the size right.

[Michelle_Nelson]

If your going to skin a Cougar I recomend the skinning up the belly.  There should be no problem hiding the seam.

Even for a life size?

I've never had a problem hiding seams.  Except on a few things that were really hacked up bad.  Even than you can get a fairly clean seam just takes a little more time.
 

Do you split the tail?

YES.  You always split the tail.  You can't get it properly salted and the tannery can't shave them.