Any interest in alaskan red squirrel skins?

[Bullshop Junior]

Just throwing this out there. Im gonna have a pretty good supply of alaskan red squirrel skins that would be sutible for use for those fellers tying their own flys.

So my questions are.

How do you fly tyers like them? Tube skinned, open skinned, or do you just want the tails.

Also what is a fair price dor these things? 25 cents each? 5 bucks for as many as i can shove in a flat rate box?

Just curious.

[swamp]

I would be interested in a few. Just to see what I could do with them.

swamp

[WallyM3]

I think that the general preference would be open skinned. The key is good tanning...I've got more stinking bucktails than a maggot could stand.

And I think you're selling too short. Check out squirrel skins at the several and many fly tying suppliers (I'd give you links, but the pain meds are slowing me down).

Also, if you get bored, google John Atherton "The Fly and the Fish". I restored and live in his Battenkill house in Arlington, VT.

[Bullshop Junior]

Ill skim a few out and get up some pics. They are either caugh in traps, by accident, or shot with a 22 mag, so the hides may have gapping holes or missing heads. I usually flesh and dry them with a little salt

[WallyM3]

For fly tyers, the holes or other blemishes that would be rejected by furriers make little to no difference, as the material will be removed and reprocessed to make it suitable for dubbing, tails, etc.

Heads on small mammals or rodents generally are not useful, though present one to a billiuos fly tyer and he'll try to make something out of it. (LOL)

I hope that you'll post what and how much you'd like for your materials when available.

[trapper9260]

There is a market for them at the fur buyer it you check around.Some pay up to $1.25 for them , also there is a market for grays also.and they are done up case or like someone stated tube with fur side in.reds are worth more grays.You will need to remove the tail bone also. Check the local fur buyer for more info and then you will know how to put them up and also what they are worth.as for to sell them to someone else and you do not put them up on a board put Borax on them and that will stop any bugs or anything else from eating them also from going bad.You get the Borax in your store where they sell laudry soap.They use it for a booster.hope this will help.

[kenyerian]

http://www.mepps.com/programs/squirrel-tail/ Used to send mine to Mepps and trade for fishing lures.

[trapper9260]

http://www.mepps.com/programs/squirrel-tail/ Used to send mine to Mepps and trade for fishing lures.

yes i have hear that is what you can do. but I found that sell the whole skin to a fur buyer you get more.

[waksupi]

Mepp's used to buy them. Probably still do.

[rush1886]

Open skinned and salted, as many as you can stuff in a sfrb, I'm down for one, at least. As one who ties my own, my first interest would be the tails. But natural fur of any variety can be mixed, (we call it "dubbed") with others, both for color and texture differences. Actually, Borax is preferable to salt. And boolit holes are of no consequence.

Let us know when you get a few a ready. And $5.00 a sfrb won't hardly add to your larder at all. Personally, I'd gladly go $15, $5 for the sfrb and $10 for the hides, just to have something new to play with.

[WallyM3]

What rush 1886 said.

[472x1B/A]

There is a good market for bushy tails at North American Fur Auctions. Skin them as you would a mink, strech on a 'small' female mink board fur side in. Remove the tail bone and split dowm to the end, tack down every half inch to the end but don't strech it. I've made a couple hundred dollars over the years with just road kills. When I was buying fur full time I would tell all my customers to save their squirrel hides from hunting and I would buy them. After word got out I was buying over 200 a month. Easy to skin as a muskrat after you catch on.

[starmac]

I may be wrong, but I don't think fur buyers are very interested in the squirrels he is talking about. These are not tree rats. lol

[Down South]

I'll gladly take the squirrel meat. one of my favorite foods unless they have been cutting pine. I see Meps has already been mentioned. I know a trapper up in noth Canada that traps but I dont think that he fools with quirrel that much, just, the larger fur bearers and bigger critters like timber wolfes, bears and beavers. He mentioned a couple other species but i don't remember whatwere they were.
he runs a trap line about 4 months a year and comes into town about once a week to get suppiles, on snowmoblie. He is supposed to enail me some pictures of his catch from his hid away camp out in the bush.
He had some nice beaver tanned out. I brought one home with me.
The hide would need to be cured to send it to him to a point before shippimg. You will have to excuse my typing tonight. My eres are blurr and I'm ot seeig well.

[starmac]

Our squirrels are not the eating kind either, I wish they were.

Marten is the money pelt for the trappers around here, but wolves,wolverine , linx, fox and the occasional coyote are sought after also. There are a lot of beaver too, but a lot more work for less money as marten. Other parts of the state otter and mink is available on good numbers too.
Our squirrels don't amount to much compared to fox or gray squirrels.

[Bullshop Junior]

Our squirrels are not the eating kind either, I wish they were.

Marten is the money pelt for the trappers around here, but wolves,wolverine , linx, fox and the occasional coyote are sought after also. There are a lot of beaver too, but a lot more work for less money as marten. Other parts of the state otter and mink is available on good numbers too.
Our squirrels don't amount to much compared to fox or gray squirrels.

Yea our squirrels suck. I have been shooting them to use as trapping bait.

Ill get a bunch skinned up and dried and then get them posted for sale. I may have some snow shoe hare skins as well as some scraps of fox, lynx, and coyote from Amandas sewing projects.

[Bulldogger]

I haven't tied flies for a long time, so can't comment on demand or price, but would caution against such a low price. SFRB costs $5 to ship, empty or full, that doesn't give you and profit. Also, hides laid flat might fit easier in a small flat rate Envelope, without all the fussing of putting the box together. I've stuffed a lot of packages, and the SFRE is nice when the item fits, just peel off the strip and stick it down. Beats needing 3 hands to hold the box closed while you stick the flap.
Bulldogger

[Cactus Farmer]

Figure out a price and put me down for a box or two. I'll swap you for armadillo belly fur.:p

[WallyM3]

Make it worth your while. I'm on board.

[waksupi]

When you ship raw hides, always mark "Wildlife" on the outside of the package. Otherwise, you would most likely be in violation of the Lacey Act.

[Bullshop Junior]

When you ship raw hides, always mark "Wildlife" on the outside of the package. Otherwise, you would most likely be in violation of the Lacey Act.

I believe the post office here has "Raw Fur" stickers to slap on the boxes.