How long to thaw whole coyote before skinning?

Spidicus

Member
I bagged a coyote a last week. I bagged the whole thing and put it in my deep freezer until I had time to skin it since I'm relatively new at skinning. My question is how long does it need to thaw before I attempt skinning it. The temps here are about 60 during the day and 35-40 degrees at might.
I was thinking I'd take it out of the freezer when I get home on friday night and let it thaw until noonish on Saturday.
What do you guys think?
 
Just long enough for it to feel soft under the skin, it doesn't have to be totally thawed out.
 
If you take it out of the bag and hang it by a hind leg it will thaw faster, but still going to be more than overnight. Usually takes a couple days at least. I use a product called "stop slip" or "stop rot" and spray some on the face/ears just to keep these areas bacteria resistant.
 
jetman +1, if you do them warm they are a lot easier. When I started hunting here on the desert trees to skin them from are far and few. Sign post have holes in them I stick a screw drive through the post to keep my hanging rope from sliding. Skinning on the ground is too hard on my back but I've done a few on fence posts. I always thought a skinning rack on the van would be handy. I already have a fleshing beam that mounts on the truck.

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No trees here to speak of we carry a dog choker and use a fence post
I can't find a pic with our shinning pole showing but it's heave tubing that fits in to the receiver on our trucks we are going to put a hand winch on it for deer and to help pull the fur off, on them cold days . some times there stiff as a board by time we get to the truck.
If it's a long drag back.
We also have "Coyote drag bags" so as not to buff off the long guard hears, that's where the money is.
 
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Looks like I need a gambrel to mount to the truck. There ain't no fence posts here and few if any trees. Also, some sort of light to see to skin at night since that's when I hunt most.
 
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