How to Skin A Coyote – Step By Step Guide

It may be a little intimidating when you are skinning your first coyote. If you have skinned other critters it is all about making sure you cut it and pull at the right points. It is not too much different than skinning a fox.

We are going to be discussing tube skinning a coyote. this way of skinning a coyote is probably the easiest way to skin a coyote and the coyotes can be turned into a wall hanger or sold to a fur buyer.

Checkout our coyote trapping article to learn how to trap coyotes this season.

Is It Hard To Skin A Coyote?

Skinning a coyote can be a little hard at first. My first coyote took me about an hour to skin. Take your time though you should not be in a hurry when you are first starting out and coyote pelt will turn out good.

I was trying really hard to do a good job and didn’t have much practice skinning. There is a learning curve to it but it is something you can learn as you watch someone skinning a coyote and then try it a few times.

I have added several example videos at the bottom of this article so you can see when different methods of skinning a coyote. Watch when the person skinning the coyote is pulling and when they are cutting.

How Long Do You Have To Skin A Coyote?

Usually, you are hunting and trapping coyotes in the cold months. October to February is when most coyotes have the best fur.

In cold weather, coyotes will not spoil for two to three days and can be skinned. A coyote in warm weather needs to be skinned within a few hours. Coyote fur left on the carcass will start to get green belly and the fur will start to turn a greenish color.

Green belly is not initially bad if it is light green but as it progresses and the bacteria growing on the coyote skin can cause the fur to slip or fall off the hide.

Green belly can be cleaned off with hydrogen peroxide and may not initially ruin a skin.

Tools For Skinning a Coyote

• Coyote Gambrel
• Skinning Knife
• Tail stripper
• Tail zipper or splitter

How Do You Professionally Skin A Coyote?

Most people professionally skinning coyotes are doing it to sell the hide and make money. The tube method is the most common method when selling coyote pelts.

Steps To Skinning A Coyote

• Cutting Direction: When skinning a coyote you may think the cutting direction is down so you can get the skin off but that will cause you to nick the fur and put holes in it. Your cutting direction should be perpendicular to the carcass and should cut the white membrane that appears between the carcass and the hide when pulling down on the fur.
• Nicking the hide is not a huge deal and can be fixed. Even professionals do it. It can be sewn together later in the fur preparation process but it is best to avoid it. If you have nicked the fur be careful when you pull the fur down off the coyote that you are not making the hole bigger and stretching it out.
• Hang the coyote up upside down by the back feet with a gambrel or rope around the legs.
• Split the fur along the back of the legs where you see a color change in the fur. Start at about the back of the knee and cut in deep. and go around the top of the anus.
• Work the sin off around the legs by spreading the hair away from where you just cut and skinning the hide around the leg.
• Split the fur at the knee of the coyote and leave the rest of the fur on the foot. When you have enough fur worked down and pull the fur down to about the level of the tail.

How To Skin a Coyote Tail

• Skin down around the tail creating a gap between the fur on the back and the carcass. Work and skin the fur down the tail an inch or two.
• Use a tail stripper around the meat of the tail and pull down on the fur and tail stripper while you also push up on the coyote with the other hand right where the tail connects to the rest of the carcass.
• Use a tail zipper or knife to split the tail all the way to the bottom so the tail can dry out.
• You should now be able to grab a large chunk of fur and pull down all the way to the shoulders and maybe a little farther.
• Now you should be able to stick a bar into the flesh between the neck and shoulder on both sides and pull down until the fur on the front leg goes over the elbow joint. The fur can then be cut around the leg and pulled through the leg hole.

How To Skin a Coyote Face, Ears, Lips and Eyes

• You can now give another good tug down now that the front legs are out. The head should be the only thing left in. The fur should have stopped at the ears.
• Cut straight into the head and you should be able to cut the ear cartilage at the base of the ear on both sides. You can now stick your finger in the ear and not too hard pull down on the hide and continue skinning.
• You should start getting into the lips on the sides of the head. They should start to split from the carcass at the corners of the mouth. You can stick your finger in there and pull fairly hard and keep skinning down the rest of the head remembering to cut perpendicular to the carcass.
• Next, the eyes should be cut fairly deep keeping the eyelashes intact. Again you will cut straight keeping the cuts a little deeper around the eyes.

How To Skin a Coyote Nose and Lower Jaw

• Once both eyes are cut skin the nose all the way down the front of the head until you are about a half-inch from the end of the nose. Then cut straight towards the bottom jaw and cut the nose off. The top of the fur should now be free.
• Next, skin the bottom jaw down about two inches from the end the cut it off leaving the bottom few inches of fur on the carcass. You won’t need that piece. You should now be done.

How To Skin Coyote Paws or Feet

In the tube method of skinning a coyote you should not need to skin the feet. As stated above you can cut the fur at the elbows and you will be done.

If you are skinning a coyote for taxidermy then you will need to skin out the feet or paws. You also do not want to cut and leave any of the fur on the carcass.

When skinning out the feet first you will want to split the back of the leg instead of skinning down and cutting it off. Continue skinning down the leg until you ar a few inches from the top of the foot.

You can now split the back of the leg until you come to the big pad at the bottom of the foot. You will then start to skin down the foot until you reach the tird joint on each toe.

You will need to work down and skin each toe individually as you work the hide down. Split the third joint at each toe as you reach it. The middle toes are longer and will be farther to skin than the side toes so finish out the site toes first.

You can watch the following video on how to skin out the toes and paws of a coyote.