I need to know how to skin around the feet of a bobcat in
preparation to tanning. Any suggestions?
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If your talking about cutting around the bottom of the foot, there is no need for that. Just tube the leg out and continue down to the foot. Keep turning the hide inside out until you reach the knuckles of the toes, snip off at knuckles, and your done. Good luck, and boy don't those cats smell good..............Sean
If you can't turn the pads and get to the toes then it's best to split them and then skin down to the last digit. Be careful on not going right to the nail for sometimes it may fall out. If it does you can replace it after you mount it. Glue it back in with an epoxy (Epo-Grip)
When mounting you can either leave the toe bones in or cut them out and clay in what you took out. I like to remove as much bone as I can and clay it back in.
To repair the pad just sew the pad up let dry and then use some kind of epoxy (all-game etc) spread it over the pad and then take a stiff paint beush and you can put the details back in the pad by gently tapping the bush on the epoxy.
make a small incision on the back of the leg from approximately the elbow joint to about a half inch above the footpad. You can easily turn the feet all the way this way and the footpad is perfect without any cuts to repair later. This is important if you are planning to show the cat in a position with the footpad exposed, like lying down or jumping up.
I love it when those cats lie down or jump up and expose their foot pads........heh heh.....