Skin a Rabbit

You may or may not regularly eat rabbit, but you never know when you'll need to skin it yourself. Knowing how to skin small game is an indispensable skill. Skinning a rabbit is actually pretty easy. If you decide to kill an animal, give it the dignity of skinning and eating it properly, instead of letting it go to waste. The following tutorial will teach you how to skin a rabbit both with and without a knife.

Steps

Skinning a Rabbit With a Knife

1. Cut the a ring around each leg of the rabbit, just above the leg joint. Only cut enough to get past the hide. Do not cut deeply into the skin of the rabbit; it is unnecessary and inefficient.
2. On each leg, make a single slice going up from the ring cut to the backside of the animal. This will make the skinning easier in the end.
3. Start pulling away some of the hide, working from the ring cut at the foot joint down to the backside or genitalia of the rabbit. The hide should come off relatively easily.
4. Cut your way through the bone of the tail, making sure not to sever or puncture the bladder. The tailbone juts out and is relatively easy to locate.
5. With both hands, start pulling the hide from the body. The hide will slip off very easily at this point. It should be like peeling a banana.
6. Work your fingers into the sleeve of the hide where the arms are, removing the arms from the hide. This may be a little tricky at first, so don't be disappointed if it takes a little extra elbow grease.
7. Work the hide down from the upper torso to the head. Pull the hide down until it rests at the base of the skull.
8. Sever the head from the spine. With it, the skin should entirely detach from the remaining meat.
9. With your hands, break the bones at the arm and leg joints. Then, at the joints, sever the skin from the bone using your knife.
10. Dress and clean the animal, saving the hide as needed. Make sure the animal is clean before you eat it. If possible, check its liver to gauge the safety of the meat. Save the hide for tanning or other uses.

Skinning a Rabbit Without a Knife

1. At the rabbit's knee, push the joint out until the hide separates from the meat. This takes a little bit of practice. Basically, what you're doing is pushing the knee joint in one direction and pulling the skin in the other. This will eventually separate the two cleanly.
2. Work your fingers around the leg, until the hide is separated around the entire knee joint and surrounding meat.
3. Pull the knee joint up while pulling the skin down, removing most skin from one leg. This process is kind of like pulling your pants off, except your "pants" is the hide of the rabbit.
4. Repeat this same process with the other leg.
5. Beneath the genitals, work your hand under the skin and across the belly. Loosen the skin from the underside entirely by pulling it off.
6. On the rabbit's backside, right above the tail, work your hand under the skin and across the back. Take the skin and pull it off the backside until it removes entirely from the tail.
7. Pull the skin down with both hands until it reaches the arms of the rabbit.
8. Break through the thin skin that sits between the front arms and the head. Do this with your fingers. Although it's hide, it shouldn't take you an overwhelming amount of effort to do this. Once you've done this, pull the sleeves up and away from the meat of the arms.
9. Crack the spine where it meets the head. When you clean and dress the rabbit carcass, you can cut off the remaining head and hide with a swift stroke of a knife.
10. Dress and clean the animal, saving the hide as needed. Make sure the animal is clean before you eat it. If possible, check its liver to gauge the safety of the meat. Save the hide for tanning or other uses.

Tips

• If you want to keep the skin, drying should start immediately after the skin has been removed. It must cool off quickly and dry out to prevent the action of enzymes in the dermal, which attack the hair root and cause the hair to fall out.
• Try to skin the rabbit as soon as possible after its death so that the meat does not spoil.
• When pulling the skin off, pull it off as you would remove your socks from the top.

Warnings

• The rabbit may carry rabies so hunt them in the months of February and March only.
• Take a hunter's safety class before hunting any animal.
• Be careful, as the knife should be sharp.

Things You'll Need

• Sharp butcher knife
• Gloves

Related Articles

• Bump Fire
• Hunt
• Field Dress a Rabbit
• Make a Spear for Small Game and Fish

Sources and Citations

• http://www.chai-online.org/en/compassion/reality/reality_rabbit_skin.htm
• http://www.outdoorlife.com/articles/hunting/2007/09/rabbit-skinning-made-easy
• http://www.knife-depot.com/blog/how-to-skin-a-rabbit/

See also

• Hunt Squirrels
• Hunt Rabbit
• Train Your Dog to Hunt
• Dry a Snakeskin
• Catch a Wild Rabbit
• Shoot a Deer
• Hunt Rabbits With an Air Rifle
• Go Deer Hunting
• Make a Snare Trap
• Clean a Squirrel

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