is it okay to Vacuum seal pelts?

jephs422

New member
I broke my Coyote skinning cherry last night, and I was able to get a nice pelt I want to have tanned. I am going to drop it off to my taxi in a few days, but wifey will freak if there's a pelt in the freezer. SO I went ahead and vacuum sealed it. Will it be okay? I don't wanna screw up my first pelt I skinned myself.
 
It will be just fine for a few days. I general freeze all my pelts until I am ready to take them to the buyer. I roll them up fur side out starting with the head. I then will place them in plastic sacks (Wal Mart, etc...) or 2 gallon ziplocks.
 
OH, I still froze it. But you know how vaccuum sealers seal it super tight, I just wasn't sure if the pressure it puts on the pelt would screw it up. It's already frozen and ready to go now, so I hope it's fine
 
You did good. I want one of the vacumm bag thingies real bad. Vacumm sealing prevents freezer burn which is the risk in freezing furs for later processing.
 
Quote:
You did good. I want one of the vacumm bag thingies real bad. Vacumm sealing prevents freezer burn which is the risk in freezing furs for later processing.



They can be had for pretty cheap these days, and they are worth their weight in gold. During the summer months when the Dorado and Yellow tail bite, I can freeze enough fish to last almost all year, and it's as freash as the day I put it in there. That's why I figured it would make sense to use on a pelt.
 
Vacusealers weren't in common use back when I was putting up a lot of coyotes. If I was short of stretchers and/or time I always fleshed them and turned them fur side out, rolled them from the tail to the nose and put a little string loop through the nose. They went into a 2 gallon zip lock (or a 1 gallon for a smaller coyote) until I had time to finish them or got some boards freed up. Rolling them tail to nose and having a loop let me hang them up easily to thaw.

I've used a vacusealer a few times on fur since I moved to Alaska. They work great. If I was going to store long term, I'd flesh the hides first before vacusealing, just to mitigate the possibility of any slippage from freezer burned fat. For a few days or even weeks you'll be fine. I'd be curious to hear from some fur handlers as to whether they've seen slippage from fat on unfleshed, vacusealed hides, stored long term.

I've had hundreds and hundreds of hides through my freezers over the years, right next to the deer, elk and moose meat. They never once infected the meat with any horrible disease, or any minor diseases for that matter. Luckily I married a hillbilly girl who was never bothered by dead critters in the freezer.
 
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