Skinning and Tanning Help

G

GA Hunter

New member
Ok so I'll be honest I've been hunting since I was 13 and I'm 19 now. I've killed a couple squirrels and tried skinning them but kinda mangled them. No one has ever showed me the right way to actually skin small game and I kinda want to learn the right way cause I just got permission to hunt coons on my grandparents land. What is the proper way to do that? And does the same basic principle apply to other small game as it does coons? And my last dumb question is how do you tan the hide? I have one squirrel skin but its real stiff. I scraped the fat and meat off it then let it dry in the sun with salt on it then scraped the salt off and put salt on it one more time. It seems fine just real stiff and I dont know if thats how its supposed to be or not

I know its real dumb and I feel a little stupid asking considering how long I've been hunting but it would be nice to know the right way to do it. I haven't got to hunt as much as I wanted to in the past thats why I dont have much experience but this year I will be hunting a lot more thats why I wanted to know. Sorry this is so long any help would be great and really appreciated. Thanks yall
 
Yes , when you salt dry a skin it will be stiff. Salt just pulls all of the liquids out it does not tan the hide.If you want to keep the skin for a wall hanger then you should case skin it. To do this: Start at the rear foot and cut from there down the backside of the leg to the vent (Anal Opening) and down the backside of the other leg to the foot.Cut off the feet at the ankles without cutting through the skin, start skinning the pelt, pulling as you go and using your knife when it gets stuck to cut it loose. Stay as close to the meat as you can.Skin it all the way down to the front legs and then cut them loose from the body. Continue skinning down to the skull.When you reach the skull gently pull the skin outward as you skin the skull being careful around the eyes and mouth. When you get past there cut through the nose cartilage and there you have it.You will then have the skin completely loose from the body.Now you need to skin out the back feet and front legs.Then proceed to skin out the nose, turn the eyes, ears and lips. Next scrape off all the meat and fat then rub salt firmly into all of the flesh side of the skin, hang it somewhere out of the sun for 24 hours then come back, shake off the salt and repeat. It will dry hard in a few days.Then you can send it off to a tannery to have it soft tanned or you can tan it yourself.There are several different tanning methods to see these I encourage you to go to TAXIDERMY.NET and look in the archives. Loads of info there and you will see everything you need to know. I would suggest sending them to the tannery though. I'm a taxidermist and I use Wildlife Gallery tannery.Look them up on the web. Hope this helps.





 
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catkiller is right. go here http://www.taxidermy.net/forum/index.php
or here http://www.taxidermy.net/forum/index.php?board=11.0

do alot of reading before posting any questions. there are quite a few aholes that like to cut the beginners down, so have a thick skin.

tanning isnt really that hard to do. the most important thing is to cool the hide down and get all the moisture out asap. thats what the salt is for. moisture and heat are the perfect breeding grounds for the bacteria that rot the flesh.

another good place is http://www.trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php
 


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