Opinions?

[madmax]

    Max hates small furry and feathered creatures.  I'm a sorta of an animal guy.  Yes I've hunted and eaten small game.  So it's not a squeamish thing.  About 3:30 am the unmistakable sound of an animal that's gettin' killed through our open window.  Kelly didn't like waking up to Max tearing into it.  We hoped it wasn't a neighbors' pet cat.  Frankly, if you let your animal to wander into my fenced in backyard,  sorry for the pet but you need a lesson in animal care.  BTW the law here about leashing your pet applies equally to dogs, cats, iguanas, or chickens.

     Well the death scream finally stopped and when the sun came up, I found the coon.  Whew.  I didn't have to S.S.S. for a pet.  So onto the question.

I've cured snake skins with boric acid but can I do that with a mammal?  Something better?  I know about every animal has enough brains to tan it's hide but that stinks to high heaven. 

[wsdstan]

I have not used boric acid but have used borax and alum soaks for a few days.  The hides have to be pretty well fleshed and washed if dirty but I just put a coating of borax and alum paste on them every couple of days for about a week.  I did a small piece of deer hide last year and it came out pretty well. 

 

[Unknown]

You have your windas open? So, I reckon you'll have to act fairly quickly- unless
  ( I'd have to do some review to make sure I had not forgotten, and to gather proper chemicals- probably a tanning solution)

So to buy some time I would wash the thing in dawn detergent. Wring it out then salt it heavily, roll it up, bag- then pop in the freezer. How you tan it, imo, depends on what you want to do with it. Roll it up into a rawhide fetch toy for Max or make a cap? I could go look up the name of the tanning solution, it's not super expensive and could tan a good number of trespassers

[Old Philosopher]

You have your windas open? So, I reckon you'll have to act fairly quickly- unless
  ( I'd have to do some review to make sure I had not forgotten, and to gather proper chemicals- probably a tanning solution)

So to buy some time I would wash the thing in dawn detergent. Wring it out then salt it heavily, roll it up, bag- then pop in the freezer. How you tan it, imo, depends on what you want to do with it. Roll it up into a rawhide fetch toy for Max or make a cap? I could go look up the name of the tanning solution, it's not super expensive and could tan a good number of trespassers

+1 on wrapping and freezing it, but I would omit the salt.  Better to freeze it fresh and start from scratch when thawed. That's what I do with my rabbit hides.  Even in the freezer, salt dehydrates the skin.

Have you checked into "acid tanning"?  I believe there is a way to do it with the hair on, and all it takes is some battery acid from your parts store.

[wolfy]

Coon skins are a giant P.I.T.A. to flesh properly for home tanning.  ALL of the fat must be removed completely and.......to top it all off, they are one of nature's greasiest critters. 

There are several YouTube videos available on the subject.  Like this one.....

[madmax]

Yeah, that's basically what I thought.  I need a fleshing board and a deep work sink. 

Also don't you guys have wives?  "Just throw it in the refrigerator."  "Just throw it in the freezer."  uh huh.  Kelly would have some salty words if she caught me.


I guess I should stick to things that don't have dead animals in it (She will eat backstrap though).

[wolfy]

A 5-6' length of big plastic sewer pipe works really well as a fleshing beam.....no knots or lumps to smooth out as there would be with a natural wood surface.

Heather has become used to my efforts along this line......she once discovered a rolled up ziplock in our freezer thinking it contained some bratwurst that we had long since overlooked.  It turned out to be a mole that I had stabbed with my Opinel in our front lawn and stored in the freezer 'til garbage day rolled around the next week.  Guess it slipped my mind.

[madmax]

LOL.  Kelly made me take the trash out because of a dead carcass in the bin.  Then she found a mysterious bag in the freezer.  Sea trout.  They have to be fileted to be allowed to RIP in the freezer.

Minor setbacks.

[Old Philosopher]

At one point I had 12 rabbit pelts cased out in the freezer (2 bags worth).  They got bumped (per SWMBO) to make room for edible stuff before I got around to processing them. Oh, well....   She won't be getting any surprise fur-lined gloves for awhile.  Her fault, not mine.

[Unknown]

Deer Hunters and Trappers Hide Tanning Formula. Makes a stiff skin unless you break the leather. - Which is a lot like work.

[Mannlicher]

Elvie and I were in our first year of marriage when she came home and discovered some squirrel carcasses in clear baggies  the freezer.  Squirrel blood and hair on the kitchen counter.  We had a discussion.  I have not done that in the past 24 years since.   

[Old Philosopher]

Elvie and I were in our first year of marriage when she came home and discovered some squirrel carcasses in clear baggies  the freezer.  Squirrel blood and hair on the kitchen counter.  We had a discussion.  I have not done that in the past 24 years since.   

With my butchering 15-25 chickens and a dozen rabbits every year, my wife doesn't bat an eye.  She has only one rule: "You kill it, you clean it...and clean up the mess!"  At one point I had 5 deer lined up to butcher. She bent the rules over that a bit, and pitched in to help wrap 'em.

[wsdstan]

My wife is a good sport about stuff I bring home and deposit here and there.  She did lay into me about the beaver I left beside the shop door by the lawn mower a couple of winters back.  Scared the heck out of her when she walked by it.

Got some frozen skins in the freezer as we talk about this.

[madmax]

Oddly enough,  I have 3 or 4 Timber Rattler skins, hogs' teeth, deer antlers, coon tails and such floating around the house.  She never says anything about them.  Well,  l she wants a purse made out of rattler skin.  Maybe she holding out for that.  LOL.

I would love to duck hunt again.  But she won't even taste duck.  I'm not shooting them just for the feathers.