Wildlife gallery dry tan

[Agren]

I got back a deer cape from the wildlife gallery. Rehydrated to their instructions ( a hand full of salt to every 5gal luke warm water, soak for 30-60 mins then sweat over night) my cape doesn't seem to have much stretch. This is my first tanned deer cape iv had in my hands so I'm not sure if it's right. I'm also not sure if it was really thinned properly either just seems a little thicker then I expected it to be. Any input?

[Frank E. Kotula]

It's hard to say what's going here with out seeing it. It may be possible that it didn't hydrate all the way yet. Try another mixture of salt and water and add a capfull of some type of fabric softener to it. Soak this for about 30 min and re-sweat it. This may work better.

[Matt Marulli (OTT)]

I use wildlife gallery dry tan exclusively. You have to work it a little and it will stretch. If it is cut with a short incision, put both arms inside and make fists. Start pushing and twisting the skin and it will relax rather quickly. Also, I like to soak the ears first for about 10 minutes and then push the rest of the hide in. The little extra time on the ears softens them better for the next day.

[Agren]

This deer was a spike so it's tough to get both hands in there, I did try working him a bit but still nothing. The ears rehydrated. Without extra soaking. I still have him in my refrigerator it's been in there aprox 50 hrs.

[Steve]

Try freezing it for a week or longer if you can.  Some of the dry tans I get from them will let out more after freezing them.

[Hudson]

Wildlife is know for very limited stretch, all the pushing, pulling etc. is not going to get you anywhere. You really shouldn`t have to have a MMA cage match with your capes to get stretch....LOL

[oldshaver]

In the future, you really should choose a wet-tan, on a "young" skin like that. The rigors of the dry tanning process are a little much on ears etc.

A ionic bond is not the strongest of bonds, so lets see if we can reverse it some.

In 3 gallons of water, add 3/4 lb salt, and 6oz of baking soda, at 90degF. Let the cape soak in this solution for 30min, with light aggitation, then pull and rinse in plain warm water for 5 min, while aggitating well. You might also need to re-oil?

Let us know if this works.

[Matt Marulli (OTT)]

Should we assume that the tan is not right or not thinned properly? Aqhforever already stated that this is the first tanned hide he ever touched. Was there measurements before tanning? What are they now? Is he expecting the cape to stretch like a green skin or a piece of rubber? Everyone uses the tan they like, I happen to like gallery and i have never had a skin not fit or come back from tan way off of its green measurement. JM $.02

[Hudson]

Depends on what your frame of reference is Matt....many taxi`s who used Wildlife from the jump have noticed a distinct change. Many have stopped using them, some refuse to use them due to "conflict of interest" also. It is all of personal preference, most of the ones I have spoken with do not complain about getting to the green measurements but the fact that once you stretch left to right there is no give up and down (4 way stretch). Now I have never mounted a chipmunk so I don`t know how important that is, but that has been their beef to me. IMO that is a product of poorly shaven capes, you cannot shave a cape properly in 10-12 minutes. (that one is for you Aubrey...LOL)

[Agren]

I was not given any option for the type of tan. At the time I didn't know any better. My eye to nose measurement came out the same as the green measurement. The neck is another story I can only get about 14 inches tight behind the ears. I do not expect it to give like a green cape but I can not get it to budge in any direction.