Hello! I have my first coyote to do, and have two questions. Being a beginner I spent about 2-2.5 hours skinning him. After which I was very pleased I didn't cut any holes in the hide and didn't want to press my luck on the rest of the fleshing, ie eyes, nose, ears and lips. So I froze the skin until I have more time to address these areas. Was it safe for me to freeze the hide until I can spend more time on it? Plus due to the bullet hole quit alot of blood got on the fur side of the hide during skinning. Is there something I can do to wash the blood out of the fur before I salt the hide or just take care of it during the tanning process? Any help would be grealty apprciated. Thanks Andy.
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What I would do is finish fleshing and then salt the hide. Then thoroughly wash with Dawn and a blood releasing agent. Use whichever one you want. All of the suppliers carry different brands. This gives me a nice clean hide ready for pickling/tanning.
If you are going to pickle and tan do what Greg said. If you are going to DP the mount do not salt it. Finish the fleshing(the nose will give you some trouble) ears lips and so on. Flesh it as thin as you can and wash it in Dawn or another brand. let it drip dry and then you can freeze it until you are ready to DP and mount.
I'd be careful with the Dawn Andy. I have never cleaned a raw, bloody skin with it before, so these gentlemen may be giving you good advise. Personally though, I tend to think that wetting a bloody skin and adding a relativly high ph product like Dawn, could make any bacteria present have a population explosion and cause slippage.
Allot of that blood will come out in the pickling process, or you can use a product like bloodout while degreasing. If you feel it neccessary to remove some of the blood before salting, either do it locally around the wound with a damp rag, or rinse it in water and add some Rittel's PS-650 Bacteriacide. This will not only prevent bacteria growth but, it will kill off the bacteria that are present. I have done this with iffy bear and deer without a problem. Afterwards, spin it out in a washer or towel dry before salting.
Mark C