I WISH TO MOUNT MY OWN DEER THIS YEAR. IT IS SOMETHING I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO TRY. HOWEVER I DO NOT WISH TO TAN MY OWN CAPE. I HAVE PURCHASED SEVERAL VIDEOS ON MOUNTING AND TANNING DEER AXIS ETC. BUT I DO NOT CARE TO TAN MY OWN HIDE AT THE MOMENT. HOW DO I PREPARE IT FOR SHIPPING AND WILL A COMMERCIAL TANNERY TAKE JUST ONE OR TWO CAPES FROM AN INDIVIDUAL? I REALIZE I WILL HAVE TO TURN THE EARS, SPLIT THE LIPS AND SO ON AND SO FORTH BUT THEN WHAT?
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You have it down. Split the lips, turn the ears, nose, and flesh the whole cape to get the meat off. If you are going to send it off just salt it, changing the salt three or four times, until it is hard and dry. And they will just take one or two. But my question is this. If you are going to learn how to do deer, learn the cheapest and best way. That is to tan in shop. It is not much harder. All you have to do is flesh the deer getting the main meat off the cape , then salt, wash, pickle (if you wish to do so), flesh again as thin as you can get it, then use spray tan or liqua-tan. Just a suggestion. I think you will like the way the deer mounts up much better than a cape returned from a tanner. Good Luck, and if you have any questions about the process of pickle, tanning in shop, e-mail me, I will be glad to help. Alan
Do it yourself. It really isn't difficult, and you will save a lot of time and some money. If you are just starting out I would recommend you buy a deer kit which has all of the necessary supplies and instructions.
Yes you definately need to learn how to tan your own specimens just
to have the knowledge but I would start with a tannery on your 1st few deer.
Try Kieth daniels here at the site...his e-mail is arlcape@bright.net
He does my tanning for me on my larger animals..deer, elk, wolves ect.
If you don`t have the right equipment you can`t even come close to the
quality of a good tannery...just my opinion...
THANKS FOR THE COMMENTS. SORRY FOR THE DELAYED COMMENTS. I HAVE HAD TROUBLE GETTING ON THE FORUM LATELY. CAN SOMEONE ELABORATE ON THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF TANNING METHODS AND PROS AND CONS OF EACH. WHICH I WOULD BE LESS LIKELY TO SCREW UP AND ALL THAT.
THANKS AGAIN.