hello all
I have learned quite a bit from the post here.. and thanks to the what i read i have a simple (hopefully) question ...I got my first deer a week ago.. I had a buddy do the butching.. I bruogh the hide home a laid it out and salted it heavy.. and resalted every few days after.. I had to throw it out todayafter we found it smelling and looking real bad( like rotting ever get too close to a bloated dead animal )... I was hoping to find out what may have gone wrong so the next time it won't happen again. and Is it possbly to store it outside (in a shed ) salted. until i can get room/time to work on it ( i live in a small trailer)
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clean all of the red meat and fat off of the skin? this needs to be done so that the salt can penetrated the hide......storing it in a shed in a salted state should cause no ill effect.....god bless us every one
To correct the problem you had to do something wrong before and during the process. Salt saves a hide or should I say cures it. The reason we say this is there is no way in he$$ that clean salt would destroy a hide.
To salt properlly:
lay hide on a slight slant, this drains the bad body fluids from it.
Next day shake off and resalt. Hang and let dry hard.
The salting process should be done in a cool area inside or in a completly shaded area with air flow to speed the drying.
and that the hide was layed out flat.
I always flesh away the meat and membrane before salting a cape or skin - otherwise all the salt in the world will not prevent the skin from rotting under the meat left on it. The meat will putrify and cause rot. On only flat WT bodyskins that dont have any soft tissues to worry about (like a cape), I do salt some unfleshed - then leave them overnight to drain, and flesh them the next day. The Salt tends to tighten up the membrane and make fleshing easier. BUT - I then resalt them for 2 more days, and then hang them to dry tight! You cant leave that meat on there to rot!