Hi Folks, a few questions which I couldn't seem to get answers for from the archives without making myself totally confused (not difficult)
A friend of mine has promised me a fox, which will one day become a head or pedestal mount, as such he will try to miss the head !
1. Should he put the whole thing straight into his freezer after gutting / cleaning it out? If so how should it be wrapped for freezing?
2. Should I say no, leave it somewhere cool and I will pick it up as soon as I can (would be within 3 hours of being shot)then I will skin it out.
3. After I skin it, is it ok to salt it for 24 hours, then remove the salt, slit the lips/eyes/ears etc then resalt it again 2 or even 3 more times?
4. When the hide is as dry as I can get it, how long will it keep this way before I have to tan it?
I dont have the opportunity to prepare it/mount it straight away,
I have access to salt granules as used in water softeners, which is of culinary quality, and approximately twice the size of normal table salt granules, would this be ok to use for salting? it has no additives as far as I know and is pure salt.
Gerry
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I forgot, when the fox is skinned, how far back down the neck/body should I go for a pedestal mount?
Lets see here first off the sooner you get that fox in shop the better. Keep the fox on ice till you can get to it. Three hours is no problem as long as it's kept as cool as possible.
Don't gut the fox out at all. Leave all entrails intact. The one nice thing about doing taxidermy is that I almost never touch them and there's no need to play with them LOL.
When you skin it you should split all parts then especially the ears. This way you will less of a chance of having hair slippage. Salt for 24 hrs shake off and then resalt for another 24 then hang to dry rock hard. You can keep them for over a year with no problems as long as it's kept in a dry cool place.
As for the salt I never used what you have but the finer the salt the better.
For pedestal mounts make the cut behind the shoulder.