I don't normally do black bear but I have a friend who wanted me to try his trophy. I have done deer and every other animal. My question is, I have skinned, turned the lips,ears and nose, and even fleshed the cape with a flesher to get all the fat and meat off. I have salted it for 5 days changing the salt every 24 hours and the hide is still not getting rock hard. Do I need to keep salting the cape until it is rock hard or have I salted it enough to go to a pickle?
I do not want to ruin my buddies cape, any help would be great, thanks in advance.
Travis Henson
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Check them for a plethora of answers to your questions. Where are you attempting to dry this hide? Outside, inside, under what humidity? I just salted a bobcat last night in the shop indoors, and it is already almost dry enough to hang. It is very dry now indoors with the outside being -10 each night. YOUr bear should start to look white and feel dry to the touch on the outside, and the salt should start falling off it when you brush it with your hand. You can put a fan on it to speed up the drying process, but unless you are taking wet salt off your hide, it should be dry enough to hang by now. I would dry that sucker rock hard, before I rehydrate it in a brine, and then pickle. Make sure you rehydrate it first. Also, you will need to degrease the bear, an additional step not needed for deer. Make sure you do this. Rittels sells a degreaser. I don't tan my own bears, they're big, greasy and thin skinned and better dealt with by a commercial tannery in my opinion.
Thanks for the info. The temperature I am salting the hide in is between 45 and 55 degrees. This is in my shop. Should I raise the temperature in the shop to accomadate drying or is the temperature ok. I don't normally heat the shop but I have a heater. The cape is bone white and feels dry to the touch however is flexible and not dry. I will put the fan on it to get it going faster, thanks.
Travis
Bears are thinner skinned animals with a lot of grease. All of the bears i've done don't dry white hard like a whitetail. They are dry but still are pliable. Most tanneries will tell you a week of salt drying is enough, send them out.