I am a nuisance alligator hunter in Louisiana, and have hunted alligators for over 20 years. I have kept skins for a while, several months or more, until sale, always salted well and frozen or refrigerated, but this year I want to keep the nuisance hides until the end of the regular season . . . the nuisance calls have already started for the year, in fact I skinned one today and have another call in the morning, and the regular season ends at the beginning of October, so the length of time I want to keep them is from now until October. Now, when I kept them before, as I said I salted and froze or refrigerated them, but this year I want to try to salt them well, roll them up, and pack them surrounded in salt, in buckets, in a cool dark place(room temperature) until October. It seems like I have heard of hides being kept in barrels like this, and hell, it works to keep salt pork fit for human consumption, so I figure it would be OK. Can anyone help me out here and advise me so as to keep me from doing something I shouldn't?
Also, I recall years ago going into a slaughter house and seeing what looked like a rotary knife, and I assumed it was for skinning. Does anyone know if these things are used for skinning, and if there is a model made that isn't cost prohibitive to purchase? It seems like it would be just the ticket to skin alligators without nicking the hides.
I use a piece of 1" PVC about 6" or so long to scrape the hide, scraping it with the end in a stabbing/scraping motion, which works OK....anyone have any hints that might would help me out here?
Many thanks!
Bubba Phillips
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I flesh with a 3000
I flesh with a 3000 # pressure washer, salt real
good and roll up and pack in a plastic barrel.
No trouble lasting at least a year.
No pressure washer? Take a race from a bearing,
about 2 1/2 in. diamiter weld a peace of 1/2 in.
conduit about 10 in long on one side and sharpen
the other side----
Stewart,
Thanks a million for the reply. You know, I had a fellow tell me yesterday that he knew a taxidermist who fleshed (skins in general, not alligators per se) with a bench grinder with a wire brush wheel, and I was gonna give that a try as I wanted something that didn't take so much actual elbow grease . . . burn gasoline, not glycogen, I always say! I tell you, I am gonna give this water blaster thing a try, even if I have to go to the car wash to do it and I guess I will have to buy a pressure washer!
I really appreciate your help here...I packed a couple well fleshed, well salted skins in salt today in a plastic bucket, and put them in my utility room. I never had any concern on the quality of fleshing until now cuz I always simply salted and refrigerated them, but now that I am trying to leave them non-refrigerated I want to make sure they are well preserved. This time, I skinned and fleshed these, soaked them in strong, ice-cold brine about 36 hours, shook the water off and hung them to drain for about an hour, salted them well and placed them on a moderately slanted piece of plywood (these were less than 8 feet) for about 36 hours to dry out some more, shook the wet salt off and re-salted them real good, rolled them up and packed them in salt in plastic buckets. I can't believe that this will not work, especially considering that you have managed to keep unrefrigerated hides for a year.
Again, Stewart, many, many thanks! If I can ever be of any assistance to you, please do not hesitate to ask!