Per the Van Dykes instructions I cleaned my pheasant in Coleman gas after fleshing and degreesing. It has been a week since I did that and the bird is rather stiff and crunchy. I have not mounted it yet. It is just hanging. Do I have a problem on my hands or can I just spray it down with water to loosen it up?
Thanks,
Dr. Mark Hale
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Doc, you need to stop following instructions I guess. Any PhD would know that Coleman fuel is a solvent and not a degreaser. All it's used for is to displace the water used in washing the bird so that when you tumble it, your sawdust/corncob grit doesn't get wet so quickly. I've found out long ago that spinning a bird in a washing machine and then blowing it off with compressed air works just as well without chancing burning my shop down.
REGARDLESS, once the bird is out of the Coleman fuel, it should be tumbled until the feathers AND JUST THE FEATHERS are dry. Then the bird is dusted with dry preservative or borax and MOUNTED IMMEDIATELY. My suggestion to you is to start all over. If that skin has dried to the head (as I suspect is has), you're in deep kimchi.
If I might add. George is telling you right. I'm not a pro by any means, but pheasants have pretty tough skin. You might be able to soak the bird in water a loosen things up again and continue, just to get the mounting experience. But I wouldn't be surprised if you had problems down the road.
I'm sure your busy and much of your time is accounted for, so instead of telling you to spend hours and hours of research you might buy a good quality video showing the process, by a pro and use the video for reference as needed. Good luck.