skin rips too easy

I just mounted a pintail for a guy and had a hell of a time getting the fat off the skin without ruining it. I couldnt even use my feather flesher in fear that it may eat it. This is the first pintail I have mounted, are they always this easy to rip or did this bird either sit in the freezer too long or was it not cooled down fast enough. I can see this guy leaving it in the sun too long prior to freezing. It was a pain in the butt, and I still did not get all of the fat off of it in fear of ripping it so much that it would be pointless to mount. I explaind to the customer what problems I was having and he chose for me to continue to mount it inspite of the possibility of fat bleed through. It did turn out relly nice even though I was ready to throw it in the garbage a number of times.

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Sounds about right

If you think the pintail is rough, you'd better get a lot more practice on that wheel before your first greenwing or wood duck hen comes in.

Ive done those

I've done greenwings and woodies, and they are not as bad as this pintail was. Even sewing was a pain in the butt. The thread ripped through way to easy. I really believe this bird was damaged by either long term freezing or sitting in the sun on a boat seat too long. If your saying that Greenwings and woodies are worse then a pintail I know something was not right. The thing is that it didnt seem to have any other signs like freezer burn. The feet were pretty dry though. This was not an adult bird. At best it was an imature drake, could that have been the problem?

try salting skin after skinning

let sit overnight in refrigerator then degrease on wheel the salt will toughen up the skin and make it a lot easier to degrease, stephan savides little trick it works great!

Could it be lead poisonong.

I have done a few ducks over the years and a few that have lead poisonong seem to have little or no fat and the skins are tenderer, like you mentioned. Normally you will find a infected looking liver, pus pockets.

thanks

I will try the salt next time.

I dont think it was a lead poison problem because this bird had plenty of fat and apeared to be very healthy otherwise.

Thanks for your help guys.

Pintail tear

....How did you skin your Pin tail did you severe the tail butt first or the base of the neck?...Lloyd