Is it normal for a buffalo hide to have no hair from about the mid back to the butt and hip area. I think it was killed by a meat processing plant about 4 weeks ago and when I got it thawed out I noticed that it barely had any hair behind the shoulders. It only had a couple of patches of hair about the size of your fist. I don't have any experience with buffalo hides but I'm assuming that since it was killed in the summer it had shed all of it's hair. Is this the case? Thanks, Ryan
Return to Gamehead Taxidermy Category Menu
A summer hide is not going to be worth your trouble and a buffalo is not something you are going to want to to tan yourself. Get a prime winter hide and send it to a tannery.
They do shed like any other mammal, and the summer coat will be much thinner than a big winter prime buff, but if you're looking at bare skin, that's due to spoilage and resulting hair slippage. You may be able to salvage part of the hide, but like Ron said, it's a ton of work, and expensive, for someting that's gonna turn out lousy anyways.
Unless the hair was so short that I wasn't able to find it even when I was running my finger nails right up against the skin, it didn't have any except for the fow clumps I mentioned before. Thanks for the responses. Ryan