I am mounting a squirrel for the first time and I have been watching serious sportsmen video of the squirrel mount. They use borax and dry preservatives to preserve the hide instead of tanning. Does the dry preservatives really work or does the sqirrel hair and skin start to breakdown after a few years?
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Yes it works, as for a tree rat thats all I would do for your first one anyway. Make sure you get ALL the flesh this is what causes the mount to attract bugs and ultimatly falling to pieces. Good luck
It finally did deteriorate....when the house burned down around it. I still DP small game.
But alway remember that's it's still a raw hide and if it's near an area with high humidity it can rehydrate the skin and begin to rot. It's unlikely to happen but it has and will do it.
Other wise go for but unlike most folks I respect a tree rat and tan there hides.
WATCH YOUR BACK!!
I just finished my first mount using dry preservative myself. I also used borax(20 mule team) After skinning the squirrel I put the dry preserve on it and then cleaned all the meat off the skin. There wasn't much. After cleaning it up, I rinsed it in warm water (not too hot!) with a capful of dish soap and a scoop of Oxiclean. Then I rinsed it in cool water to get the soap out of it. After that I put mor borax onto the skin while I prepared the manikin for the skin. Once the manikan was ready I made sure the skin was cover with borax. I then shook off the extra and mounted the skin.
Hope this helps you out.
Good luck!