I know the archives are full of this but let me try anyway. I have dealt with your typical freezer burn many times but this one has got me. I have a beaver that when completely thawed is still completely solid and burnt. No flexibility at all except a little on the stomach. I tried to skin, no actually I carved part of it out and realized it's so stiff I can't even skin it. I don't think it's worth trying to inject the entire beaver. Any suggestions? - Thanks
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1 lb salt per gallon of warm water and a splash of Stop-Rot. Let soak until pliable. I'm willing to bet you will still have to inject the toes, tail and ears. Good luck.
I had an antelope last week that was stored 3 yrs. whole with no bag. Tried skinning like you, the thing was a ball of fur, so with nothing to lose soaked overnight in acid salt pickle, skinned out the middle of next day sprayed the whole hide with stop rot after skinning and refroze to let stop rot work until i get at it later.
Did not turn ears but soaked with stop rot, no slippage yet and seemed to rehydrate well in pickle and stop rot improved the rehydration after skinning. This is kind of an experiment in progress, will probably tan in the next two months. This was an unskinned head, so head and horns were in the pickle.
nothing to lose so you put your mad scientist hat on
let us know how you made out
i did some radical things with a elk cape recently that i had nothing to lose
it seams the stop-rot,wtds acid,and Uncle Georges wisdom got me through
I've always used jrts cream, bought stop rot last summer, I've been trying to follow you and George's conversations on these type's of hide situations. I have been running into more and more warm weather situations in the last few years, which from what I gather you guys deal with daily. This is the worst freezer burn yet, but I have a theory that may have set the hair. I will try to post the results this summer, while working on this order. Thanks
I recently got in a pair of otters that were very similar in the stage of freezer burn you mentioned. I took Stop Rot and injected both everywhere I could stick a needle. I then took them whole and put them in a safety acid pickle for a couple of days but checked the progress often. Once they started to soften up, I then skinned them and put them back into the pickle for a couple more days. I then close fleshed them and put one back in the pickle before EZ100 tan and auto-tanned the other. They both came out fine with no hair loss.
do you think the freezer burn(dry)set the hair? Antelope at least with my experience can be prone to slippage and there thinner skinned than otters, but otters are greaser and you had good luck.
I do know the burn was so bad I never considered being able to salt them to set the hair. I traded for the otters and learned the hard way to be sure and ask plenty of questions before you trade with anyone you don't know. They had been thrown in a chest freezer for a couple of years in just a large garbage bag. I thought they weren't thawing out because they were still rock hard when I thought they should be thawed and pliable.The fat layer was actually "crunchy"! I would guess the burn on the ears and face actually set the hair and kept them from slipping after 2 days of thawing. I would not recommend using this technique to replace good care and salting for setting hair.LOL