Hello,
My name is Marty and I have a little problem.I'm planning to go live in the bush of north western Canada in a few years. I plann to stay there for a year. The problem is this, I don't know how to preserve the skins of the animals I'll be eating.If you could educate me on this it would be verry appreciated....By the way I don't plann to bring alot of supplies on this trip.
thks in advance,
Marty
Flesh as off all meat and fat and then salt for 24 hours....
shake off salt and then re-salt....after that, hang
or fold (not roll) to dry and you should be good for
a few years!
Bruce or someone else can help you with what to spray
if mold and mildew appears...I cant recall, cause I
dont do much dry salting
Store in cool dry area.....how obvious....good luck
Mountain Man!
How would I preserve if I'm in the middle of no where with no salt or anything?(how did the Indiens do it before the whites came along with salt?)
Can't carry in a 25lb. bag of salt?
Not an Indian so I cant help there..
I'm Italian and can give you a great recipe for sauce!
but then again, you wont have any salt.
Think Indians did brain tanning!
Just wait here for an answer fron the Master, Bruce!
Good Luck out there!
Out!
If you want to learn an old method that does work (with some physical work) then I would suggest getting a book on brain tanning. With this method you use the natural fluids from the animal to do the tanning. There are also vegetable tans if you are in the right areas.
Dave
Put them on strechers if there fur animals let them dry make sure you flesh them good then remove them hang them up where its cool they will be alright big hides flesh and salt or like they said braintan that deer hides smaller hides use wire strechers or wood goodluck in the bush been there done that its great Robin
If your going to be out in the wilderness about the only way to halfway
preserve a hide would be the braintanning method...I believe there
is a website called www.braintanning.com or braintan.com...Now for the
big question...What in the world is this venture all about? Just curious
Do you want sovenirs or do you want to sell your furs to auction houses when you get out? If you want to sell your furs on the fur markets tanning will ruin fur value I believe. Just curious? gordon
Sorry there is not enough room on this whole forum for all the info you are going to need.One of the best collections of primitive living skills that I know of is a book by John and Geri McPherson.This book covers just about anything you would need.The title is,"naked into the wilderness"primitive living and survival skills.They also have a follow up titled primitive wilderness skills,applied and advanced.The last address I had was PRAIRIE WOLF,PO BOX 96 RANDOLPH,KS 66554.You could also do a net search for other purchase locations.Good luck!
you should find everything you need at this site.
-Brandon
http://www.wwmag.net/Pages/links.htm
Braintanning will work but it is a lot of hard work. Every animal has enough brains in its head to tan itself except buffalo's and teenagers. GOOD LUCK!
You do,Marty, don't make that camp site look like a moven set. When ya put that bag of salt under one arm, hang enough of Uncle Sam's greeny stickum tape and parachute cord on the other to build yourself a cache to store those furs, or ole Mr. caracajou gon' get som' to da hide himself. And worse, maurading bears and other critters will help themselves to your larder. You need to find reference for building a secure primative storage facility up in them thar woods.
You will find that salt and a lot of other things we take for granted in the lower forty eight are dearly priced in the Canadian north country. Bush pilots will resupply you, but the last time I did what you are going to attempt, the air freight was around $2.50 a pound, and that was eighteen years ago. Add up the weight of a case of cokes and figure what they will cost you out there. Salt ain't something the injuns packed around either. Salt is a dehydrater, not necessarily a curative. You can use the ashes from your campfire and salt leaches from ground water eruptions to dry the hides. The extremely dry air in the north country, coupled with the cool weather will dry your hides sufficiently to keep them. During the winter, ain't no amount of salt to keep the hides from freezing. If you don't have a warm, secure smoke room to thaw those critters out, you will have to stack them like cordwood until the spring thaw.
You will fight the whitefoots and the black flies all spring and the mosquitoes until you just give up and let them bite ya. Buy yerself a couple of good three or four blade pocket knives too. Them big single blade knives ain't worth a ding when ya break em. Multiple blade knives have spare tires, so to speak.
If you plan to trap all winter, you will have to case skin and reverse the pelts and let nature's freezer take care of them. You will be lucky to get them fleshed before they freeze to the shape of the stretcher board. This could go on forever, but I am stoppin here. Been there, done that. Any questions you might have, I will try to answer. The reference book "Caveman" suggested is a good one. There is also an arctic survival manual from the US armed forces that is excellent. A survival manual published in Whitehorse is also very good, although I can't recall the title.
Read up on "Beaver Fever" too, you are subject to contract it out there.........ah to be young again.....
Ya know you can always talk to me. Maybe, we should go camping and fishing. The campfire will always be ready......ta warm ya....
Drop me an E-Mail and I'll let you know why I want to do this!
THKS,
Marty