This is all new to me so please don't laugh. After I remove the deer hide from the freezer and defrost in ref. do I flesh and start picking. Or do I have to flesh, salt then pickel? I am using Rittel's EZ 100.
John, after you remove the hide from the freezer, flesh the hide well. Then salt the hide for at least 24 hours. After that you need to wash the hide well in dawn and lysol. Rinse the hide next to make sure you have all your salt out of the hair. Then make sure your PH is right in your pickel and let the hide set in the pickel for at least 48 hourd. Hope this was of some help.
Ok John I see your on your way. But before you start I would suggest you have a book or a video on hand and read though it till you know it. It only helps to get as much knowledge you can get on this. Or you can get a whole lot of info from the search button and archives on this. But to give you a quick run down here we go.
After it's thawed yes you need to flesh it.
It is advisable to salt the hide over night and then shake it off and resalt for another 24 hours. Also I rather dry my hides solid before I go the next step but you can skip this but I would suggest you dry it first. If you read the archives you will read about why we dry the hides first.
After you dry them, they will need to be rehydrated in a solution of a pound of salt to a gallon of water. It may take a few hours to rehydrate the hide. If you don't dry the hides then skip this step.
You will then place then in a pickle. There are many on the market. I like Saftee-acid for my pickle solution but others have luck with formic, etc.
I would leave it in the pickle for about 3 days. This will plumb up the hide so that you can shave it down. You will shave it till you hit a blue coloration in the skin. Stop there that is far enough. If you go any farther you will cut though the skin and hair follicles. After you shave it place it back in the pickle over night.
Take it out of the pickle and neturalize it in a solution of baking soda and water for about 15 min. Then rinse and you will then be ready to tan your hide.
Hi John. I learned taxidermy back in the '50's from the Northwestern
School (still have the complete set of instruction books) and am in
the process of relearning. I'm a hobbiest doing small mammal LS right
now. The last deer head I did was back in 1963 for my girlfriend's
father. I recommend getting the video: Whitetail Deer Shoulder
Mount: A to Z with Sallie Dahmes. Most videos start with a tanned
hide or show the skinning but skip the tanning part. Sallie's video
starts with logging in the head (if you have a shop) through measuring,
skinning, fleshing and salting, tanning, shaving, ear work, form prep,
mounting and final finishing and grooming. I personally think it's
the best place to start. WASCO also has deer manuals that contain
additional information. If you can't stand next to someone while
they actually do the work the video is the next best thing.
Good luck,
Glenn