How long will a deer, antelope, coyote, etc. stay good in the freezer if all that's been done to it is salted and washed?
Return to Tanning Category Menu
I never salt and wash hides I put in the freezer. If you happened to wash the hides, dried the fur/hair, fleshed the hide, double salted it and let them dry for a few more days, then they are fine to freeze. But if you wash, and salt and then freeze immediately, you will probably be in trouble. Wet hides and salt do not freeze.
I never wash hides, only if there is a bloody spot, then I use toweling to remove as much blood as possible and then maybe some wet toweling to remove more of it. But then I salt the crap out of the area as well as the rest of the skin side after it is fleshed.
If you are tanning yourself, your hides will come out clean after you rehydrate them in a brine solution, and then put them in a pickle.
If you put wet, salty skins in a freezer, you're screwed. No April Fools Joke here.
So what should I do? They will be extra hides just in case, so I want as little extra work into them as possible. Thanks.
And what is actually considered "frozen green"?
Hi Troy, Once you have salted and dried a skin,it is no longer considered "green". It is now in a preserved state. I can't tell you what it is considered if it is salted and frozen wet, but I would assume it is a "green" hide.
Green hides are hides that are frozen without any salt, etc. We just mounted a deer that had been green-frozen for about 5 years. Other than some freezer burn on the ears, it was fine. My uncle recently brought me a bobcat that was the same way. Ears were a pain to work with, but otherwise, it turned out ok.
They don't have to be frozen to be considered a green hide (sorry for the confusion). A green hide is a hide that has been skinned off the animal and usually the ears/eyes/nose aren't turned (although sometimes they will be). Think RAW skin.