Stopping point on deer capes?

It is alright, It is best to give the hide a coat of stop rot before you refreeze it. Use stop rot on the hair of the face and ears then a liberal coat on the rest of the cape. NEVER SALT AND FREEZE!

 

You don't need Stop-Rot. I've been doing deer for 35yrs, never used it. Turn the ears, lips and eyes. Flesh off all the excess meat and fat ,copious amounts of salt ASAP. Let them hang to dry, then store till ready to use. Just use common sense and the hides will be fine. Good Luck...........John

 

Wayne you just need to be careful, remember every time you take out a skin and thaw it out there is always a chance for bacteria once the hide gets warm so you have to work rather quickly, I mean you cant take hours to work on it then freeze it then thaw it again. I used to cape my deer then freeze them but I got away from that. Now I cape them then split and turn and flesh and salt. I let them dry and when I'm ready I rehydrate and pickle and tan. Works great for me

 

Why cant you freeze them with salt?

 

When I first started out I put them in the freezer salted, they wouldn't freeze. I'd take them out and they were still wet. Salt lowers the freezing point.

 

When you go to re-freeze them. Roll the ears and face up into the center of the hide. Keeps the ears and face from freezer burn if you don't get back to it for a while.

 

Next time cape those heads out right away so you don't have the antlers in the freezer poking you everytime you reach in for a pizza & some sangaria.

Either way mentioned will work for you. Thaw cape out, stop rot it, freeze or cape & salt. I treat every cape with stop rot now so while I'm fleshing/turning/splitting, its got no chance of slipping.

As for using SR on the facial hair, its not for the hair, he's suggesting you brush the face to protect the dermis from slipping on the face under the hair, wich would make the facial hair fall out as well.

 

I personally don't like thawing and re-freezing, there was a fairly long thread on this recently. If you don't have time to split and turn when you get them in then freezing is fine but you should at least take a few minutes and cape them. If you take a cape out then take the time to split, turn, and flesh, then you can salt dry and keep for a long time. Freeze thaw re-freeze, its just asking for trouble. IMO.

 

The short hair on the face and ears will thaw out very quick, They will be thawed and warm for an hour or 2 before you can actually cape it that is why i would recommend the stop rot. It is fairly cheap and saves capes! It's a no brainer

 

You can't freeze with salt. Think of salting your driveway and walkway. Salt melts ice.

I was also under the impression that you should lie the cape flat in the freezer, so that the face freezes faster. If you roll it into a ball, the raw face will still be warm and take longer to freeze, which could lead to slip.

Just a beginner and all, but some advice.

 

You are all missing the part

Thaw them out. Spray with Stop Rot as suggested. Cape deer and then freeze.

Do some research and then on the last one go ahead and turn everything. You have to start sometime and you might as well start now.
I say use stop rot as a beginner it takes a lot longer to cape and turn something than what it take someone who has been doing it for years.

 

Another option is to take one out and start it. Learn how to turn ears, lips, ect. The longer they sit whole in the freezer the more they burn and dry out. You will make things harder than they need to be. Been there. Now , I like krow tan. I do all my basic prep work , and run it through the krow tan process, then freeze. Will do my final shaving when
I'm ready to start the mount. Sounds like you have a freezer full, the only way to get hands on is hands on. Watch Rick Carter's A to Z video and go for it.
Krow tan gives me the wiggle room I need and I am very pleased with the results.
You can also make a cape snake out of a truck tire tube and a nylon strap or two. Helps stretch cape.


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Youtube has good videos. A video will help a ton more than just pics. But even better is seeing things done live, in person. Maybe call a local taxidermist and ask to sit in while they skin and turn a cape? I did this (well, I was purchasing from him, and had him tan a cape for me, so he was cool about showing me a little of what I'd not done completely when turning the lips and he showed me all of the ear-splitting process.) Live action was even better than videos, but videos were better at just pics, for me. Once you can do it, those capes can come out of the freezers and get salted. It is good that you don't want to just jump in and slit up the lips and blow out or tear the ears; I can't say enough about how helpful it was to watch the process in person.