how long before a dead animal is too old to skin? What should you do after a kill to prepare before skinning?
I shot a raccoon in my backyard but unfortunately it managed to get under the house before it died. I only just found it, about a week and a half later. It was already starting to rot and lose fur. I know it is way too late for this one, but what is generally the limit and the ideal time? what should you do in preparation after a kill for skinning an animal?
I am a long time Alaskan fur trapper.
If you properly skin an animal most tanners will only charge between $19 and $30 for each tanning. However, if you are squeaminsh, unskilled, or plain just do not do a good job – the tanner has to spend time doing more fleshing than normal – expect them to charge the full amount of $70 or more for fox sized critters.
Ideally you should freeze the animal for a few hours before skinning. This helps solidify the fatty tissues and make them easier to remove while skinning. How long between kill to skin depends on the temperature. If you do not have time to skin – put it in a plastic bag and freeze it. Takes about 8 hours of defrosting before you can do much – the beauty to freezing is the guts etc are rock solid and it is a much more pleasant chore. Most trappers have a freezer outdoors just for this purpose.
If you don’t have a freezer or time – you have about 2-3 days if it is kept in a cool dry place. Just leave it whole and don’t mess with it. Wrap it in two plastic black garbage bags – the black ones are chemically treated with pesticides (which is why you never use plastic bags for game meat).
The best way to skin is called ‘casing’ because you are going to remove the hide like it was a sausage case. Lots of links online about how to accomplish this. With casting you never open the gut cavity.
Once the hide is removed from the animal go over it remove any exess fat and flesh and install it on a stretcher – fur side in. This can be a wire stretcher or a simple one made from two pieces of wood. The hide needs to be somewhere it can dry out quick…….. if it stay damp, it will breed bacteria or mold and rot. Some hides, like rabbits, never need salt but any with allot of fat will. Don’t go overboard – but don’t skimp. Nthing worse than a $200 hide ruined for lack of $.10 worth of salt – and be sure to use the non-iodiozed type. (otherwise the skin side of the hide can get a blue discoloration). In a pinch – yeah – any salt is better than no salt.
What is very important – do not hang it on the strecher and forget it! It should be 90-95% dried out in two days – when it gets close to day 2 be sure to check it. You want to turn the hide back out so the fur is on the outside for the last 10% of drying. If the hide is 100% dried – this can be tricky.
Once the hide it totally dried – look over all the ends for any stray pieces of fat or meat. These will show up shinny. Remove them.
A dried hide will have almost no odor – and is good kept this way for 6 months to a year. You only want to keep a dried hide long enough to get all your hides for the year shipped in one package if possible. If you wait more than a year good chance the fur will not be as nice and start to fall out in the tanning process.
Hope this helps.
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