Tanning Hides

[AmericanThunder]

I apologize in advance if this has been addressed already, but I couldn't find it in the older posts.

 

I want to start predator hunting/trapping and would love to learn how to tan a hide for just my own personal use as a wall hanger as well as if I were to sell them. Where can I go to learn how to do this? Any good books to read on it? Thanks!

[YoteHunter]

youtube is where I learned. I am far from a pro

[Critter]

Vandykestaxidermy, midwayusa, thetanneryinc.com, etc... are all sites where you can buy self hide tanning kits. The kits come with all the tanning crystals and almost everything you need to make it simple. I used a kit from "thetanneryinc.com" and tanned an Elk hide my first time ever. Boy was that a mistake. What a sloppy, nasty, stinky mess of an elk hide that was laying in my garage right after a kill for two weeks. And fleshing it took forever. Had to re-hydrate it after salting/drying in a large tote then dump out the bloody water a few times. Literally... this lady walking her dog down the street watched me dump out a large tote of potent, stinky, bloody red water down the driveway... as the blood red water ran down my driveway and into the street I stood there and looked at her while wearing an apron, dustmask, nitrile gloves. The sloppy elk hide sort of fell out of the tote as she looked at me like I had 10 heads. This lady must've thought I had just murdered and cut up someone due to the look she gave me. Anyway...

 

But that is the extreme.... Coyotes, fox, bobcats I wouldn't think would be too bad but I have not actually tanned them myself. I have skinned, fleshed, salted and dried a lot of coyotes and typically once they are dry I just put them in a small box and send off to the tannery and let them deal with it. The kits are around $30... the tannery charges around $30... so it's not much of a cost saver to do it yourself but could be if you are doing a lot of them at once or maybe you just want to do it as hobby and something to learn.

 

I would advise against trying an elk hide on your first attempt -hah.

[Hyperwrx]

You can have a fox or bobcat garment tanned for around $35 from USAFOXX.com and they do all the work. I have had some coyotes done, a badger, a few fox, and 1 bobcat. They do fantastic work.

[Hyperwrx]

Edit- I just looked. Its cheaper. You flesh it and ship them the bare hide.

 

$28.00

*Bobcat, *Lynx, *Otter (*Must have CITES tag on pelts)

$24.00 Badger, Coyote, Farm Fox $22.00 Red Fox, Grey Fox, Fisher

[AntlerObsession]

Clean the flesh off, salt the hide, massage in a mixture of equal parts water and brain, and leave rolled up skin on skin for a week. Rinse and uioila!!!

[AmericanThunder]

Thanks for the info everyone.

[Critter]

Plus factor in freight. To ship a coyote pelt in a small 7" by 7" box I've paid around $9 usually through fedex. I also use USAA and they charge you $15 to freight it back to you... $15 or $20... cant remember but they have a minimum freight fee. It ends up being about a $50 ordeal to send it off. I've sent lots to Usaa fox in Duluth and also golden state tannery in CA. Both do a good job. Usaa fox has a 30 day rapid tan which costs a little more but if you're not in a hurry just go with the normal tan which can take 3 months or so. Ideally, you'd send a few at a time to save on shipping. No harm in losing it once it is dried out you can store it until you have a few more pelts to send.

[Hyperwrx]

I have a red fox taken in NE Arizona I need to have done.

[Critter]

I wanna see pic of the red fox! you might be one of few to have taken one in Az. that is awesome.

[Hyperwrx]

The Northeast corner of the state, up on the Navajo Reservation has a few small pockets of Red Fox. Back 20 years ago we had them across the upper end of the state. Gerry Blaire speaks of calling them in above Flagstaff. Now a very small population exists. Pretty soon I imagine they'll all be gone from our state. Here is mine on my garage wall, along side a typical grey fox. They reds we have are nothing compared to the pretty ones from elsewhere in the US. Those are called Cherry reds and fetch a nice price in the fur market. The fox above is worth about $20 in the fur market. I keep it more for a conversational piece.

 

Some guys will say they've seen one elsewhere in the state but I think they mistake a red chested grey fox for a real red. Looking at the 2 here you can visibly see the difference.

 

[Critter]

That's a beautiful fur. Bigger than a grey also. Should do a rug out of it.