Canadian Trappers Talk Forum

I plan on brain/smoke tanning a moose hide next spring to make moose buck skin. I will be freezing it this fall once the hide is off the animal til the spring. Should I flesh the hide before freezing? Should I remove the hair before freezing? Should I remove hair and flesh then soak in brain mixture then freeze? Due to hunting and trapping I won't be spending valuable time on the moose hide when I could be putting up yotes.

Thanks
Bill

I would make a frame and stretch the hide on a frame,do this after the temps are below freezing for the winter.Then you can frost scrape the hide whenever you have some spare time.If you are tanning a moosehide you will have an easier time doing it in quarters,but you could do a whole hide also.Just that the size and weight of a full hide make it cumbersome to work.

I would take about 3 cups of lime and dissolve it in enough water that would cover the hide completely. Stir the mixture every day for a week. Pull it out of the water and then scrape the hair right off of the complete hide. Rinse the hide out really well with several clean rinses of fresh water and then nail it down to a couple sheets of plywood. elevate one end slightly and lace it with a whole bunch of table salt. You will need to do this every day until the hide is completely dry. You have now killed all of the protein in the hide and the tanning chemicals will now join with the remaining fibers. The hide can be stored in its dry phase like this until you are ready to tan it. Rehydrate it in a salt water solution to get it back to its soft state.