coming into some material. need some advice.

[mhof86]

Hey guys,

So I just found a guy who got a couple deer hanging and only wants the meat. He said I can help myself to everything else. I plan on taking the hides and tendons. That being said I have never processed any of this and am not sure how to go about all of it.

I will read up on brain tanning and harvesting the tendons. What I am looking for is, with the holidays coming up and time almost non-existant how should I spend my time? I dont want to lose any of the material but dont know if I have all the time to process it all. Would I want to get the hides done first and then work on the tendons or am I over thinking it.

I am in southeast michigan and temps are dipping well below freezing at night and low to mid 30s during the day.

Thanks for the advice,
Matt

[Aaron H]

Osage outlaw just did a great how-to on collecting deer leg sinew. 


http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,49489.0.html

[Gus]

If you have the Freezer Space, harvest the Hides and Sinew, Bag em and Freeze em...
Once the Holidays are over thaw out what you want to work on and get busy.



-gus

[osage outlaw]

Scrap deer meat makes some great catfish bait to.  I caught a 30 lb catfish on deer meat.

[mullet]

So does the liver, kidney and heart if you don't eat it. Good gator bait, too.

[mhof86]

Thanks guys I was hoping I could freeze it without any ill effects. Falcon I have read through that tutorial a couple times and will again before I start.

I would have to visit the Toledo zoo for the gators up here and I dont think they would appreciate that to much mullet lol. The catfish though might be a little easier.

[the barkman]

You could always salt those hides.

[the barkman]

Also a good resource to learn about brain tanning is: http://www.paleotechnics.com/buckskinbookpage.html
 They also have literature on bark tanning, and Steve Edholm has an interesting blog for homesteaders- mostly about growing older and rare heirloom crops and some underwoodsman theory and practice: http://turkeysong.wordpress.com/

[JackCrafty]

The way I did it was to put the hides in a solution (to make the hair slip) and then get the tendons cut and hung to dry while the hides soaked.  I did all this in cold weather but not freezing.  Freezing will delay the process but won't mess up your deer.  You just need to make sure nothing starts smelling bad.

This is what I did in 2009 (when I gained access to lots of free deer parts):  I processed about 4 deer at a time.  4 hides soaking and all the tendons cut and hung to dry on the first day.  Then waited three days and scraped two hides and hung to dry on day five.  The next day took out the remaining two hides and processed those.  That's 6 days.  I processed about 16 deer over a period of a couple months in that one year.  And I didn't use a freezer.  I picked up four deer at a time from the processor.

[Stixnstones]

I would put em in the freezer than u could work on em when u have time, also there is a place close to u in lambertville called Indian Creek Petting Zoo they have two gators who would love those scraps. I worked there for 2 years and now work at the Toledo Zoo. I also live in Lambertville

[mhof86]

Thanks for the insight guys. I will get working on it and let ya know how it goes.