Rotten previously frozen deer hides

[BQw_Hunter_06]

I recently returned from a weeks vacation and while I was out our garage freezer (which contained 3 deer hides) went out from a recent storm. Once we returned home I immediately went to the garage to check the hides...completely thawed out and the smell was horrendous! As my FIL and I removed the hides from the freezer bags we noticed the hair was coming right off but the hides were still tan in color. A few dark spots here and there but not too much rott damage from my untrained eyes. Unprepared and still in our florida vacation clothes (barefoot and no gloves) we rinsed them off since we thought it would still be possible to make buckskin from what's left. We fleshed what we could and removed what hair we could at the time as we were dry heaving as we worked past 2am . I happened to have some ash for DIY buck skin so we decided to make the ash lye and soak the hides in there for a few days instead of throwing away or taking to a taxi and sparring his stomach.

Now that the hides are in the lye solution I'm starting to second guess if the hides will be workable if I or a taxi does the buckskin or should we just "take one for the team" and discard the hides? We've already lost the meat from the past years harvest due to the freezer going out. I don't want to lose the hides as well if we don't have to.

If anyone has any past experience I welcome every bit of it.

Thank you!

[austinRecurve]

Won't hurt to try. They might still be good.

Have you read the book Deer Skins to Buckskins? After they soak in the ash (or lime) you have to remove the remaining hair and the top grain of skin by scraping. Then rinse. Then soak in eggs (or brains), rinse and then pull and stretch the hide as it dries.

[BQw_Hunter_06]

I'm throwing up a few prayers they are still in some working condition. I have the book sitting on my night stand and DVD for reference. I'll have to document the process and see where it end up.

[furtrapper]

If the hair was slipping off you didn't need to soak it in the ash, you might not have buckskin but you get some rawhide out of it. I would skip the lye soak and soak them in a strong salt solution.

[BQw_Hunter_06]

They have some hair still on the hide so I'll keep them in the solution for now until I figure out my next step with them. Plus the smell is still terrible so I need to keep it contained.

[DPElite]

What are you doing with the hides? For a mount or what?

[BQw_Hunter_06]

Was going to get buckskin from these hides...

[DPElite]

Oh ok got ya just thought I would ask

[60 Deluxe]

Take it from an old tanner. If a skin has slipped the hair and smells terrible, you have nothing to work with. I sent a whole semi truck load to the landfill once when the market dried up and the skins got old. Mine were salt cured which will keep them for a couple of months until the red heat sets in and the beetles show up. You probably gained this knowledge a couple of months ago.