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    Elk Hide Care

    I went hunting in NM with my son and we got a couple cow elk. My son wanted to have one of the elk hides tanned so we brought it home planning on taking it to North Texas Tannery and having it tanned.

    I called this morning and the answering machine said that they weren't taking any new frozen hides until January, I couldn't talk to a real person. The hide is in my deep freeze but my processor just called saying that both elk were processed and now I need the freezer space for the meat.

    I read a little about salt preserving but I have some questions on how to do it.

    Does the hide need to be completely free of meat and fat to preserve it with salt? Basically how thorough do I need to be with it?

    I don't have any specific fleshing knives, do I need to try and find some or can I use a regular hunting knife?

    After covering with salt what would you store the hide in until the tannery is ready to take it? How long will it store salted?

    Thanks guys.

    #2
    keep it frozen at home.....the processor might take a little two week delay to store your meat for you

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      #3
      Take any knife and spend some time, it will take a while, and cut off all meat and fat. lay it all out, hair down, making sure you got all of it off. Salt it. I’d use probably 2-3 big containers if it’s the full body. Make sure you get the salt spread around evenly and thoroughly. If you don’t think you have enough salt on it, add some more. Roll back up, but try to keep from losing too much salt. Store in cool dry place. As long as you get the meat/fat off and salted you can keep the hide for a decent amount of time as long as it’s not in the sun or getting hot.

      If you can’t do this, call a taxi, as most have a walk in freezer with enough room to hold your hide or have them send it off to be tanned.
      Last edited by diamond10x; 12-23-2020, 12:26 PM.

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        #4
        Or buy another small freezer just for these occasions. You can find them pretty cheap many times. New or used. And you could always re sell it after your done. I keep one just for hunting and taxidermy stuff.

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          #5
          Originally posted by critter69 View Post
          Or buy another small freezer just for these occasions. You can find them pretty cheap many times. New or used. And you could always re sell it after your done. I keep one just for hunting and taxidermy stuff.
          This

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            #6
            I grabbed an extra freezer @ Lowes in Mckinney for less than $200 I believe... Plenty big enough for the hide (7 cu.ft.) and the overflow of elk meat.

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              #7
              Click image for larger version

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              I went this route for the hide off my daughters first deer. Just got it in the mail yesterday. She wants to help so it should be fun. It’s got directions on the bottle but for a elk hide it suggest more than one bottle. They sell larger sizes as well.

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