Storing Deer Hides

A Stack of Deer Hides

Hunting season has come and gone and I replenished my store of deer hides for another year. 

If possible, I flesh and scrape as many hides as possible in the fall so that I can dry them and store them like that the whole winter before I soften them when the warm days return.

However, I often get so many hides at once that I can't possibly deal with them all so I have to store them while they're still green.

Of course, you can always freeze your hides. However, even if we had a freezer that wouldn't be my preferred option as a hair-on hide takes a whole lot of room.

Just hanging the hides and letting them dry is not a great idea because the grain will dry into the skin and be extremely difficult to remove.




So my favorite option is to wet-salt each hide. Though it's not necessary to flesh the hide before salting it I generally do so because fleshing doesn't take that much time and there's less of a chance of the hide going bad if there are no big chunks of meat and fat attached to it. Still, in a pinch you can leave the hide unfleshed and salt it heavily.

Salted Hide

I use some cheap fine salt, generally called hay salt or solar mixing salt. It costs around ten dollars for a 50 pound bag, which should salt about 5 large hides.

While the hide is still green (not in color, which would mean it's rotting, but fresh or not dried out) I cover the entire surface with a thin layer of salt, making sure to unfurl any edges so as not to miss any spot. Don't skimp on it; a little too much is better than too little. Still, there's no need to have an inch thick of salt on the hide. Just a thin layer that covers everything will be great.

If I have a stack of hides to salt, I pile them fully open one over the other, flesh to flesh. If I have an odd number of hides I just fold the last hide in half. I tuck in any wild edges so that they do not dry and I wrap the whole stack in tarps so that there's no air flow.

 



I put the stack of salted hides at a slight incline so that they can drain (the salt will pull out some extra moisture so that if you store them in a container right away you'll end up with a pool of bloody liquid at the bottom).

Stored Hides

After about a week the draining should stop, at which point the hides will be ready to store for several months, or years even. I generally fold two hides together, still flesh to flesh, usually once lengthwise and once widthwise so that they form a neat little packet that can be lifted somewhat easily (they're still heavy!).

I usually store those salted hides in a large trash can with a lid until I need them.

 




When I do need them, I pull them out of their container and push out the extra salt, which I keep for the next time (that salt won't be as effective as brand new salt but it will do the job for a while anyway). Then I rinse the hide very thoroughly with a hose before I soak it to prepare it to be scraped (I'm working on a braintanning video right now to explain all the steps involved but it won't be ready for a while). Make sure all the salt is rinsed off or it will delay bacterial actions during soaking, and make sure the salt doesn't end up on some plants you'd want to keep alive.

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