Game processing centres
Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2021 9:34 pm
Something I started doing this year which has been *very* useful is hitting up a local game processing centre - initially for hides, but I've been getting all sorts of bones (whole legs, which give hock skins and sinew as well) and even a couple heads (mostly for the jawbones), chunks of deer fat to render for softening veg tan also. All totally free, since they're just industrial watmste to them. I've got probably 10 hides (some of which will make buckskin, some rawhide, some veg tan - i plan on keeping the thickest-furred one i get to make into a sleeping-fur also) and maybe 60 legs or so so far this year, and I'll maybe do one more run before the season closes on Dec 31st.
Unlike a lot of hunters who skin very poorly, these are skinned with a winch so there are no holes besides those of the shot/arrow (and those i put into the hides before I got better at scraping them...)
If anyone else has had issues getting hides - or just issues getting *enough* for a particular project, I highly reccomend trying this. Apparently some places in the states also have game check stations hunters have to bring their game to and they'll often trade the legs and skin for a skinning which might also be something to try - that's not a thing up here though so wasn't an option.
Unlike a lot of hunters who skin very poorly, these are skinned with a winch so there are no holes besides those of the shot/arrow (and those i put into the hides before I got better at scraping them...)
If anyone else has had issues getting hides - or just issues getting *enough* for a particular project, I highly reccomend trying this. Apparently some places in the states also have game check stations hunters have to bring their game to and they'll often trade the legs and skin for a skinning which might also be something to try - that's not a thing up here though so wasn't an option.