Deer Question

[azcruiser]

Have about 3 week till my deer hunt down in the Chiricahua Mountains AZ south of Wilcox .Last year we got 3 COOS White Tails their kind of small as deer go but best eating deer in my opinion.Last year we didn't use the skins.But I'm thinking about
getting mine tanned this year Questions
1 Hair on Or hair off
2 Names of places that do tanning ?
and recommendations
3 cost ?

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

My Momma use to "tan my hide" when I was "mis-behaven"[smilie=b:

We got a spike muley coming into town to visit too!

[Echo]

I have absolutely NO experience in this matter, but if it were me, I think I would have them tanned hair off, and have some gloves made.

[waksupi]

Don't tan hair on. They will shed forever, as will any hollow haired hide.

[azcruiser]

Shawn if you in the area will be on Turkey Creek RD guessing 2nd camp ground .Look for a 32ft toy hauler white Chevy DIESEL with 3 or 4 old guys sitting by a fire. Or in the National Forest off the road that goes east past SUNGLOW RANCH and then over the hill and down to the flats
same thing 3 or 4 old guys sitting by the fire.Stop by talk guns reloading casting Diesel

[44man]

Long ago I used to get all of my skins made into buckskin, it was cheap. I still have a pile of boxes in three colors and made a lot of great stuff from them.
Then prices started to really go up, I think I was paying 75 cents a square foot at first. The company went out of business years ago and it has been a shame to toss the skins.
There are places that buy them but it isn't worth the gas.
Try a search on line or make buckskin yourself, there are a lot of books. Trouble is that the skin will need smoked after tanning and they are a bear to soften first. They get hard as a board if left to dry so all the fibers need broken down as they dry.
Once smoked, rain will not stiffen the leather.
I did it once and made a bunch of little bags with string closures to carry .22's, etc in. Stuff lasts forever. I made a lot of gloves and you will be surprised how much leather it takes for a pair.
I found a book on brain tanning but have not tried it.

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

Good luck cruiser . . . If I make it over that I'd be surprised, but DO keep a look out for illegals, they carry guns too . . .

[runfiverun]

some of the boy scout troops collect the skins out here, they might in your area also.

[azcruiser]

illegals, Not a worry 1-old guy retired police officer 1-old guy retired Army corp eng 1-old guy make a living in shooting sports -me I got paid shooting all over the world I feel safe PLUS I'm good AND I'm Lucky =thats hard to beat

[frankenfab]

I have 2 hides my dad had tanned with the hair and all. I don't know where he had them done. But they do not shed, and they look great draped over the back of a leather recliner.

[gon2shoot]

Only ever had one hide tanned hair on that didnt shed

[firefly1957]

My father also had a deer hide tanned with hair on it did not shed until his dog got a hold of it.

[JIMinPHX]

You actually FOUND coos deer down there? I've never even seen one of them live. The only place that I ever see them is stuffed & mounted at Cabellas in Glendale. I always figured that it was a hoax, like the jackalope. I figured that someone just mounted some fawns & called them a separate, smaller species.

For that matter, how do you tell a mature coos doe from a regular white tail fawn? Bucks, I can understand, but a doe?????


As for tanning, I looked into it about 8 or 10 years ago. It's a lot of work & a fair amount of mess. Once you get past boiling the brains to make your tanning fluid, then the real work starts. I gave up on it myself. My little brother kept at it & did a few hides. Just like a lot of other people have been saying, the one deer hide that he didn't strip first, is still shedding.

A buddy of mine used to hunt somewhere outside of Safford. That's not too far from Wilcox. He said that he had pretty good luck down there.

From what I've seen, the majority of the hassles from south of the border don't really get hot & heavy until you get down around Sierra Vista. Wilcox isn't really a wealthy town though. It has more than it's share of people living below the poverty line, so you do need to keep an eye on your stuff. Hungry people sometimes do what they have to do to get by.

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

Where he is gonna be hunting is about 30 - 35 miles South of Willcox . . . the mountains reach 10,000 feet, I mostly see Mulies on this side of the valley . . .

[44man]

Deer shot where it is cold with hollow hair will have the hair break and shed. Summer hair will not. Deer shot in warm areas will not shed.

[azcruiser]

Diesel Shawn you must be over by the Dragoon MTS .That Turkey Creek Road in the flats in the evening seems like ever Mesquite tree has a mule deer pop up under them .Brush is so thick there you can't see them till the stand against the sunset. SPELLING=The Coues Whitetail (properly pronounced "cows", but almost everyone pronounces it "coos") is a small subspecies of white-tailed deer found in Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico. This deer has developed such a reputation for being able to vanish from view in the smallest amount of cover that it is frequently referred to as the "Grey Ghost" =They tend to stay away from where the Mule Deers are more on the hill sides in the oaks. AND they blend in hard to see.
I set my chair up where I have a good field of vision and glass hill side wait and wait till I get lucky then bang . Counted 12 last year before I shot .Passed a real nice one because I could never walk to where it would have fallen .I need one kind of close since i don't move to well up hill or down

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

Yeah, I actually live right on the golf course in Sunsites . . . about 7 mi from the Dragoons . . .

[bigdog454]

Try here for tanning places. I've had quite a few hides tanned over the years, but it;s starting to get expensive, about $50.00 per hide with shipping etc.
BD

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

From what I can hear, the greenies are mostly at fault for the current tanning problems.

The enviromental controls are costing a lot, so some places are shutting down and not being replaced.

The local fir/hide place quite taking deer hides about two years back, after buying hides for years and years.

Now, they just go to waste instead of being used.

As you may have noticed, some of the boots made "off Shore" have extremely bad leather in them.

Some of the Danner boots are the real pits. I have had three pair with leather problems. Why did I buy three pair if the leather is bad? Washing State University required us to wear steel toe boots, and they were paying the tab. $200. + per pair.

The leather is so bad, that when the toe gets nicked the leather then starts to peal off. Company replaced the 1st pair because of the leather and the stiching, the second pair wasn't any better (leather & stiching) and the third pair is just as bad.

OFF shore junk!

Anyway, the leather thing is likely to get bad and/or very expensive.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

Crusty I got some Redwings, only 20% of the boot line is made in the USA . . . mine were $269 . . . so far less than a month, they haven't fallen apart!

[flounderman]

there was a couple of places in wisconsin tanned deer hides. you could send them the hides and they would make jackets, gloves, pillows, or just tan them for you. one of them was place. let place tan your hide was their slogan. there was a company at hartford wisconsin, I believe. you can look in the back of outdoor life or any of the hunting magazines and find an ad, probably. like everything else, they have gotten pricey.

[Baryngyl]

The best place might be to ask you local taxidermist who he has do his, or what it would cost for him to get them done for you.

Talking about cheap crappy shoe leather reminded me, I was talking to a shoe repair guy trying to find out if he had heavy leather to make a belt out of.
He told me that good heavy leather was getting really hard to get and said the reason why has a lot to do with the mad cow disease, the best thick leather only comes from cows that are over 2 years old and now most places are killing most of their cows well before they reach 2 years old as mad cow disease usually only infects cows older than 2 years.
Not sure how much truth there is to what he told me, but it makes sense to me.

Michael Grace

[azcruiser]

Thanks for the info sounds like more work than I care to get into .

[JIMinPHX]

Crusty I got some Redwings, only 20% of the boot line is made in the USA . . . mine were $269 . . . so far less than a month, they haven't fallen apart!

HH is still made in the USA as far as I know. I have their "work westerns" for steel toes. The quality is pretty good in my opinion.

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

HH is still made in the USA as far as I know. I have their "work westerns" for steel toes. The quality is pretty good in my opinion.

Who is "HH"?

My Redwings have some imported fabrics for the lining . . .

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Ya and my hunting boots - Cabela's by name - are made off shore and the quality is good.

The stiching is staying in place, and the leather when nicked as field boots do get, DOES NOT begin to peal.

Was it good quality control, demanded by the QC people at Cabela's, or was I just lucky with that pair? Don't know.

No matter how old the "Danner" name happens to be, and the quality the name may have represented in times past, of the 5 pair of Danners I've owned starting over 20 years ago, only one pair showed any lasting quality.

Why have I bought 5 pair if the quality was so poor? Well most (all but the first pair) came off the boot wagon at work and were paid for by my employer. I paid for the first pair and they were trash, sent back once to have repairs which were poorly done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When quality control over your product, no matter if made in house or off shore, goes out the back door in favor of company profits, the name and customer base will follow.

There are still plenty of cows making their last trip down the line to provide leather, but we as consumers must, with our dollars, demand quality.

I read this morning where the "EPA" was being called the "Fedral un-employment agency"

Quite a number of years back, I heard Larry Berkett, a well known financial advisor, say that the EPA would be a major player in the downfall of the USA.

WE are seeing it today, brought to us in the form of low quality products, limited or no availability of some products, and our jobs being forced off shore to companies who then produce second class products for our markets.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[thx997303]

Far as I know, my Chippewa boots are made in USA. Tag says so anyway.

Pricey but this pair I bought has some nice leather. Thick and soft.

My last pair of boots were H&H boots. Lasted me about 5 years then the leather got a hole where my little toe is.

I'm gonna bet that if I had taken care of them better, they would have lasted longer.

Never had to put a new sole on those boots, just a heel.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

"H&H" boots?????????????????????????

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[BD]

The two deer hide tanneries that I remember are Sterns in Wisconsin, near Sturgeon bay if memory serves and Sunderland (sp?) in Gloversville, NY. I think Sterns will deal with single hides. I don't know about the place in Gloversville. I primarily traded raw salted skins for leather with the guys in Gloversville. When I started I could trade them two for one, at the end it was something like 5 for one, and the minimum was 100 skins. I sold my tannery to a guy in NC who's operating it as "Lone Star Fur Dressers". I'm sure he'd tan one hair on for you if that's what you want.

All of the hollow hair species will lose a little hair if you use them as the hair is very brittle, but if they were cared for correctly right after they were shot they shouldn't "shed". They are more practical as decorations than clothing when tanned hair on. There is a guy out there who sells home tanning "kits" that you might look into. I'm thinking his company name is Rittell. Knoblochs in CO may be selling "kits" as well.

Waksupi can fill you in on brain tanning hides, which would be cheaper and more more rewarding.

BD

[buck1]

Long ago I used to get all of my skins made into buckskin, it was cheap. I still have a pile of boxes in three colors and made a lot of great stuff from them.
Then prices started to really go up, I think I was paying 75 cents a square foot at first. The company went out of business years ago and it has been a shame to toss the skins.
There are places that buy them but it isn't worth the gas.
Try a search on line or make buckskin yourself, there are a lot of books. Trouble is that the skin will need smoked after tanning and they are a bear to soften first. They get hard as a board if left to dry so all the fibers need broken down as they dry.
Once smoked, rain will not stiffen the leather.
I did it once and made a bunch of little bags with string closures to carry .22's, etc in. Stuff lasts forever. I made a lot of gloves and you will be surprised how much leather it takes for a pair.
I found a book on brain tanning but have not tried it.

Wow thats great! I have never saw any real buckskin stay soft after getting wet! Heck I havent seen any since I was a kid watching my grandpa working it all day.
Most folks just think its just leather.....Buck

[JIMinPHX]

Who is "HH"?.

http://www.doublehboots.com/Item.asp

I like the 12" AG7 boot. It's a good solid one. It wears like iron.

[Von Gruff]

If you only want the hides as floor mats then the home cure when I was growing up was baking soda and kerosene.

As soon as possible after skining the animal, stretch and staple the skin to a shed floor or something similar. shake a light layer of baking soda on the skin, wet with the kerosene, and rub into skin. Should be a wet slurry covering the skin when finished. For deer to cow sized skins do it twice a day for a week and once a day for another week. Use a pumice stone to rub surface once dry and a leather treatment to soften. trim to shape and air for a couple of weeks till kero smell dissapates. I have cured many hides this way. Now I use the comercial tanning kits suitable for up to half a dozen hides at a time that are available here in New Zealand.

Von Gruff.