At that time (mid 1970s), small game was plentiful where I lived, but big game (white-tailed deer) was not. The purpose of telling this story now, is that once I saw those hides, I couldn’t just throw them away and I had to try to preserve them. Still, all the hides were beautiful, especially the wild “cottontail hybrids”. He just had white rabbits that still had some genes for wild color type. How did those sneaky little devils do that through the chicken wire? Not possible, plus domestic rabbits are really from European Hare stock (22 chromosomes) and wild cottontail rabbits have 21 chromosomes, so that was not the answer. My friend said he just assumed the wild native Cottontails were responsible. But about half of the younger rabbits were mostly white, but with an irregular wild-type colored blanket splashed across their backs. His original rabbits, (California giants) were large and white with a soft medium length coat. This rabbit looks similar to the hybrid skins that were tanned So I was glad to help out and to make a long story short, we “dressed” six rabbits. I don’t think this fellow had actually “harvested” any of his livestock yet. The original purpose for raising the rabbits was for food, but his wife and kids had become attached to the rabbits and hadn’t fully bought-in to the idea of eating what you raise. Well, you know how it goes… A cow has a calf (one calf), goats usually have two kids, chickens lay 8-12 eggs and you will be lucky to raise 4 or 5 chicks in a season if you don’t keep them penned up, but the rabbits were breeding like rabbits! He already had baby rabbits that were having more baby rabbits and had built more cages, but even the new cages were stacked full of rabbits. He was growing a garden, raising a few cows, goats, free-range chickens and had also started raising rabbits. He had bought a few acres, and though he had a good job in town, was trying to live as self sufficient as possible. We butcher, wrap and freeze the meat and make our own sausage, ground meat and patties for burgers.ĭeerskins into Buckskins – How to Tan with Brains, Soap or Eggs. I usually hunt by myself, but sometimes my wife goes with me. I mostly hunt public land with Over-the-Counter tags. I am encouraged to see so many people on websites and forums that are keeping old skills like how to tan a hide alive. Chances are, if you are reading this, you are a do-it-yourself person too. I like the idea of DIY or as I would say, DIOY (doing-it-your-own-self) and I also like the idea of not wasting the hide and am glad to see that there are many other people that feel the same way. for providing the initial motivation for me to try my hand at tanning a complete hide. The hide looked very soft and flexible and hung limp like a blanket over the bed. So thanks to “livbucks” from PA. I read a post recently by a guy that had finished tanning a deer hide for his daughter. He said it was a fairly long ordeal (and he probably wouldn’t ever do it again), but it turned out beautifully and he had a picture to prove it.
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