A quality tanned hide or skin begins with proper field care.
Field dressing your harvest is an essential skill for hunters to learn. Proper and timely field dressing helps preserve the meat and hide, prevents spoilage, and makes large animals easier to transport. Here are some tips on field dressing while keeping in mind skinning for taxidermy and flat skin tanning.
Safety First
- Wear rubber or latex gloves to protect yourself from blood, bacteria, and possible various diseases that wild game can transmit.
- Use a sharp knife: A sharp blade will make the job much easier and safer.
- Work in a clean area: Ideally, perform field dressing in an area that’s easy to clean and away from your camp or hunting area.
- Wash hands thoroughly with soap and water when finished.
How to Field Dress a Deer (or Elk, Moose, Antelope, Sheep, etc.)
Since deer are one of the most common animals harvested, we will discuss field dressing it. However, the process will be similar for field dressing elk, moose, antelope, sheep, etc.
Place the deer on its back with its head downhill if possible. If you’re on uneven ground, elevate the hindquarters using rocks or branches to make the abdomen easier to access.
Spread the hind legs apart to give you more room to work.
Locate the sternum (breastbone) near the center of the chest. Using a sharp, fixed-blade knife, make a shallow cut from below the caping line (Figure A).
Insert 2 fingers from your free hand to hold the skin up and away from the intestines as you cut straight down along the midline of the abdomen, and around the genitals (Figure B).
Cut just deep enough to pierce the skin and abdominal muscles, avoiding damage to internal organs.
Slit the belly skin all the way to the pelvic bone and cut deeply around the rectum being careful not to puncture the intestine.
Pull the rectum out and tie string around it to prevent droppings from touching the meat.
Locate the diaphragm, which separates the chest cavity from the abdominal cavity and carefully cut through the diaphragm along the ribs.
Then reach in toward the chest cavity and cut the esophagus & windpipe off as far up as possible and pull them down through the chest (Figure C).
Cut any connective tissue holding the organs in place. This will allow the organs to be removed more easily. The goal is to remove the entire internal organ mass in one motion without puncturing the intestines, which could contaminate the meat.
Turn the deer onto its side, grab the esophagus with one hand and the rectum/intestine with the other, and pull hard. The internal organs will come out in one pile with minimal mess.
Inspect and Clean
Inspect for damage or contamination to the meat. If any organs or intestines have been punctured, you will need to clean the area. Avoid touching the meat with dirty hands or tools.
Use a clean cloth, paper towels, or clean tools to wipe away any residue, blood, or remaining organ material. The idea is to keep the cavity clean to prevent spoilage.
Cooling the Meat
Allow air to circulate around the cavity by hanging the deer from its hind legs or laying it on its back with the hind legs open. See the steps below for skinning a deer and other animals.
Tip:
Work quickly! As soon as the animal expires, bacteria begin to attack the carcass. The faster you can field dress the deer, the better the meat and hide will be. This is especially important in warm weather.
How to Skin for Taxidermy or Flat Skin Tanning
The following information is courtesy of McKenzie Taxidermy Supply:
Caping for a Shoulder Mount
Using a sharp knife, slit the hide circling the body behind the shoulder at approximately the mid-way point of the rib cage behind the front legs. Slit the skin around the legs just above the knees. An additional split will be needed from the back of the leg to join the body cut behind the legs (Figure D and E).
Peel the skin forward up to the ears and jaw exposing the head/neck area junction. Cut into the neck approximately 3” down from this junction. Next, circle the neck cutting down to the spinal column. After this cut is complete, grasp the antler bases and twist the head off. This will allow the hide to be rolled up and if possible, frozen, until it can be taken to the taxidermist.
These cuts should allow enough hide for the taxidermist to work with when mounting. Note that excess hide can be trimmed, but extra hide cannot be added.
Take care: Do not cut into the brisket (chest) or neck area. If blood gets on the hide wash it with snow or water as soon as possible. Also, avoid dragging the deer with a rope. Place it on a sled, rickshaw or 4-wheeler. The rope, rocks, or broken branches can damage the hair or puncture the hide. If you need to drag it out with a rope, attach the rope to the base of the antlers and drag it carefully.
Skinning Life-Size Big Game
There are 2 methods of skinning for large life-size mounts such as deer, elk, moose, or bear. The methods are the flat incision and the dorsal method.
Flat Incision
The flat incision is used for rug mounts and a variety of poses. The areas to be cut are shown in Figure F.
Make these slits (cutting the feet free from the carcass) and pull the skin off the carcass. The head is detached as with the shoulder mount.
Dorsal Method
The dorsal method of skinning involves a long slit down the back (from the base of the tail up to the neck). The carcass is skinned as it is pulled through this incision. The feet/hooves and the head are cut off from the carcass as with the shoulder mount above. Use this method with detailed instructions from your taxidermist (Figure G).
How to Field Prep Fish for Mounting
Do not gut your fish. If you can not take your fish immediately to a taxidermist, wrap it in a very wet towel and put it in a plastic bag, making sure all the fins are flat against the fish’s body (to prevent leakage) and freeze it. A fish frozen with this method can safely be kept in the freezer for months.
Tip: A fish will lose it coloration shortly after being caught. A good color photograph immediately after being caught may help the taxidermist to duplicate the natural color tones of that particular fish.
*Always have the appropriate tags with your harvest especially when you take them to your taxidermist. Do not cut the ears for attachment.
What to Do With a Hide After Field Prepping
Once the hide is removed from the animal, cooled and fleshed to remove large areas of meat fat and membrane, freezing it is the best option. Fold the hide skin to skin (with the hair side out), roll up, put into a plastic bag (remove the air) and put in freezer.
Hides can be kept in an ice chest, just be careful not to get it wet with melting water. A wet hide will cause bacteria to grow.
If you are unable to do this and are in a remote area, then salting is next option. See our tips on salting hide and skins.