Tanned Cape, Shelf Life
Just finished a deer mount from a cape I had tanned about 5 years ago (Sitting in a box). There was deffinetly a difference between this cape and newly tanned one. The cape seemed much more brittle, less amount stretch, and the more I worked with the cape, holes were much easier to make.
I remember a post a few months ago, where Bill Yox said to put the deer in the freezer, if you plan on storing it for a while. That's a great tip, if you're not using them right away.
The deer ended up turning out good, but it just took more work to make everything right.