Most taxidermist do send out hide's to be tanned, because of the work involved, and as of now, most have backlog of work to be done, and the work they're getting in now. Tanning a deer hide and making it soft does require a lot of work. The tanning part isn't all that hard, it's the breaking of the hide when finished. When you tan a hide, the hide needs to be fleshed of all fat and meat. Then the hide is salted down. Salting the hide removes all the moisture from the skin and prepare the skin for tanning. After 24 hrs. the salt is scraped off and another fleshing of the hide is done. To correctly flesh down the hide, a rotary knife, or fleshing machine is used. Then the hide is salted again until it is hard.

Then the hide is rehydrated. After the hide is brought back the it's original softness. Then the hide goes into a pickle bath. A pickle bath is a acid bath the skin goes into. This creates a positive ionic charge in the skin fibers to attract the tannins. Always check your PH when pickling. Always keep the PH at 1 to 1.5. The skin after being in the pickle will need to be shave down to a unform size now. On greasy animals the hide is now put into a degreaser. Then placed back into the pickle for the required amount of time.

After the hide is in the pickle for the required amount of time. It then goes into a neutralizer bath. This is because a pickled skin to too acidic to be tanned. If the skin was to be placed directly into the tanning solution, the ionized skin protien would attract the tanning chemical too rapidly resulting in a barrier or surface tan. This is a rapid build up of chemicals on the surface of the leather which prohibits complete penetration of the tanning agent, resulting in a poor tan, or no tan at all on the inside.

Now the hide can go into the tan. After the required amount of time in the tan. The hide is removed. And now the hide needs to be broke and oiled. Tanneries use large drums to break the hide, A small drum is alright to damp dry hides. But a drum to be of any practical help in softening should be at least 6' high and 4' wide. If your drum is too narrow for big hides, they tend to ball up and roll instead of open and drop. A tannery will also send the hide through a buffer. Which actually sands down the hide.

Also to break a hide you can use what is called staking. Staking a hide you can use an old axe head, or I think Van Dyke's sell a half moon shaped one. You need to pull the hide over your staker like shinning shoes. this will also break up the fibers in the skin and soften it up.

So good luck to you if you're going to take this on your own.