ampahunter

Shot a deer on Friday last @ 11:00AM, the temperature was around 9 degrees C. Found him later in the afternoon and had him gutted by 7 PM that sameevening.
Hung him in the garage overnight, temperatures dropped to 4 C overnight and left him all day/night Saturday in 6C/4C temperature thru toSunday AM.
On Sunday AM, I started caping him and to my surprise the hair came out in handfuls--the meat was perfect, but the hide--well that didn't look very good.
Any ideas"what" could have caused this? I'm quite baffled as I have not experienced this on a hide in such cool temperatures in so short a time.
Yes, in the past when the temperatures were not so cool, but for a hide to go bad in so short a time in so cool temperature, really has me concerned.
Would really appreciate some reasons for this to happen.

Greg / MO

Taxidermists call this "slipping" and it's basically because the bacteria set up and got to work very fast. I know it dropped prettycold overnight, but those 90-degree temps are murder on deer capes. I know; I lost one on a P&Y buck a couple years ago, and had to have a friend give me a cape from one he wasn't going to mount.

ampahunter

MQ 1 I thought about the bacteria factor--but the temperatures ranged from 50 F (10 C) during theday and dropped to 39 F (4 C) during the night. So it wasn't that warm, the meat did have a chill to it.

Hunter's Specialties has a product called Wild Gamekeeper, it's a granular powder which you add water to and spray the meat. This mixtureinhibits the bacteria growth--I wonder if this would also work on keeping the hides for a few days?

Greg / MO

I've seen that advertised on the Prime Time videos... at the time, my first thought was "gimmick", but who knows? Mabye...