hi, i'm new here. i am trying to tan a couple of hides that i got from a relative when they went hunting.i have had the hides for about 2 weeks now and they are dried out, i did not salt them it was a last minute thing i figured that i would try tanning myself, i have the patience for it, i just need to know the best way to go about re-hydrating the hides so that i can pickle them i can't find any stores that have the relaxer stuff that you can use. i have read that you can use a mixture of vinegar and water but don't know the proper amounts of each, i wanted to do the brain tanning but they didn't save the brains for me and i can't find any butcher shops near me. i did however go out and buy a tanning kit, but it's for fresh hides not ones that have been dried out. they are stretched out and dry like well... rawhide. i want to try to keep the hair on if possible at this point, they have been stored outside where they have been pretty much frozen, i just want to preserve them the best way i can at this point, one of them is from the doe that my husband got on opening day and we didn't even get any meat off of it because raccoons or some other large rodent got to the meat during the night while it was draining and all of the meat was ruined and there wasn't anything left. so that hide i would like to try my hardest to keep someway or another. i'm native american and i wanted to try to do it the old fashioned way but the proper parts weren't saved so i'm trying to do it the modern way with the kits and what not but i have to have the hide re hydrated before i can do anything. sorry this is such a long post but i wanted to try to get as much detail in here as possible. any advice is appreciated. thank you.

If you didn't salt them, you might already made the first mistake, Salting is and integral part of tanning, salt is the first step in curing the hides and killing the bacteria.
So you have a 50-50 chance of a successful tan, I would buy a good anti bacterial agent to mix with the water and salt to relax the skin, from there everything is up in the air if the skins are going to slip or not.

Go to http://taxidermy.net You will find an answer to any questions you have in the beginer section and tanning. Good Luck.