SGT.H

Hey all, I have an Axis deer hunt planned for July 4th down in south texas. The problem I am going to have is getting it back to St. Louis without the hide getting ruined by the heat. Since it is an Axis, caping up to the neck and putting the whole thing in a cooler wont be an option.

I talked to a Taxidermist that I am going to use, and he said to go ahead and skin out the head, and put pickling salt on it to dry it out.

I've never actually skinned past the neck on anything that I am going to mount. I've seen a few threads from various forums on the matter, and it didnt seem all that hard.
If anyone has any suggestions, go ahead and let me know. I grabbed a few scalpels from work for around the eyes and mouth.

Is there anything special about using the salt I should know about? And after it is salted, I quess I should just keep it on ice until I can get it in the freezer?

Thanks for any help.

excalibur43

Salting the hide isn't really going to help unless you flesh it very well prior to salting, and then it will take a few days to dry out.Also, putting it in the freezer after salting doesn't help, as you know what salt does to ice! If you are planning on heading home soon after you get your animal, I would just cape it out and put the cape in a cooler with alot of ice and head home that way.I have caping instruction on my website; www.robstaxidermy.org