I have been mounting for few years now and had good success using dry preservative. Recently i learned about pickling hides and founds someone that is now in the area for doing a great job. i sent my hide to him he pickled it and measured it for me. i got a mold to what he said it would fit and now the trouble. I was told to mist warm water on it and stretch it i did this and i can not get this hide on a mold for anything. so i shaved my mold down quite a bit smaller than what deer measured alot smaller and still nothing. can anyone explain mayber what i am doing wrong and give me some pointers thanks

I have more questions than answers, but I’ll take a shot and say the hide hasn’t been shaved (thinned) yet. If it’s not shaved it won’t fit. Right now I’m assuming you mean the hide was tanned, not pickled. Pickling is a step in the tanning process, but should not be the only step. If it was, that would sure explain the shrinkage. The person that tanned it should have done some shaving. You may need to do some more.

Hey Magis, believe it or not, that is how they used to do it all. It was called "pickle tanning". Actually how I learned. I think that it hasn't been shaved. And if it wasn't neutralized properly, spraying straight water on it will cause acid swelling, which will cause it to deteriorate quickly. That's the problem with not handling things yourself or letting someone else who may not have enough experience do it for you.

double a - the best thing I can do without complete knowledge is to recommend going to taxidermy.net and reading. There is tons of info on tanning in there. You should learn all that you can about tanning, etc so that you can figure out where and why this happened. Without knowing how it was "tanned" any info given may make it worse.

I realize it used to be done that way, but I was hoping no one still did that.