Deer hide vest...

[bigbore442001]

My Dad checks the mail and will read my hunting magazines before I have a chance to go through them. That is ok by me. He informed me that the latest FFG magazine is filled with some good articles. There are at times some mediocre issues but this one is pretty good.

There is a neat article on making your own deerhide, with the hair on, vest. The man took a deer hide and tanned it with the hair on. He cut out a rough pattern and sewed the tanned hide together into a simple vest. It does look really neat, at least to me. Right now, I have a nice doe hanging up off the deck. I plan to skin her out tommorrow but I will do an extra careful job on taking it off. I don't want to nick it anywhere.

Anyone here ever make their own clothing out of the things they have shot?

 

[Twisted_1in66]

Hey bigbore,

If you want to come out with a good hide, you'll need to peel it instead of cutting with a knife. Don't get me wrong, you still make the cut up the middle and out to the legs, but as you get enough to get a grip on from the legs, you can just peel it off. That way you don't get any knife scars or holes. It's also a lot faster than skinning with a knife. Check out this link to Traditional Tanners. They have a great amount of info about tanning with both hair on and hair off.

Hope this helps,
Twisted_1in66 :hatsoff:

 

[barebackjack]

Twisted 1in66 gives good advice.

My family has been in the fur business for over 20 years. We also traded deer hides.

Skinning is 90% pulling, 10% cutting. And a deer is one of the easiest things to peel.

I use a method called fisting. Start the hide at the back legs and work it over the rump. Once you are the flank area, gather up the hide from the hair side, pull it tight, and push or punch the point where the skin and body meet. Using this method is fast, and ensures no false cuts (a knife mark that doesnt go all the way through but weakens the leather) and the only holes will be from bullets and arrows.

The only time I use the knife is to start everything, and Ill sometimes use it on the neck of a rutting buck.

 

[CrackStock]

We used to get a very strong rack and hoist. We would start skinning at the neck and get enough to put a golf ball into the skin and tie a rope around this ball wrapped in hide. We would tie the other end to an ATV and pull the hide off by the work of the ATV.

CS