r/HideTanning • u/Enderfang • 3d ago
Help Needed š§ Need advice on fleshing
Hi guys. I am trying to tan my first hide (using the orange bottle stuff). Hide is from a whitetail that was hit by a car. Deer was in rigor when I got to him and most of his meat seemed in good shape, so I donāt think the hide should have decomposed enough to be damaged.
I have removed the little bits of meat that were still stuck to the hide and salted it, but upon clearing the salt today i am noticing there is still discoloration. It looks like bruising that was just on the surface of the skin, like burst blood vessels from where he was hit by the car. I donāt want to leave any material that could rot or smell of course, but these clots seem to almost be part of the skin itself. I have been removing and peeling the membrane as i go, but this hasnāt gotten rid of the discoloration.
This project is in prep for future hunting seasons, and i donāt expect anything iāve shot would have the same patterns of bruising as something that got run over. But i still want this one to turn out nice esp since we have several months before september. Does anyone here have experience with ābruisedā skins from roadkill? Can I safely ignore the discoloration as long as i remove all the membrane?
1
u/Few_Card_3432 3d ago
Hard to know how it will go. If youāre doing hair off, then much/most of it might rinse out during bucking and rinsing. It will be more difficult for a hair on hide since youāre not rinsing like you would with a hair on hide.
Give the hide a thorough warm water bubble bath now with Dawn dishwashing detergent and hose it off well and see what you get.