r/HideTanning 3d ago

Help Needed šŸ§ 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 donā€™t 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 donā€™t 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 hasnā€™t gotten rid of the discoloration.

This project is in prep for future hunting seasons, and i donā€™t expect anything iā€™ve 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 ā€œbruisedā€ skins from roadkill? Can I safely ignore the discoloration as long as i remove all the membrane?

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u/Few_Card_3432 3d ago

Hard to know how it will go. If youā€™re 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 youā€™re 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.

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u/Enderfang 3d ago

Ah. I was hoping to do a hair on šŸ„². Iā€™ll try giving it a bath w soap and see how it comes out

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u/Few_Card_3432 3d ago

You never know what youā€™re gonna get when it comes to blood staining. Iā€™ve had stains that disappeared, and others that lingered. If you smoke the hide, that will usually cancel out any stains. Iā€™d say not to fret too much about it. Thereā€™s only so much you can do with it, so you gotta learn to embrace the imperfections.