Recommendations for the treatment of carcasses and skins of animals intended for taxidermy purposes. Shooting and primary processing of skins of animals and birds How the skin of a bird is dressed for making a stuffed animal

Tracking the beast, the hunter should strive to get the skin with minimal damage to the skin and hair.

To a large extent, this is ensured by the correct choice of fraction numbers. So, for example, when hunting for a squirrel, cartridges equipped with shot No. 6 and 5 are used, and some of the cartridges are made with reduced charges. A squirrel sitting high on a tree is fired with a full charge, and at close range (10-20 m) with a reduced charge. For shooting martens, minks and sables, shot No. 4, 5 is used, for a hare - No. 1, 2, for a fox - No. 0-00, etc.

When hunting with dogs, one should not allow them to wag, tear prey. Before shooting, the skins of the animal must be carried so as not to stain the hairline with blood and not damage it. The hunter must be able to properly remove, degrease (skin) and conserve the skin so that it can be stored for 3-4 or more months before entering the fur industry. These operations are called primary processing of skins. Depending on the requirements of fur production, the primary processing of skins different types animals has some differences, which are reflected in the State Standard for fur raw materials.

These requirements must be taken into account by the hunter during the primary processing of the skins. As a result, damage to the skin made during the process of inept extraction and primary processing will affect its harvesting value, and the hunter can lose from 10 to 50% of earnings. The primary processing of skins of fur-bearing animals consists of four operations: shooting - separation from the carcass, degreasing the skin, straightening on the rules and canning.

Before skinning, the hunted animal may be in a state of rigor mortis, frozen, or, conversely, still warm (steam). In the first case, the carcass of the animal must first be kneaded, unbending and bending the torso and limbs, in the second, it must be thawed at room conditions, in the latter, it must be allowed to cool, which will reduce bleeding.

As required State standard there are the following differences in the primary processing of skins (Table 1).

Table 1. Differences in the primary processing of skins

Shooting skins with a stocking, degreasing them and editing

This method of primary processing of skins is the most complex and requires skill. Before starting work, it is necessary to prepare tools and materials - a knife with a narrow straight blade and a bar, a blank and a collapsible rule, as well as a dry, clean rag.

After cleaning the fur, freeing the bladder and rectum of the animal from the contents, the inner surface of the lips is cut along the border with the gums. The incision is made from the corners of the mouth to the nasal cartilage, which is cut, and then along the lower jaw (Fig. 53/1)

Rice. 53. Skin cut lines when shooting;

1 stocking; 2-tube; 3-layer.

Rice. 54. Skinning ermine.

Next, the lips are separated from the muscles of the nasal part and the lower jaw - the upper one to the eyes, the lower one to the throat, pulling the skin near the eyes, cut the eyelids, and tighten the skin from the ear cartilages with a bag. After the skin is separated from the body to the shoulder blades, a rope loop is tightened around the animal’s neck, fixed on the wall or bench below the hunter’s hands, so that the removed part of the skin is always located above the skinned part of the carcass (Fig. 54). This helps to protect the skin from contamination with blood and fat. The skin from the paws is pulled down to the last phalanges of the fingers, the tendons are cut, leaving the claws on the skin. The vertebrae of the tail are removed from the skin tube by pulling out.

The use of a simple device for this purpose - a slingshot greatly facilitates the task (Fig. 55). As usual, the root of the tail (1-2 cm) is initially exposed from the skin of the skin, which is placed in the fork so that the skin roller prevents the tail from moving, the roller is held from above with the left hand, and the “twig” is pulled out of the tail tube with the right hand. The skin removed with a stocking is degreased with a knife on a round or flat blank inserted inside it through the mouth opening. Degreasing is carried out in the direction of the head, starting from the rump.

Bruises are removed by squeezing the blood out of the mezra with a knife, and then washing it off with a clean, dry cloth. After degreasing, the skin is straightened on collapsible rules (Fig. 56/1, 2). First, the first part of the rule is inserted through the mouth opening into the skin, turned inside out with the hair, - a wedge, expanding downwards, then its second part - a wedge, tapering downwards.

Both wedges are inserted with “legs” into the hind legs - until they come into contact with the claws, then they are aligned in length and plane, with a slight passage of the skin between the fingers from the rump to the head, the warehouse is straightened.

Rice. 55. Extraction of the "twig" (vertebrae) fromtail tubules with a slingshot and mezra

Fixing the skin on the rule

The skin is fastened to the rule with the help of a carnation or a thin cord, which is threaded into the spout, and then into a hole made in the upper part of the rule, and tied. The straightened skin is wrapped in a slightly moistened white cloth and put to dry. Drying, the fabric absorbs fat, blood and protects the skin from contamination.

Rules for ermine and weasel skins when folded form a rectangle with an aspect ratio of 1:7. In contrast to them, the rule for skins of kolonka and solongoy is characterized by an extension for the rump part and, when folded, has a trapezoidal shape.

The sable skin straightener consists of two oval halves and two wedges. Straightening, the skin is given a rounded, or square, or slightly elongated shape, and the canned skin should be set with the hair out.

1- team for sable;

2 - team for ermine: for skins removed by a tube:

3 - sliding;

4 - forked;

5 - wedge-shaped.

Rice. 56. Rules for the skins of animals taken with a stocking.

Shooting skins with a tube, their degreasing and editing

To shoot with a tube, an incision in the skin is made along the rump - from the middle finger of one hind paw along its inner side to the anus, and from it to the middle finger of the other paw. The tail is cut along its underside from root to tip, with the exception of the tail of a squirrel, hare, muskrat (Fig. 53/2).

In small animals - squirrels, ferrets, minks - the vertebrae are removed from the skin tube of the tail by pulling out, after which it is cut with the tip of a narrow sharp knife. To do this, it is convenient to use a metal groove-shaped probe (Fig. 57). The probe is inserted inside the tail so that the groove matches its underside.

Then, along the groove inside the tail tube, the tip of a sharp knife is inserted with the blade up and, moving it forward, rip it open. The cut is straight, without damage. The probe is made from a strip of sheet metal about 0.5 mm thick. The working part of the probe is a groove, the edges of which are up to 3 mm high, bent at an angle of 45°, and the length of the probe is about 15 cm.

Rice. 57. Ripping the tail tube along the groove of the probe.

After the skin is removed from the hind legs and tail, the carcass of a large animal is hung in a harness (Fig. 58). Then, pulling the edges of the skin down and cutting the films with a knife, they separate it from the carcass to the shoulder blades, release the front paws - tighten the skin to the last phalanges; cutting the tendons, leaving the claws on the skin.

When removing the skin from the head, pull it off as completely as possible from the outside of the ears, leaving part of the thin cartilage at the tips of the ears. In conclusion, the skin is removed from the muzzle: the lips are cut along the border with the gums, starting from the corners of the mouth and ending with the cutting of the nasal cartilage. Degreasing of the core of the skin removed by the tube is performed on a round blank. Its dimensions should correspond to the size of the beast.

So, for example, a blank for fox skins is about 100 cm long and 14-15 cm in diameter. The surface must be smooth sanded. The skin is put on a blank with the fur inside, slightly pulled over the rump edges and the fat is cut off along with the films and cuts of meat in the direction from the rump to the head. Degreasing in the opposite direction leads to cutting-exposing the hair roots and their loss, which devalues ​​the skin. Especially carefully you need to degrease the skins with a dark, pigmented mezdra, in which the roots sit deep in the skin.

rice. 58. Skinning with a tube from a fox hanging in a harness.

In this case, it is advisable to use a blunt knife, with which fat and films are not cut off, but are knocked down or fat is squeezed out of the subcutaneous tissue. Next, soft tissues on the lips, tendons in the paws, cartilage, etc. are cut with scissors, the mezra is wiped with a dry rag and the gaps are sewn up with white threads. The skins removed with a tube are dressed on sliding, forked or wedge-shaped rules (Fig. 56/3, 4, 5) with the following approximate ratio of width to length: wolf, fox, corsac fox, arctic fox, lynx - 1: 4; marten forest and stone - 1:5; otter and mink - 1:7.

If the standard provides for straightening the skin with the hair outward, then first it must be straightened with the mezra outward and dried, after which it must be turned inside out and dried.

Shooting skins in layers, their degreasing and editing

To shoot in a layer, three cuts are made on the skin of the animal: the first is from the middle of the lower lip through the middle of the chest and abdomen to the anus, and then to the root of the tail and along its underside to the tip; the second incision is made along the inside of the hind legs - from the middle fingers to the anus; the third incision is made along the inner surface of the front paws to the middle of the chest (Fig. 53/3). The cuts should be straight and ensure the symmetry of the parts of the removed skin.

Further, holding the edges of the skin with your left hand and squeezing the muscle tissue of the carcass with your right thumb, and for large animals (bear, elk, etc.) with fingers clenched into a fist, separate the skin from the carcass, first on the sides to the tail, then on the front of the body and head. Places of strong connection of the skin with the carcass are cut with a knife without damaging it.

In small animals - a mole, a gopher - the hands and feet are cut off; in large predators of a bear, leopard, etc., they retain claws on their paws. The removed skins are degreased (mezdryat); large ones (wild boar, elk, badger, etc.) with a scythe or a scraper on a deck covered with burlap in two or three rows; small ones (mole, gopher, marmot) - with a knife on a board with a smooth convex surface. Degreasing is carried out by scraping the mezra with a knife (oblique, dead end) from the rump to the head.

The head part of the skin, lips, ears, eyelids - and paws are especially carefully cleaned of cuts of meat. Next, the skin is wiped with a dry clean rag, the cuts of the mezra are sutured so that their edges close when the thread is tightened (with a herringbone or over the edge seam). Then the skins are straightened, while eliminating the folds of the skin, so that the subsequent canning is uniform. At the same time, the skins are given the standard shape of rectangles with an aspect ratio of 1:2 or 1:3. The skins of small animals are straightened on shields, nailing the edges with small carnations.

Skins of large predators

The skins of large predators (bear, leopard, etc.) are straightened on a frame connected from four poles. 10-12 narrow punctures are made along the edges of the skin, through which ropes are passed, with the help of which they stretch on the frame and give the skin a symmetrical shape. The skins of ungulates are straightened with the flesh upwards on a pad with a convex longitudinal part. Skin preservation. To ensure that the skins can be preserved until processing, simple and reliable methods of preserving animal protein are used. Small skins are preserved by drying (fresh-dry method), large ones - by salting (wet-salted method).

Reducing the moisture content of the skin tissue to 25-30% delays the decomposition of proteins, and when it is reduced to 10-15%, bacterial, autolytic processes and mold development stop. A well-dried core of the skin, which can be stored in a dry room for a long time, contains no more than 10-12% moisture. When fresh-dry canning skins, it is necessary to maintain optimal temperatures (about 22-25 ° C) and indoor air humidity (relative humidity 60-40%).

Gross deviations from the specified characteristics lead to damage to the skins: at low temperatures, drying is delayed, it is possible to warm up and form bald spots; drying at a higher temperature, by an open fire or near chimneys, causes welding, the squirrel-mezdra becomes rough and even brittle. As already noted, if the standard provides for dressing the skins “on the hair”, then initially they are dried on the rules with the hair inside and only after partial drying they are turned out and put on the rules again for final drying. The skins of hoofed animals are preserved by wet-salting.

For salting, the skin is spread on the undergarment with the skin up, the edges and folds of the skin are straightened and covered with an even layer of table salt. For canning, take medium-grinding salt. Fine salt is unsuitable because it instantly dissolves and is washed off by moisture plentifully released from the skin, while coarse salt, on the contrary, slowly dissolves, and salting is delayed. Salt consumption is equal to 40% of the weight of a pair of skins.

The skin is salted for 7-8 days, then the release of moisture from the skin stops, it becomes dense and elastic. The skin tissue loses about 30-40% of the moisture previously contained in it during the preservation process, and a high salt concentration protects the skin tissue from decomposition.

Rice. 59. Removing the skin of a bird with an incision along the abdomen: 1-incision along the parting; 2-exposure of the pectoral muscles; 3-separation of the leg and knee joint; 4 limbs separated; 5-tail compartment.

Rice. 60/1. Removing the skin from the bird: with a cut on the side.

Rice. 60/2. Removing the skin from the bird: with a cut on the back.

Rice. 61. Cleaning of the skull and separation of the eyeball.

Shooting and conservation of skins of animals and birds intended for the manufacture (stuffing) of stuffed animals

The shooting of skins intended for stuffing stuffed animals is distinguished by a certain specification, since the task is to obtain a natural effect characteristic of animals in different life situations.

So, for example, if the bird will be mounted in a sitting position, then the skin is removed by cutting the skin along the abdomen (Fig. 59); for the manufacture of a stuffed bird in flight, the skin is removed by making a skin incision on the back (Fig. 60/1), and for the pose of a floating bird, the skin is more suitable, removed through an incision on the side (Fig. 60/2). In birds with a long neck, another cut is made in the skin along the underside of the neck - from the throat to the chest.

From small animals

Small animals (squirrel, chipmunk) are skinned through a skin incision on the abdomen - from the anus to the chest, and skins from large animals (roe deer, wild boar, bear) are skinned in a layer, preserving all the details of the head - ears, whiskers, eyelids, lips , nose, horns, and on the legs - hooves or claws. Before cutting the skins, the hairline of the animal or the feather cover of the bird is “parted”, a sharp knife is inserted under the skin above the anus (cloaca) with the blade up and, pulling the skin away from the muscles, move it forward, trying not to damage the muscle tissue and not cause bleeding. .

The skin is separated from the carcass, holding the edge of the skin with the fingers of the left hand, and the muscle tissue is squeezed from it with the thumb of the right hand. The skin is separated from the sides towards the tail. Since when shooting skins, blood vessels are always damaged and bleeding opens, so as not to stain feathers or fur, you need to have on hand materials that absorb liquids well: starch, powdered dry moss lichen, absorbent cotton, which are abundantly sprinkled or plug bleeding foci.

Rice. 62. Degreasing poultry skins.

After separating the skin from the muscles to the thighs, the thigh is turned out of the skin sheath, a finger is placed under the knee joint, the skin is pulled with a stocking to the toes and the leg is cut at the knee joint. Further, in the same way, the second leg is also released from the skin. After that, fingers are brought under the skin in the lumbar region of the carcass and separated to the tail. In squirrels, hares and other lean animals, the tail shaft is removed by pulling.

In animals with fatty subcutaneous tissue (muskrat, hori), the tail vertebrae are removed through a tail incision made along its underside from root to tip. In birds, the tail (pygostyle), together with the tail feathers, is separated from the carcass by cutting the ligaments between the movable vertebrae. The skin, released from the connection with the back of the body, is then removed from the chest and shoulder blades. There, bringing the index finger under the skin at the shoulder joint, they expose the shoulder and then the elbow joint, cutting the ligaments with a knife.

In animals, the skin is removed from the forearm to the fingers, in birds - to the wings, which are cut off from the carcass at the shoulder joint. After the skin is released from its connection with the carcass in the chest and forelimbs, it is pulled together from the neck to the head. In birds, the neck is cut at the base of the skull, which finally separates the skin from the carcass.

In animals, the skin is removed from the head, first to the ears, and the ear cartilage is cut off at the base of the ear, then to the eyes, where the mucous membrane of the eye is cut, keeping the lower and upper eyelids intact; then the skin is removed to the nose, where the nasal cartilage is cut closer to the nasal bones and the lips - along the border with the gums. After separating the skin from the carcass, it is cleaned of cuts of meat, fat and tendons.

The skin of the bird begins to be cleaned from the head

They begin to clean the skin of the bird from the head - they expose the skull until the skin passes into the cornea of ​​the upper beak. At the same time, in order not to damage the feather cover of the head, the skin is first pulled up to the auditory canals, the skin tubes lining the auditory canals are pulled out of the skull and cut off.

The eyeball is removed from the eye sockets, for which the muscles of the eye are cut, pulled away from the mucous membrane and cut off (Fig. 61). After that, the skull is cleaned of soft tissues, and the brain cavity is cleaned dry with a cotton swab.

The bones of the wing are cleaned of muscles and tendons, lowering the skin to the forearm (not lower). In the middle and large birds(grouse, black grouse and larger) the soft tissues of the forearm are removed through a lobar skin incision on the inside of the wing. The bones of the bird's leg are cleaned by pulling the skin to the tarsus, and the muscles are cut off. Particularly careful and careful cleaning requires the tail section of the skin - here they cut out fat deposits, the coccygeal gland, trying not to destroy the base of the tail feathers.

In conclusion, the entire skin of the bird is cleaned of fat, for which the mezra is scraped with a blunt knife along the bases of the feather, substituting the thumb of the left hand as a support from the outer (feathered) side of the skin (Fig. 62). When degreasing, the skin is abundantly sprinkled with starch or dry reindeer moss, ground into powder.

The skins of animals after degreasing, to ensure their safety before the manufacture of stuffed animals and subsequently, are salted or pickled. In the latter case, the skins are first washed in a warm solution of washing soda (5-8 g per 1 liter of water), then rinsed thoroughly in cold water, after which they are immersed for 12-24 hours in a nickel solution in 1 liter of water, 50-70 g of sodium chloride and 18 g of acetic acid.

The pickled skin is given a soak for 10-12 hours, after which it is dried, the hairline of large skins is cleaned with dry sawdust of hardwood, the skins of small animals are cleaned with starch. Skin storage.

It is not recommended to store the skins subject to delivery at home in order to avoid damage to them by moths, skin beetles, mouse-like rodents, and with an increase in humidity - mold. At the first opportunity, the skins should be handed over to procurement organizations.

If the skin is stored before stuffing the stuffed animal, it must be treated with a 10% solution of karbofos and kept in a gauze bag in a cool, dry place. If a moth or a skin beetle is found on the skins, they must first be shaken out well, cleaned of larvae, and then treated with karbofos and the mezra, and the hairline, as well as the room in which they are stored.

Yesterday I uploaded recipes from the Internet, and today I want to tell you how I have been cooking it at home for many years.

Well, first of all, a few subtleties of cutting ..
Hunters have a special ritual. They gut the bird, hang the capercaillie upside down and wait until this same head falls off by itself under its own weight ... And only then they butcher it.

But this is not the way for me.

I still warm bird skinning .. that is, I remove the skin from the bird right with feathers and then gut it. To remove the skin, it is necessary to cut off the capercaillie's head, cut off the tail, paws along the first joint, cut off the wing fingers (wings are the same hands and therefore there are fingers), I cut off long feathers along the bottom of the elbow part along with the skin, from tail to head I do an incision in the skin and I completely remove the skin along with feathers ... A naked carcass remains in my hands (if you can hold 5-6 kg of meat in your hands), in fact, it remains on your table ...

Using leftovers:
Feathers can be used for crafts, wings used to roll lingonberries on special boards, and grandmothers used them to grease pancake pans with oil .. now you can make original crafts from tails and wings. Souvenirs are made from paws and beak.
With us, everything that remains from the butchering goes to profit for hunting.

Let's start cutting the carcass:
I cut a thin film on the abdomen across the bird and remove the guts.. even the guts of hunters don’t go to waste ... Everything else is in business (for profit).

The stomach must be cut lengthwise and turned inside out, remove the inner rigid layer of the stomach along with the contents. The stomach into the water for washing, the contents of the stomach into the garbage, and rinse the layer under running water and put to dry (do not throw away) ..

Separate the gallbladder from the liver very carefully so as not to damage it, if the bile spills out, then you can immediately throw the liver away, as it will be bitter. Bubble - in the garbage, the liver - in the water to the stomach.
You even send the lungs and the heart into the water, the heart must first be cut lengthwise and the blood released.
Now the giblets can be washed and cooked from them into a delicious soup (recipe at the end of the post), or you can cook with the bird itself.

We cut the carcass of a bird, like a chicken, into portioned pieces, rinse well if it is already cooled down, if it is warm, soak it in cold water until it cools down.
The capercaillie has a very well developed chest and the meat in this part is different both in taste and color. There is a lot of it there and it can even be enough for diet cutlets.

Therefore, I separate part of the meat and freeze it. Then I twist it with onions and combine the minced meat with a loaf or loaf soaked in milk or water. Salt pepper to taste. I form cutlets, roll in flour and quickly fry to a crust in vegetable oil. Then I fill the cutlets with water, add spices and set to simmer for 5 minutes. In the meantime, I breed 1 tsp. flour with water and pour to the cutlets, another 5 minutes on low heat, a handful of lingonberries a minute before the end of cooking. You can add a little lingonberry juice at the end .. a couple of minutes on the table for soaking lingonberry juice and cutlets from capercaillie at home Can be served with hot mashed potatoes.

While the meat for cutlets is freezing, we will cook capercaillie stewed with vegetables.

Rub the chilled pieces of meat with bones with salt and pepper, roll in flour and fry in vegetable oil until golden brown. We put it in a saucepan, pour out the remaining oil, fill it with water and put it on the stove until it boils. If there are traces of frying in the pan, pour everything with hot water and after 5 minutes pour it into a saucepan, brazier or pan, depending on what you cook in.

After boiling, reduce the fire and leave to extinguish ...

We will prepare the vegetables for now .. Cut the onion into rings, a couple of large heads are enough for the bird, if you wish, you can take more. The onion can be lightly fried, but not too much, so that it does not change color, but only changes the flavor and becomes transparent. Chop a little onion finely and fry with carrots, as we are preparing a fry for a regular soup, do not feel sorry for a couple of good carrots either. We add all this to the capercaillie, half an hour after the start of the quenching. At the same time, you can add peppercorns and a little dry dill. If using fresh dill, add it after cooking.
At this stage, the capercaillie should be completely covered with water and vegetables and boil a little. Make sure that the water does not boil away much, if necessary, add boiled water.

It is necessary to stew the capercaillie until the meat becomes soft and will easily separate from the bones, but do not fly off on its own.

Serve the finished dish with potatoes on a large platter.
The potatoes are placed in the middle, along the edges in a circle, pieces of capercaillie, pour everything with the sauce in which the capercaillie was prepared (the liquid and vegetables by that time will just acquire the consistency of the sauce, the flour from roasting will make it thick).
decorate the dish with dill branches and soaked lingonberries.

Why not a royal dish?

Well, lastly giblet soup.

Put the water in a saucepan on the fire,
while the water boils, fry the floured giblets in vegetable oil.
After the water boils, lower the giblets into the pan. In the meantime, peel and crumble the potatoes into cubes.
15 minutes after the giblets, place the potatoes in the water, and after boiling, this time we reduce the fire.
After 5 minutes, finely chopped turnip (not fried) is sent to the soup.
Let the carrots grated on a coarse grater without oil on the water. Send it to the pot.
Salt, pepper and cook for another 5 minutes.
Add the rest of the spices (dill, celery, bay leaf, green onions) and turn off the stove, but do not remove the soup from the stove ... After 15 minutes, you can serve

Bon appetit

Yes .. when describing such goodies, I completely forgot to tell you about the layer of the stomach, which we sent to dry at the very beginning and which I told you not to throw away in any case ...

So when it finally dries up and becomes brittle, you need to wrap it in a clean white piece of paper and put it far away on the shelf, where you keep your medicines...

And if your child or any family member suddenly starts having an upset stomach, then there is no better folk remedy for diarrhea than the powdered inner layer of the capercaillie stomach. Its properties are determined by the high content of special substances - pectins. You need to take the powder in a dose that fits in a slide on the tip of a knife.
The present folk remedy Siberian hunters. Of course, a medicine containing pectins can also be bought at a pharmacy, but why throw away what nature itself has given you in your hands.

So don't get sick

30.09.2016

The development and implementation of new, modern taxidermy technologies made it possible to offer the manufacture of high-quality products, which began to find greater interest among people in trophies, regardless of the cost of work, to popularize trophy hunting.

The emotional impact of well-made trophies is immeasurably greater than that of mediocre ones. A well-made trophy can be a great interior decoration, a good gift, a reminder of unforgettable moments of hunting episodes.

To make a good animal trophy, in addition to modern materials and manufacturing technology, you need high-quality raw materials. The low level of knowledge of most hunters on this topic leads to the fact that the skins of most of the hunted animals become unusable at the stages of shooting, primary processing, and storage. This recommendation will give the most basic tips on how to save and not spoil your trophy.

Only the master can correctly shoot and process the skin of a bird, so if the hunter is interested in the quality of his trophy and he has the opportunity, then the killed bird should be frozen. Also, a bird carcass is necessary to determine body measurements.

When hunting for a bird, and indeed for all animals intended for taxidermy, the most unpleasant moment is the killing of a wounded animal. With animals it looks easier, with a bird it is more difficult.

When killing a wounded bird, do not beat on the head, but gently suffocate, squeezing the chest. You can also use a thin awl for killing: calmly press the wounded bird to the ground and fix the wings, then take it by the head, pierce the skull and quickly break the integrity of the brain.

If you intend to get a bird to make a stuffed animal, then before leaving for the hunt, do not forget to take packing material for the carcass. For example, put a cotton swab in the mouth of a captured capercaillie and put the head under the wing, if the head is covered in blood, then wrap it with a cloth. Next, put the capercaillie in polypropylene bag and tightly wrap it with tape, wrap the tail especially well. In this form, the carcass is convenient to carry and freeze.

Any bird caught must be transported carefully so as not to damage the feather, especially the wings and tail. Also, try once again not to stain the white plumage of a bird (white partridge, snowy owl) with blood.

Before freezing in a bird, straighten the plumage, in a waterfowl, the head is bent to the side, then the carcass is placed in a plastic bag and frozen.

When hunting, shoot the bird in such a way as to inflict a minimum of damage to the feather cover, especially the flight feathers of the wing. Remember, the quality of your trophy depends on how you got and saved the bird.

Processing animal skins

small animals

All small animals after production should be stored only in a frozen state. The hunter needs to carefully get the animal, pack and freeze, and deliver it to the master in this form.

You need to know that frequent thawing of the carcass, especially when stored outside, due to the action of intestinal enzymes, leads to hair loss on the abdomen, sides, and inguinal parts.

large animals

To make a stuffed animal, measurements of the body, special shooting and processing of the skin are necessary, therefore the best thing is when properly shot and frozen carcasses are offered.

How and with what the animal was obtained does not matter, it can only determine what trophy can be made from the extracted animal. For example, a trap wolf with a damaged and non-repairable limb, or if the legs have hair shuffled against the crust, which is especially observed in individuals caught at the end of winter, it is advisable to use it to make a trophy head (medallion or pedestal). Or there are hair defects on the skin caused by dermatomycosis, which is often found in a wolf, or sometimes in a bear. It is better to make a head than a carpet with visible defects.

The hunter must understand that, due to ignorance, he can spoil or reduce the value of the hunted animal by skinning alone, therefore, if weather conditions permit, it is advisable to freeze the carcass.

Carcasses of animals, for example, a wolf, are frozen only in an extended position. The carcass is suspended by the parted hind limbs, the tail, so as not to interfere with transportation, can be tied to one of them. It is not allowed to freeze the carcass, randomly, stuffing it into a bag, etc., especially large specimens. This leads to uneven cooling of the carcass of the animal, as a result of which hair loss can occur on different parts of the body. It is possible to freeze the carcass of a large animal only in established frosty weather. But the best thing is to remove all the insides before freezing. To do this, you need to cut the peritoneum along the midline, put a cotton glove on your hand and remove the contents of the body. Next, cut out the diaphragm, pull out the lungs and heart. Wipe the cavity of the carcass from the blood with a dry cloth. All this will exclude the possibility of a hair fall on the abdomen (wolf, lynx, wolverine, beaver). After that, the carcass will freeze very quickly.

When hunting animals that will be offered for taxidermy purposes, the following should be remembered:

• when shooting or finishing off an animal, do not shoot at the head, but only at the body, the bear can be shot at the base of the skull, if necessary, since defects in the head, especially the front part, are practically irremovable. Better three holes in the body than one in the head;
• do not finish off a mortally wounded animal with a second shot, especially with shotgun cartridges, wait, let it die calmly on its own;
• when killing an animal in a trap, in a hurry, do not shoot at close range with shotgun shells. Move away and, if possible, cover the animal's head with natural objects, such as a tree trunk;
• when hunting, use the caliber of the weapon and the type of ammunition corresponding to the object of hunting. For example, don't shoot a wolf with half-shell or expansion bullets. If you have a large smooth-bore caliber weapon and you need to shoot from it, for example, a wolf caught in a trap or noose, then equip a cartridge with a small sub-caliber bullet for this;
• when using dogs, do not allow the latter to grab, tear, pinch a wounded or killed animal;
• a killed animal, especially one caught while chasing it on a snowmobile (lynx, wolf, fox) during transportation should not be rolled up into a ball, stuffed into a bag to avoid hair loss. The carcass should cool evenly;
• any animal caught must be transported very carefully.

At present, all taxidermy works can be combined into the main groups of products - these are trophy heads (medallion or pedestal), animal skin carpets with a taxidermy head and stuffed animals.

For the manufacture of trophies from animal skins, if it is not possible to preserve the carcass of the animal, for example, due to weather or transportation, the skin can be removed, following the conditions.

Conditions for skinning on the example of a bear and a wolf

Rice. 1 Bear skin cut

The skin of a bear has a number of features that must be taken into account.

The skin is removed in layers. The central incision is made from the base of the lower jaw to the anus exactly along the midline of the abdomen, bypassing the genitals.

Do not cut the skin on the lower jaw. By mistake this process is that the cut is filled up to the side, as a result of which the unfolded skin has one side larger than the other.

Section of the forelimbs start from the base of the central part of the palmar callus, pass next to a small callus, leaving 3-4 mm on it. skin with hair, and lead strictly to the elbow. Further, the incision from the elbow should go to the inner surface of the limb and along the least hairy part (almost the center of the inner surface of the shoulder) converges at a right angle with the central incision. A common mistake in this case is that the limb is pulled out and the incision is made in a straight line, bypassing the elbow, to the midline and, in addition, the incision is taken to the side. As a result, the correctness of dressing the skin and its aesthetic appearance are violated, which entails a waste of time to eliminate these errors in the process of dressing and dressing the skin, and extra seams in the inguinal parts of the skin are not desirable, especially on the skins of early autumn bears. The second mistake is that a small callus is cut in half, which cannot be done, especially if you are skinning a carpet (wolf, lynx).

The incision of the hind limbs starts from the base of the calcaneal callus. In a wolf, an incision is made through the hock joint, along the back of the thigh and further to the anus.

As for the bear, the incision is approximately 5-10 cm from the calcaneal callus, they begin to smoothly lead to the inner surface of the hind limb and then along the least hairy part to the central incision. The point of intersection of the incisions should be approximately 5-20 cm (depending on the size of the animal) above the anus. The main mistake of this work is the incision from the heel to the anus, along the back of the hind limb. In this case, the fur gachas are cut in half, and part of them goes in the form of an addition to the lower part of the belly, and you get a stubby, as if cut-out rump near the skin. You can not start the incision from the middle of the inner part of the calcaneal callus.

Rice. 3 On a properly cut wolf foot, the small calcaneal callus should be in the back and the fifth toe in front.	Rice. 4 The right paw of a bear. The cut is correct	Rice. 5 The right paw of a bear. The cut is wrong

Photo 1	Photo 2	Photo 3

Photo 1. The skin of a bear with incorrectly made cuts in the fore and hind limbs.

Photo 2. On the this photo the incision of the hind limbs was made incorrectly, since it was strongly withdrawn towards the head from the anus. As a result, part of the groin of the skin was on the rump.

Photo 3. The incision of the forelimbs was not made correctly due to the fact that it was taken towards the head, and not perpendicular to the central incision. As a result of this, part of the skin of the front paw was on the front groin.

In addition to the above-described method of shooting the skin with a layer, you can apply a simpler and fast way- tube. This is how almost all commercial furs are removed. It is convenient in that it is not necessary to make a central incision on the animal's carcass. Also, when working with mannequins, there are postures and methods for making a trophy, where it is necessary to cut the skin not along the stomach, but along the back or other topographic parts of the skin, and therefore the method of skinning with a tube is more optimal. The master himself will make additional cuts where he needs it. To skin with a tube, make an incision in the hind limbs as when shooting with a layer, and in the front ones from the paw to the elbow. Next, expose the hocks, insert the handle through them and hang the carcass of the animal to shoot the skin. It will be even better if the forelimbs are not cut at all, but pulled off as much as possible from them with a tube to the paws and cut off.

So, you correctly carried out all the main cuts of the skin. If the skin can be frozen or quickly delivered to the master, then the paws should be separated at the joints, leaving them in the skin. The tail vertebra remains in the skin. Cut off the tail at the base. The head is also separated from the neck along the condyles (the base of the skull) and left in the skin. For example, the skin of a bear removed in this way is laid out and allowed to cool. Next, the skin is folded in half, skin on skin, folded and put into a bag. It is impossible to randomly fold and freeze the skins of a wolf, lynx and other animals. The open parts of the skin quickly freeze in the cold, which subsequently makes it very difficult to process these places, affecting the quality of the leather tissue.

If the bear was caught in warm weather, then the paws and head must be prepared.

Working with bear paws

Most hunters, due to their ignorance and laziness, cut the palm and heel pads of the paws in half, and the worst thing for convenience and quick extraction of the phalanges of the fingers is to cut them on the paws. It's like cutting off your nose or ears and wanting a nicely made trophy, or selling raw materials well.

The paws of a bear, if there is a desire and time, can be turned out without any cuts, especially the front. But if there is no experience or conditions do not allow, then to extract the phalanges of the fingers on the paws of the bear, only one lateral incision is made along the inside of the paw to the pad of the extreme finger, leaving 0.5-1 cm of skin on the callus. The latter is necessary to mask the seam under the hair and better stitching the incision.

Next, the paw pads are bent, the phalanges of the fingers can be separated and each is pulled out separately to the claw, and then cut off. This work must be done very carefully, avoiding skin cuts between the fingers.

Extracting the phalanges of the fingers requires some skill. For convenience, each paw is tied to a rope, then it is hung up and then gently in a circle, cutting the skin, the phalanges are pulled out to the claw and cut off.

Photo 4	Photo 5	Photo 6
Photo 7	Photo 8	Photo 9
Photo 10

Photo 4 - preparation of the paw of a bear.

Photo 5 - completely turned out bear paws (after 7 hours of cooking with spices, it turns out a miracle dish).

Photo 6 - the paws of the wolf, lynx and other animals are not cut, but turned into a “cam”. The phalanges are also separated, turned out to the claw and cut off.

Photo 7 - when processing and preserving skins, it is advisable to open the upper lip and salt it well.

Photo 8, 9,10- an example of different options for ditching the paws of a bear.

It is very important to properly skin the head. The main thing is not to allow eyelid cuts, carefully separate the nose from the skull, keep the inner lips (do not cut the lower lip), separate the ears along the ear canal, and not cut off the auricles. If the skin will not freeze, then the ears must be turned out, i.e. separate the ear skin from the ear cartilage. Ear cartilage can not be removed - this will be done by the master himself. It must be remembered that ear defects, obtained both during the life of the animal, and due to a careless attitude to raw materials, are practically unremovable.

The tail of the animal must be cut and removed. It is necessary to cut carefully along the entire length, with a well-sharpened tool. When removing the tail, take care not to cut or tear the skin on it.

Photo 11	Photo 12	Photo 13
Photo 14	Photo 15	Photo 16
Photo 17

Photo 11- fox ear preparation.

Photo 12 - dissection of the eye of a fox.

Photo 13- preparation of the lips of the fox.

Photo 14, 15- correctly dissected heads of a fox and a bear.

Photo 16- the bear's ears got soaked and crawled out due to the fact that they were not turned out in time and not salted.

Photo 17- the bear's ears are cut along the cartilage, and not along the ear canal. When extracting the skull from the skin of the head, the eyelids of the eyes were cut off along with part of the skin. This defect will require extensive restoration work by a master taxidermist.

The main mistakes made when shooting animal skins

1. The main cuts on the skin were not made correctly or not symmetrically.
2. The paw pads are cut in half, or cut out. The lateral incision of the bear's paw was made along the line of the border of the hair and callus without capturing the skin.
3. Split lower lip.
4. Wrongly cut off and not everted ears.
5. Cut eyelids.
6. The tail has not been cut or removed.

In the process of skinning, try to avoid cuts and holes in the skin tissue, especially on the front of the head. Cuts on the skin of a bear are formed due to the fact that the hunter, working with a knife, holds it at the wrong angle, in a hurry and does not feel the border between the skin tissue and the mezra

The skinned skin is best to roll and freeze, but if this is not possible, then the skin must be salted.

From the skin of a bear, at least superficially remove cuts of meat, fat, spongy tissue from the pads of the paws, dirt from the skin and hair. The skins of a wolf, lynx, wolverine can not be worked out. Do not work off the head of all types of animals, but turn out only the ears, since only the master should do this processing.

For salting, the steam skin is laid out and salted very abundantly. Don't be sorry for the salt. Particular attention should be paid to the edges that form folds in the raw skin, especially on the forelimbs from the side of the elbow. Salt stuffed into paws. Pour salt into the ears between the cartilage and the skin. Don't forget to salt the tail. If the skin is dry, then it needs to be slightly moistened.

After salting, it is not advisable to immediately roll up the skin, but let it lie down so that the leather tissue is salted evenly. Protruding moisture from the skin must drain.

For salting, you need to use pure edible grinding salt No. 1 or No. 2, and not some technical salt or crushed lick. Do not think that by pouring a few kilograms of salt on the skin of a bear, you will save it. Because of this, at low negative air temperatures, the skin will not freeze and will be in a hydrated state, which can lead to flowing and fragrant hairline directly with the epidermis of the skin.

When going on a bear hunt in early autumn, do not forget to take salt. Untreated salted skin, and even more so steam, in warm weather, do not pack in polyethylene for storage or transportation, being afraid to stain something. On the skin wrapped in polyethylene, in warm weather, very favorable conditions arise for the development of putrefactive processes.

The above method of salting the skin to preserve it is not a method of conservation. It is desirable to sell skins processed in this way faster or to preserve them correctly.

It must be remembered that salt is not capable of preserving the skin for a long time without its appropriate preparation. If salt is applied to an untreated, dirty skin in a small amount unevenly over the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe skin, then all this can lead to the appearance of putrefactive processes in the skin tissue and fragrant hairline.

To preserve the skin (for example, a freshly harvested bear) for a year or more, you must:

1. Make the perfect pre-treatment.
2. Salt the skin and keep it for about 7-10 days, preferably in a cool place. The skin should not dry, but remain wet - salty.
3. After that, do a chemical degreasing of the skin with detergents.
4. Next, salt the washed skin again with pure salt and bring the leather fabric to a certain percentage of moisture. The skin should not be dry, but slightly damp.
5. After that, remove excess salt, pack the skin tightly and freeze.

This method of preserving the skin of a bear has been tested for years. After long-term storage, at the beginning of its further processing, the skin has all its original properties and is ready for dressing processes.

Methods for shooting the skin with a layer and a tube are classic and the easiest. They are applicable for making all kinds of hunting trophies.

There is a way to shoot a skin with a cut not on the stomach, but on the back. This method is used only when working with polyurethane mannequins. It is the most difficult and requires a certain amount of skill, so if you can't skin it correctly, then don't try to experiment.

Photo 19	Photo 20	Photo 21
Photo 22	Photo 23	Photo 24
Photo 25	Photo 26

Photo 19- to make a trophy in a sitting position, it is advisable to remove the skin with a cut along the back. This method is the most basic and applicable to various poses, and greatly facilitates the work with foam mannequins when making a trophy.

Photo 20, 21 - when shooting the skin of a wolf with a cut along the back, the cut of the forelimbs is made from the paw to the elbow joint, and the cut of the hind limbs (photo 21) is made from the paw, passing through the hock joint to the beginning of the feathering.

Photo 22- an incision along the back is made from the occiput, along the upper line of the back. Further on the rump, the incision passes to the lower part of the tail (the incision can also be made along the upper side of the tail). When making an incision along the back, it is advisable to make small incisions along the edge of the skin with a scalpel, which will help to align the edges of the skin in place when stitching it on the mannequin, especially if the torso is turned.

Photo 23- after making all the cuts, when removing the skin, the front and hind limbs turn inside out.

Photo 24- this is how the skin of a wolf looks like, taken with a cut along the back.

Photo 25, 26- trophy head and wolf carpet.

In order to correctly remove and process a skin not intended for manufacturing fur product, and for taxidermic purposes, certain knowledge, experience, conditions are required, and if you are interested in getting a high-quality trophy, for example, from a wolf, lynx, wolverine, then it is best to freeze these animals in carcasses. In this case, the skin from the animal will be removed correctly and, most importantly, when preparing a mannequin for making a stuffed animal, all parameters of the carcass of the animal will be taken into account. Each animal is individual and carcass measurements will greatly facilitate the work in the manufacture of your trophy.

Working with the use of polyurethane mannequins and plastic accessories shows the client all the advantages of modern professional taxidermy, so it is advisable to use only high-quality raw materials.

Each time with the approach of the hunting season, especially the autumn-winter one (as the busiest in terms of receiving orders for the manufacture of stuffed animals from the trophies), I hopefully expect that hunters and fishermen will finally bring quality raw materials. But in vain ... How many articles, memos, instructions, diagrams, recommendations have already been written, but the situation hardly changes. Again and again they bring short cut heads, rotted and rotted skins with carved eye sockets without eyelids, torn ear cartilage and claws, and missing parts of the plate. If customers understood how difficult it is sometimes to restore a cut or missing piece of skin, especially on the muzzle or on the paw and ears! Sometimes it takes more time to restore than to assemble the entire product. And how painful it is to see despondency and disappointment on the face of a recently joyful client who brought raw materials for making a trophy, when after an inspection you pass a verdict: it’s almost impossible to do anything or the product will turn out to be defective.

And all because of incorrectly or untimely skinning and neglect, or maybe ignorance of the elementary rules for preserving the trophy. I'm not talking about the material side of the issue, because. a self-respecting craftsman will not do work (even one that he likes) that requires three times more time for the same money as working with good raw materials. Therefore, I return to the past again and again so that mistakes are not made in the future. In this article I will try to at least briefly tell and show what a trophy hunter needs to know.

What you need for a good skin, scarecrow, carpet

• The best skins for making stuffed animals or carpets from fur animals (bear, wolf, fox, lynx, etc.) are obtained from those obtained in late autumn and winter.
• Birds (capercaillie, black grouse, ducks) must be dug for stuffed animals in winter or spring. Early autumn birds have not yet completely molted and are therefore of little use for stuffed animals.
• Fish for making a stuffed animal is best caught in mating season, since at this time they are most brightly colored.
• Be sure to take a photo of the trophy (from several angles) and environment, if you want to achieve maximum compliance, realism of the surroundings and coloring of the trophy (especially for fish).

How to properly remove, store and transport the skin

• Supervise skinning if you are not skinning yourself.
• Trust the skinning only to those people who know how to do it right. Or shoot yourself according to the cut diagrams below.
• Do not rely on ranks and titles (huntsman, hunter, famous hunter). There is no guarantee that these people know how to properly skin to make a full-fledged trophy.
• Do not leave the skin unattended.
• Always keep a supply of table salt on trophy hunting in the amount necessary to cover the entire skin with a layer of 1 cm.
• It is necessary to remove the skin as soon as possible after the extraction of the animal.
• Do not transport skins to plastic bags tightly sealed, especially in the warm season.
• It is best to freeze poultry and fish before handing over to the master, but this is an ideal option, since it is not always and not always possible to bring it to life. In any case, do not keep the trophies in the sun and try to protect them from flies in order to avoid the appearance of maggots. It is good to use women's stockings or pantyhose (prepared in advance to preserve the bird). Pour salt into the mouth, gills, beak.
• A bird for making a trophy is selected from among the least damaged by shot.
• During a multi-day hunt, a bird can be gutted by making a neat incision on the chest from the keel to the anus (cloaca). It is necessary to cut the abdominal cavity carefully, without cutting the intestines. After removing the insides, wipe the inner cavity dry, salt well. If possible, lay with nettles, needles, juniper branches, garlic, etc. Wrap with gauze or put in a stocking (pantyhose) and hang in the shade, in the wind.
• Fish can be carefully gutted and salted well - salt will not spoil the skin.

Skinning schemes

The skin for making a trophy can be removed in several ways: along the chest (layer) and along the back (purely taxidermy method).

Skinning scheme 1. Predatory mammals (bear, wolf, fox, lynx, etc.)

Skinning scheme 2. On the back

Skinning scheme 3. Ungulates

Skinning scheme 4. Trophy head

Skin conservation

After removing the skin, it is necessary to remove the remaining thick cuts of meat, muscles, fat. If you are not sure that you can properly remove the skin from the head, separate it along the first vertebra behind the back of the head, salt it well, pour salt into the mouth and ears. Rub salt thoroughly into the skin over the entire surface, giving Special attention edges, and then cover it with a layer of salt over the entire area.

If you are on a multi-day hunt, leave the skin in a shady, cool place. After a while, the skin will give a “juice”, which must be drained and again covered with salt over the entire surface. It is necessary to transport the skin in a “breathing” bag or in an open container (basin, trough, etc.), thickly sprinkled with salt. And remember: the faster you transfer the skin (raw materials) to the master taxidermist, the more reliably it will be insured against trouble.

The main disadvantages of the skin for the manufacture of a full-fledged trophy

Beasts:

Wrong, crooked, out of place cut.
- Upholstered skin. The result is hair loss.
- The fluidity of the fur. Consequence - bald patches.
- Putrid smell. The result is the descent of the epithelium, the epidermis.
- Cut off, missing parts of the skin.
- Cut eyelids, lips, genitals.
- Torn ear cartilage, claws.
- Cuts on the pads of the fingers, lack of paw pads.
- Fur cut with a knife.
- Torn areas of wool, abrasion of fur from dragging on the ground.

Skinning scheme 5. Animals with horns

Birds:

Embossed sections of feathers.
- Broken wing feathers.
- Putrid smell.
- Broken bones of paws and wings.
- Dried blood on the feather (birds with white plumage).
- Wrong (rough) cut.

Skinning scheme 6. Birds

Fish:

Broken scales.
- Missing body parts, skins.
- Incorrect cut.
- Putrid smell.

Skinning scheme 7. Fish

That, perhaps, is all. Returning to the past, I look to the future with hope and believe that the time will come when hunting ethics and culture will prevail over indifference and cynicism in relation to trophies, sometimes obtained with such difficulty. Break a leg!

09/09/2013 | An old skinning recipe: How to skin a skin

Skinning recipe: How to skin a skin

Many hunters, having obtained a trophy, think about its preservation in the form of a skin. However, not everyone knows the recipe for dressing skins and often wonders: how to dress the skin so that it looks beautiful and pleasant to the touch? Carefully read the old simple recipe for skinning and your trophies will delight you for a long time.

Skin dressing begins with soaking

Very strongly salted and dried skin is first soaked and rinsed. Then they start soaking in the solution. The skin during soaking in water should float freely, and a 4-6 cm layer of liquid is needed above it. The volume of water that is used for soaking must be measured, because. exactly the same amount of solutions will be required for future processes:

• pickling (fermentation);
• tanning.

The skin contains a lot of bacteria, which in the solution multiply at a tremendous speed. To destroy them, antiseptics are introduced into the cleaning solution.

Recipe for cleaning solution for dressing skins

For 1 liter of water, add 40-50 g of table salt (a tablespoon), 0.5-1 ml of formalin or 1-2 tablets of sulfidine (norsulfazol, furacilin or tetracycline). In addition, you can add a decoction of oak, willow, birch or eucalyptus leaves to the water (0.5 l of decoction per 10 liters of water).

Usually the skin soaks (becomes like a steam room) in 12 hours. If this does not happen, it is again placed in a fresh solution.

The next stage of dressing the skin is skinning

The recipe for dressing skins recommends a scraped skin with a blunt knife ( reverse side hacksaw blade or steel brush), removing the remains of meat, fat and removing films. The direction of movement of the scraper is from the tail to the head, while the side parts are scabbed - from the ridge to the stomach. The skin is stretched tightly without folds, but without stretching too much. If a skin is clearly oily, then it can be washed after skinning in a good powder or soapy water laundry soap. Do not rub the soap on the skin so that there are no undissolved pieces of soap left. After washing, rinse thoroughly and rinse the mezra and fur with clean water.

The next stage of dressing skins - fermentation

(classical dressing method), which was previously used for all types of fur raw materials.

Recipe for fermented solution for dressing skins

Fermented solution is prepared in a glass or enamel bowl / For each liter of hot water:

• stir 200 g (faceted glass) coarse rye or oat flour;
• 20-30 g of table salt (incomplete teaspoon);
• 0.5 g of drinking soda (on the tip of a knife);
• when the solution cools down to 28-30 degrees, 7 g of yeast (steamed as for yeast dough).

After cooking, put the fermented solution in a warm place. It is good to make kvass in advance, at least a day in advance, so that it will take "(fermented). This is determined by the bubbles of the released air.

According to the dressing recipe, the skin is immersed in a cooled solution for about 2 days. For 1 kilogram of the mass of paired skins, 3 liters of fermented solution are required. The skins must be turned over more often, and kvass must be stirred so that a film does not form on its surface and it does not rot.

The fermentation (picking) process can last from 5 hours to 4 days and depends on the quality of raw materials, room temperature, age of the animal, its sex, disinfection conditions, etc. The warmer the kvass, the faster the fermentation. But you can not heat above 38 degrees. Yeast fungus dies.

To determine the end of the process, the skins, while stirring in the solution, need to knead a little and try to dry or pinch. The removed skin must be bent near the groin four times with the skin up (into the pig's ear), tightly squeeze the corner, run a fingernail along the rib and release. If a white strip (dryer) remains in place of the scratch and gradually disappears, the skin is ready. For the same purpose, you can try on a pinch: in the groin area, hairs are plucked and, if this can be done without special efforts(with a slight crackle), pickling (picking) is time to finish. Every skin has its time. In solution, the skin is better underexposed than overexposed. We can say that in an overexposed skin (in the groin), the fur crawls out rather than pulls out. But if brought to such a state, do not throw it away. The dorsal part, as a rule, is preserved, but the next stage should be reduced by 3-4 times.

The next operation of dressing skins - lying

The skins ripened in a pickle (kvass) are slightly squeezed, stacked with a hair up, covered with thick plywood or a board, and a load (for example, a bucket of water) is placed on top. The bedding lasts a day or two, at which time the skin ripens. The main thing during the sojourn is to squeeze out excess moisture from the skin, and the one that remains in it with the pickle just brings it to the condition. If the skin is one, then just fold it in half.

After lying down, you need to remove the remaining acid on the hairline, which can interfere with subsequent processes. Therefore, then it is neutralized within 20-60 minutes:

• or a solution of baking soda - 1-1.5 g / l
• or hyposulfite solution - 10 g/l (in b/w photography it is used as a fixer).

After neutralization, it is better to rinse the skins with clean water.

The next skinning operation is tanning

Tannin tanning is carried out in a decoction of willow bark. Oak bark strongly tightens the skin, which becomes more rigid, and also slightly stains the mezra and hair in a yellowish color. Willow bark is better.

To prepare a decoction, put the bark together with small branches, without tamping, in a bowl, pour water and boil for half an hour. Drain the broth, add 50-60 g of salt to 1 liter of solution and cool to room temperature.

The tanning agent is prepared in advance and the skin is kept in it from 12 hours to 4 days. Its quality can be improved by adding to 10 liters of willow decoction 2-2.5 liters of decoction of horse sorrel roots, prepared in the same way as described above.

Overexposure during tanning is undesirable, and therefore its end is determined as follows (in the groin area): after slightly squeezing (stretching a section of the groin area between the fingers), a small piece of skin is cut off or an incision is made. And on the cut under a magnifying glass, they consider how deeply the tanning agent (yellow) penetrated the skin. The process ends when it is completely impregnated.

The last stage of skinning is greasing.

According to all recipes for dressing skins, greasing is a must, because it makes the skin softer and increases its water resistance.

The recipe for a fat emulsion to finish dressing skins can be done in the following ways:

• mix and then beat well glycerin with egg yolk (1: 1);
• dissolve 50 g of soap in 0.5 l of boiling water and, while stirring, pour in 0.5 l of animal or fish oil, stir and add 5-10 ml of ammonia.

The emulsion is applied to the mezdra with a brush or swab. Then the skins are folded for a 3-4-hour soak, folded in half, skin to skin or hair up on some surface. It is advisable not to stain the fur, so as not to clean it later. After that, they are hung and dried at room temperature.

As the skins begin to dry out, they need to be kneaded and stretched in different directions. After complete drying, they need to be thoroughly wrinkled. Then the hair is combed, and the mezra is rubbed with chalk or tooth powder (they absorb excess fat and give it a pleasant white color) and process sandpaper. In conclusion, the skin is beaten out, dominated and the hairline is finally combed.

Here is such a simple old Siberian skin dressing technology, such a skin dressing recipe is useful to every hunter. In this way, I processed the skins of muskrats, martens, foxes and rabbits. The quality is very high, and the skins are strong and durable. Hares need to be chased away very quickly. Painfully thin.

Gennady Bannikov (G.)