Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Trapping Salting and Tanning Question

This isn't 100% true. Im a trapper, and a tanner, and while salting is a good idea and wont hurt anything there are new tanning formulas out there now where green hides go right in the tan.

"Once they go in to the tanning process they are resoaked and salted before the process starts. Lots of hides fail at that point.".....not true. Salt cured hides are re-hydrated in plain water with some bactericide, before they go in the pickle.....they are not re-salted.

Also you have been given bad advice on the freezing. You can choose to salt or freeze, not both. A salted hide should never be frozen. The proper way to salt a hide is to take as much fat/meat as you can off the hide, then either roll it up and hang it, or lay it out on an angle. Makes no difference how its rolled up. Also the head does have value.....Any pelt that has damage to it ANYWHERE will be downgraded. If the hair is slipping on the head a fur buyer likely wont buy it.


The idea here is to let the moisture drain off. Let it sit for 24 hours, shake off the old salt and then re salt with new salt. Let it sit for another day then hang up to dry. The hide will dry rock hard. Done this way it will keep for a long time. I've got a bunch of wolves and lynx that I am tanning right now that have been salt dried hanging in my shop for two years. I've been guiding hunters for the last 30-years in remote locations with no refrigeration and salting is how we preserve hides. I've never had one slip.....just never freeze a salted hide. Anyone with any experience knows that, is is a recipe for spoilage....

Missed this during the first read. I will take it point by point.

I tan ALL of my own hides and 90% of them are air dried first. The term "Flint Dried" is usually used for African game, and while they are just air dried hides the structure of their skin dries harder than NA game. My only point is that air drying is certainly an option for the OP, not out of the question as you suggest.

Salting hides has nothing to do with the tanning process. Salting a hide is simply to preserve them. Salt does suck out moisture and set the hair, and is a good idea, but its function is to preserve the hide. As an example to show you salting is NOT part of the tanning process. Air dried hides are not salted at any point in the process. They go right into re-hydration of plain water, and from there into the pickle.

As for rolling hides its a moot point. Salted hides should never be frozen period. Anyone that says otherwise is just unwittingly showing their inexperience. Green hides can and are frozen all the time, but it makes no difference how you roll them. If any part of the hide starts to slip you have big problems. Big hides that might not freeze fast enough can be spread out and frozen slowly, but those big hides you are better off salting to begin with.

Hope this helps the OP. I see a lot of improperly handled hides because guys got the wrong info, and it can cost them their hide. Just last spring I got a grizzly hide that had been salted then frozen, it slipped. Just think about how ice reacts to salt.....

Yukon 254, I have a cow hide in the shed that I am salting.

Basically we salted it because we needed it to keep until we could get it tanned.


Of course the shed is not climate controlled, and the hide would have frozen last winter.

Is there reason for concern?

Once its dried it doesn't matter. Your hide will be fine. What you never want to do is put a hide that has just been salted and rolled up in a freezer, like Sitka was advising.

Okay, thanks.

Yukon, what about borax? I have used borax on a lot of hides that I have sent to moyles and haven't had any issues with it. Just curious what your opinion was on it.

I have never used borax myself but I know a lot of guys do and have no problems, so I would go ahead and use it since its working for you. Some of the trappers up here will put borax in the feet when air drying pelts they are going to get tanned, and /or mounted. When I get them I always clean it out good because borax has a high PH and I need a low PH in my pickle, but it sure does a nice job of taking the moisture out of the toe pockets.

Roger that, thanks. I had some wolverines that I trapped about 7-8 years ago that had been in the freezer the whole time. Finally got them processed and I boraxed them really well. Gotta get them sent off at some point, they are good and dry now!

You should do well with those wolverines! Might want to post them on Taxidermy.net I've got good prices there in the past. Good luck !

They are going to get tanned and stay here I sold the best one of the bunch already and did ok with it. Might not have another chance to get after them so I want to keep these

Reading comprehension is a gift.

Show me where I suggested freezing and salting.

I dont have any problem with reading comprehension, actually make a good portion of my living writing and reading now. This is what you said.....When rolling a salted hide for whatever reason, including freezing." Your words in your first post on this thread. What you meant was obvious to anyone who read it.

Are you a tanner?? How in the world would you know what formulas are being used??? Ever hear of the auto tanner? Its very popular and has been for many year now. Krowtan is another very popular tan.


Again....unsalted dried hides ARE NOT RE-SALTED.....ever. You again said you were refrying to unsalted dried hides. One a hide is dry, it is cured. A tanner then re-hydrates it with water then into the pickle. It isn't salted. Salt dries out a hide.....the exact opposite of what a tanner is trying to accomplish.

When you mentioned hair slip, you inferred that it would be better if the hair slipped on the rear of the hide. Hence you instruction for rolling up a hide the way you described. Hair slippage is caused by rot, or the hide being shaved to thin. Once it starts slipping because of rot you have big problems. I have personally never saved a hide that started to slip.


I got into this fray because of your first post where you did recommend salting and freezing. Then you told someone they didnt know anything about salting hides . You said for mounts hides are salted prior to tanning 100% of the time, at every tannery, every time. Then you said hides were "resoaked and salted before the process starts." This simply isn't true. The vast majority of the time the hides a tannery gets are already cured, by either air drying or salt cured. These hides are simply re-hydrated then tanned...no salting done. They certainly are not resoaked then salted again. Green hides need to be salted or air dried. This is done within hours of the animal being killed and skinned, or after a green hide has come out of the freezer.

Nothing wrong with salting a hide, I do it all the time, it is important, especially in field conditions. But it isn't done 100% of the time like you claim. You obviously dont understand the process.

Yukon, thanks for your expertise. As far as having a conversation with Sitka dummy, you’re pissing into the wind.... she’s never wrong....

I have tanned some hides hair on and deer skins hair off. They turned out great. I didn't salt them. I used battery acid and water. And I used to trap. The fur buyers I sold to said to roll the hides up head inside tail out when you freeze them. I didn't question it I just did it like they said. I figure they knew their business. They bought millions of dollars of fur every season.