Do any of you ever keep the elk skin?

If so, what do you do with it?

More commonly referred to as the hide.

Yes.

Decoration, blankets. They are very warm. There are companies that will make it into leather gloves, coats, etc. The hide is a pack trip by itself.

made a pair of chaps outta one, once....

Yes. Boy Scouts use to ask hunters to donate them. They made some money in selling them to the tannery.

Early on, I had it tanned,traded for gloves,made chaps, donated it.Now I hang the green hide in the corral to get the mules use to the smell before I try to pack meat and hide out on them if I do bring it out. 75% of the time I leave the hide with the guts

I used to trade raw hides for gloves, etc at the tannery. But since they closed, it goes with the carcass to the processor if I can get the elk out whole. If I bone out to pack out it stays with the entrails.

Fact - an elk hide is darned heavy.

Around here, getting an elk hide tanned costs around $400, hair on. I don't know the price without hair.

I've been hoping to get a wolf. Tanning a wolf hide costs $275 at one place with a posted price list.

I used to brain tan lots of buckskin. After skinning elk I don’t think I could handle one that big anymore. 20 years ago would have been different. Lotta work. Would like a brain tan elk hide. Buffalo too. Passed up a brain tan buff hide last December. It was cheap too. Opted to spend what cash I had on something else.

Many years ago, Joe Jonas Taxidermy in Denver had a deal where they would tan any elk hide with hair on for $35. I had several done, gave one to my Sister, one to my Folks, and I kept a big 6x6 hide for my self. My sister still has hers hanging over an upstairs railing, before they passed, my folks sold their for $100 and gave me the cash. My 6x6 hide pretty much covers an 8' x 8' wall in my reloading room where it has been hanging since 1978.

For a few years Pacific Hide and Fur would give me a few bucks for a green elk skin, but it was hardly worth the effort. Most of my elk hides have just gone to the dump along with the bones after I process the meat.

You need to check out Moyle Mink, they have good prices and do a good job.

https://moyle.net/static/media/Taxidermy_Pricelist.460fe2df.pdf

https://moyle.net/static/media/Fur_Pricelist.0edefc6d.pdf

I always say I’m going to keep my next one to have tanned and toss on the floor or over the back of the couch. And then I get all the meat hauled out of some hellhole and decide that the hide can stay there with the guts!

Have tanned four hides. Two buckskin, and 2 hair on. An early season summer hair hide that Cookie bagged has held up well having the shinny appearance and durability of a slick summer horse hide. The winter hide with it's brittle hollow hair went down the road in a yard sale. Shed like a dog at the slightest touch.

Most stay in the woods now.

The last half dozen elk I've shot have all been late season and wearing their winter woollies.

Have had two tanned, hair-on, over the years--mostly for photographic backgrounds: A lot of rifles look really good on 'em!

The first was the hide from my wife's first elk, a spike. Eventually it started spraying loose hair every time I picked it up. Had a Colorado raghon hide tanned maybe 15 years ago to replace it, which has held up OK so far.

I actually have this one from a 6x6 for sale on Craigslist, hoping to sell local, as shipping is kinda not cost effective:

Coyote bait out back across the river I do like aalf's hide on the wall

I have one in the freezer if I ever get through my project list I might try fleshing and tanning it.
Have watched a few videos but need a fleshing pole and knife.

Had a couple tanned with hair on, three with hair off for possible use later on. Maybe vests, gloves, etc. The two with hair on lay on the floor for the grandkids to play on more than anything else it seems.

Boliep: Many years ago I shot a nifty 5x5 Bull Elk late in the season up in the Bighole Country of western Montana. This Bull had such a beautiful hide I decided to have the whole hide tanned with hair on and use the "skin" as a bed foot warmer.
Came back from the tannery just perfect and the first time the VarmintWife and I threw it on top of the covers over our lower bodies we nearly sweated to death.
Tried it a few more times on even colder nights and same results - that "skin"/hide just retains/induces so much heat you can't sleep under it.
The tanned hide with hair on is now on display in my home over a stairwell bannister and it looks nice there - next to NO hairs have shed from it over 15 years or so.
Looks nice but to warm to be useful IME.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I gave one hide to my guide - his first successful guided hunt.

I kept mine from last season - 38 squared feet - and we didn't Swiss cheese it on the skin-out, so we’ll see how it turns out.

The COVID has the tanner shut down, not sure when I’ll see it back.

The rest of the hides - coyote bait.

That Moyle Mink outfit has the best tanning prices I've seen in a long time. Some taxidermist might be wanting to double the price just for a handling/shippping charge.

Sorry for the drift, but this might be the perfect thread to ask;

I've got a full Elk hide that's been in the deep freeze for over 20 years. Some say it could be good, others say no. Whatya think?

I think after 20 years with nothing happening, there's no chance motivation will rear it's head now......

Touche'

Motivation can be tiring.

Most taxidermists don't actually tan them. They ship them off while taking a cut for the handling. Moyles have their own tannery.

FWIW, back in college in the '60's, I dated a Moyle daughter from their farm near Eagle, ID. She was a good looking farm girl, one who could break you in half if you got out of line.

Thanks RC, being flippant about the taxidermist but have asked them for an approx. price & it always seemed out of line.

Talking to Moyle or any Co. like them might be the best place for an answer, Captain Obvious was correct in the fact that I'm not likely to do anything with it, but thought about gifting it to a young person with interest or friends with interior decorating plans that this could benefit. If a chance of it still being good without having to thaw it to just guess.

I've made some into tanned leather to make stuff out of and have had 2 tanned with hair on to throw over the backs of couches. But most stayed where they hit the ground.

I've known about Moyle's tannery for years but this was the 1st I've heard that they take in outside work. If I ever get my wolf, I'll likely take it to them.
When they list a price for a cape, are they just talking the front part or are they talking about a whole skin? They list a whole hide for elk but not for wolves.

yes elk hides are beautiful when tanned, >but no we have never kept a elk hide,our reason we had to pack the meat and horns out on our backs and by the last meat/pack trip of that elk we did not have the energy to go back and get the elk hide. but i have always wished i would have went back and got a elk hide just never happened,maybe someday when i am older and just hunt a 2-track out of the truck.

Moyle will tan almost anything if you flesh and salt before sending it in.
They have prices for whole hides, capes half hides etc. Look on the taxidermy price list and intact fur dressing.
They did 2 bison hides for us, many furs, feral hog tails, and our mt lion hide from this past winter.
We skinned our mt lion as if for a rug and requested intact fur tanning instead of taxidermy tan, turned out great.
Our taxidermist does not prefer their tan for mounts but does like the fur tanning.
Turn around times vary but our mt lion was back in 1 1/2 months this year.

I found the wolf price - $69. That's a darn good price. FWIW, you can take 15 wolves a year in Idaho, assuming you can find them. I'm still looking for my 1st shot at one.

It is less expensive to buy a prime hide already tanned and processed than to have your own done.

Yes but the satisfaction of taking that animal yourself and working the hide is not the same.

Where can you buy a prime bobcat for $33 , the price Moyle will tan it for? I can shoot or trap one and get it tanned for that, no way to buy a good one for $33, well maybe a southern bobcat but not a prime western one.
I will say put up takes time and the effort you put in is what you get back on quality of the tanned hide.

When you add it all up, it's also cheaper to buy beef at Costco than it is to hunt it. Getting your own is the goal, not saving money.

Yeah, that.

Elk hides weigh about as much as a medium size whitetail, and you can't eat any of it. I'd love a tanned elk hide, but I can't get anybody to haul one out for me

Oh well,

Which is one big reason I've only had two tanned in 45+ years of killing elk.

My statement needed a question mark. As in, why is that? Along with why does is cost as much to reload shot shells as to buy a new box?

Ah , should have read more closely.
For some perhaps as you must figure in the cost of the animal harvest and the tanning cost.
Most furs you see for sale already tanned I bet are lesser quality furs, some type of defect or less prime.
Our bobcats for example are inexpensive to take, fur bearers license $45 and the tanning about $33. Good prime bobcats are worth good money to fur houses, hundreds of dollars. A tanned prime bobcat is going to be expensive compared to the $ 45 fur bearers license and $33 tanning fee. That $45 license will allow unlimited take on the same bobcats.

Some taxidermist will pay $100 for a cape for re-doing mounts or when they re-do a euro mount. One processing place in NM would give you a $50 rebate if you gave them the hide. An elk skin makes a great camping pad even a raw hide one.

I've had two tanned hair off and smoked by Haigles Tannery in I think Bozeman, Mt. Had a custom pair of beautiful chinks made for my sister from one and the other just recently got to my Leathersmith. Hes making me a possibles bag. Kind of a Mountain Man/Indian style.
And I'll think of something else.......He is friends with a Navajo beader/rug maker.
Hard to let that beautiful hide go to waste......

I shot my first elk, a cow tag, in 1978. I shot it in the head so there are no holes in the hide. I had the hide tanned with the hair on and I still have it. I have displayed the hide a variety of ways. Right now, it's draped over the back of a leather couch, in the game room.

Native American friend asked my wife for an elk hide from my next elk. I told the wife “hell no I’m exhausted just carrying boned out meat. My hunting partner is much nicer he volunteered to flesh one out salt it & bring it home.

He got a nice fat cow one hole in the vitals, spent at least another hour making sure the hide was clean before we packed out his & mine from the same group. He had laid the hide out Hair up the day before on a flat clean patch of snow. Last trip the next morning he was ready to carry it out only about a mile. Sadly it was frozen solid to the ground. We tried to pry it up but no luck - I offered to pee on the edges to melt the ice so he could carry it down the hill.....he declined & didn’t volunteer again.

An elk hide is heavy, the wetter it gets the heavier. Heaviest pack I ever carried was my muzzleloader bull moose hide. Went in to retrieve it the third day after the kill, and it had rained all night. Folded it into a square package with the sopping wet hair out, roped it to the packframe. At the halfway point was a dome shaped rock I used as a resting spot (one of several). I sat down there and rested the frame on the rock behind me without taking off the shoulder pads. Tipped over backwards and laid there awhile like a turtle flipped on his back. Paid over 400 bucks for hair-on tan, and it really is nice to look at, but I might not do it again!

Carried out a really blonde bull hide from one my Grandad shot one year. It was a heavy SOB but all downhill so not too bad. Got it home and froze it until Grandad decided he didn’t want to have it tanned. Gave it to some local Indian guys who make powwow drums and stuff like that. Found it in the dumpster a week later when it started to stink. Haven’t freighted one out since.

I was fortunate to work for outfitters most of my time in the elk woods. Always had some good horses to choose from. I had all my hides tanned with the hair off. Kept my first two from many years ago which still cover the seats of my work truck 36 years or so later. If one has the resources to get the hide out , I believe we owe it to the animal!