dinorocks

Thought you might like to see how I egg tanned a squirrel I caught the other day. Photos of the steps below. After you skin and flesh, put up on a board fur in and dry for a couple days. Wipe off any beads of oil that form on the leather side as it dries. Once dry, put in warm water with dawn dish soap to get any oils off leather. Swish it around once it softens up. Let it sit in soapy water for a few hours...any longer and the fur will slip. I changed the water/soap once during the process. If there are oils (and fat) on the leather, the dressing will not penetrate properly. Rinse with clean water and squeeze water out. If you wring the pelt, the fur may get damaged (slip). Hang until tacky to the touch, turning inside out a couple times during the drying process. To make dressing (the tanning solution), I used one egg yoke (remove the white of the egg), a few tablespoons of warm water, and a little squirt of Castile soap. Mix up and rub onto leather side. Massage into both sides and the tail. Turn fur side out making sure you limit the dressing on the fur side. Roll up and let sit overnight. Thats as far as I got tonight. Tomorrow I will flip pelt and rub dressing in again...stretching leather as I work the dressing in. After letting it sit overnight again, I will then do the stretching phase and smoke the leather. I’ll post a description and photos when I get to that step. If you tan other critters, the process is slightly different. I hope I got you inspired to try this! Rabbits, squirrels, and fox are easier than the thick-skinned critters. I would be happy to answer any questions if you want to give it a try. Note, this is the way I have tanned with success...there are lots of ways to tan. Good Luck! Dino

Sure! I’m just east of Buffalo. Season ends next week so it will need to wait until next year...be sure to reach out to me !

Just came up with number seven...tendons for sewing. just finished preparing tails. Looking forward to tanning them and making stuff!

The beavers were both between 45 and 50#...one was just over 45 and the other just under 50. My largest was 65...caught on a nuisance job behind my kids school during a blizzard a few years back. I’m always surprised how many fleas beavers have...one would think they didn’t have many spending so much time in the water. ...but I’ll take fleas over deer ticks any day!!

...not knife handle but a bow wrap. The "scales" on the tail have a nice grippy feel when I hold the bow. I actually use the tails green on the bows (tanning not needed as long as I get all the oils out...I typically dry them on cardboard and rehydrate before I use them). I also made cool medallions with the beaver tail leather for an archery event last year.

Thanks! Beaver can be prepared like any other meat except it needs to be completely cooked...i.e., no red as I was told that there could be a potential for giardia. I personally prepare by cutting into medallions, soak in butter milk for a few hours, dry with a paper towel, apply a little olive oil, and dry rub. I like to cook in cast iron skillet on my wood stove with a little onion, mushroom, and of course, bacon!

I nuisance trapped a couple nice beavers yesterday! In the perfect world, I try to time my nuisance work with the open trapping season so I don’t have to dispose of the critter…I always like to use as much of the animals I harvest as possible. Thought I would share, along with photos, six things that I typically do with the beavers I catch. 1. Skin out and sell or tan the pelt. 2. Remove the backstrap and hind leg meat to eat. If you have never tried beaver meat, I highly recommend you give it a try! I rate beaver as some of the finest meats I have eaten. 3. I keep the skulls and either clean them up myself or give to my beetle guy…they typically get donated to schools, Scout groups, nature centers, etc.…I have a bunch that I use a props when they fit into various presentation I give. Sometimes I’ll remove the teeth and use as decorations/trimmings on bags, etc. that I make or use for medallions or trade at the primitive rendezvous. Fun fact, beavers have “metal teeth”. Instead of magnesium in their enamel like other rodents, they have iron…this increases the strength of their teeth and makes them more resistant to acid. They are also orange because of the iron…just like our blood is red (because of the iron). Beavers teeth also grow continuously. 4. I skin the tail out and use the leather for bow grip wraps on the bows I make…or tan to make stuff. Last year I tanned a small beaver with the tail (and claws) still attached…it worked out great and I plan to do that again. Some people extract the oils from the tail and use for lure making. 5. I remove the castoreum, dry and either sell or use to make lures. Beaver castoreum is used in both food and perfume industries…look it up, very interesting! 6. I then chunk up the rest of the carcass and use for bait! So there you have it…lots to do with a beaver! I challenge you to get the most out of your harvests, whether it is a bird, deer, or other critter! It is not only a cool learning process and respectful to the animal, but also very rewarding knowing that you maximized your harvest. Take care, Dino

I use them as beer koozies at the primitive rendezvous I attend to conceal my beverage. Below are Picts of my summer-weight koozie. I use the ones with fur in the winter (didn’t have that one handy for the photo shoot).

Ha! Traveling to sell my fur...I’ll post a picture tomorrow when I get home of what I use the squirrels for...any guesses ???

Thanks guys, a labor of love! A Real quick tutorial if you are interested...after I remove the pelt and as much meat as I can from the skulls, I simmer them until the remaining meat, brains, etc. comes off. I remove the teeth and then use an air compressor to blow out the brain and sinus cavity as well as all the nerves holes, etc from the skulls, including the lower jaw. I then put the pieces in water with a surfactant (Dawn dish soap) and heat the water to 85 F for several days, changing the water frequently. I scrub the skull, jaw bones, and teeth along the was as this helps remove the fat from the bone (even if the skull looks clean and white after the “bleaching” step, the fatty oils will start showing up down the road if there is no effort to remove fat...this will cause yellow blotches on the skull). My next step it to air dry the skull and then put in H2O2...NOT bleach! I have been using 27% (pool clarifier) with great success (the brown bottle you buy at the pharmacy is 3%...it works but not as fast). I also heat the H2O2 with a fish tank heater so the H2O2 is more reactive. After a few days, I remove the skulls and let air dry...I don’t rinse because the H2O2 continues to whiten while it dries. The last step is gluing the puzzle back together (If you are doing more than one skull at a time, it’s best to segregate the teeth for each critter). I use elmers glue to reattach the teeth and lower jaw because if I make a mistake, I can soften the glue with water and straighten my mistakes. I do deer skulls a similar method but need to take great care not to get H2O2 on the antlers. I have a skull from almost every species of mammal in NY...with the matching pelt (I use these as teaching tools when I present at schools or Scout groups). My surplus skulls go to my beetle guy. I collected lots of skulls this past season...see pict below. Send me an email if you have any questions on preparing skulls that I might be able to answer for you. Thanks for reading! Dino dinorocks@gmail.com

Hi Larry! I’ll take them. Thanks!

With thanksgiving right around the corner, going all out this morning, right down to my loin cloth! (My one goal this season is to harvest with a round ball!)

November 18, 2019. Got to work very early so I could bust out in time for a short sit in the “nest stand” behind my house in 9F. I had all my hunting gear laid out for the quick switcheroo from my dress clothes to my hunting wool. Once changed, I literally ran the ¼ mile to my stand. I no longer got to the top of my ladder when I caught a glimpse of a doe feeding in some old wild apple trees about 60 yards out. I prepped myself and watched it through my scope until I had an opportunity to thread the proverbial needle. I believe the deer was quartering to me slightly when I shot (12 gauge Rem 870). I watched the deer run about 30 yards and lost sight of it. Seconds later, I saw “it” again standing broadside except this time it had antlers. I shot and he fell instantly. After an hour, just before dark, I started to look for the first deer I shot…I saw were the deer took off running after I shot and then saw the blood…so much blood I was convinced it was piled up very close. I started to track and went about another 50-60 yards when I saw it sitting down…I stopped and as I slowly backed away, I saw it get up and run like it wasn’t hit. I started wondering if I just had saw a different deer, so, knowing the deer ran out of sight, I went to where I saw the deer, and low and behold, the ground was covered in blood…lots of blood! At this point, I went back to the buck, gutted and tagged him, and dragged him up to the house. After about 3 hours after my first shot, I went back out with my sled to track and hopefully retrieve the doe. It was very easy tracking with all the blood on the sparse snow cover, and I never expected I would have needed to track so far. I finally found the deer and saw it was still alive. I watched the deer jump up, run, swim across the creek, climb up a very steep back and lay down. I sat there for a half hour, intermittently shinning my very weak light and catching its eyes bobbing around. At this point , knowing it was still alive, I headed back home to plan my next move. Around 10:00PM, after killing time butchering my archery deer and cleaning up some toe bones, my brother met me, and we hiked back out. We grabbed the canoe and paddled down the creek (a very swift ~1/4 mile paddle down stream in the rising water), portaging around some rapids, to where I saw the deer cross. Just yesterday, the creek was iced up…that evening, the creek was starting to flood after the warm up we had earlier that day. Upstream of where I last saw the deer, we beached the canoe and started to stalk up. I spotted the deer in the same spot, stiff as a board, with the front leg almost chewed off as well as several bite marks on the hind quarters…the coyotes beat me to the deer …luckily only minor damage and salvageable. It appeared that the slug went through the neck and out the front shoulder. After gutting, tagging, and loading the deer in the canoe, we started our even more treacherous trip back up-current…I have paddled many deer in a canoe and they always make the canoe very unstable. Again, a very strenuous paddle back, up-current, portaging back around rapids, and somehow getting the deer out of the canoe and up a steep bank to my sled. Following a relatively easy pull on my sled the ¼ mile back to my house (except the long hill and snow-less sections of the trail), I hung it up, grabbed the tenderloins, washed up, and went to bed. Unfortunately, I didn’t get many action photos…it was the last thing on my mind at the time. Looking forward to muzzle loading season! Congrats to those who harvested and good luck to those who are still trying!

Just got back in after a crazy afternoon hunt and even crazier track...Long story short, a buck and a doe...one of which I tracked over 1/2 mile over land and about the same distance via canoe to bring it home. Couldn’t have completed the retrieval without the help of my brother. After 6 hours of waiting and tracking (and butchering my archery deer) the coyotes beat me to it...luckily only minor damage. Great to read about all the success you guys and girls had!!

No deer tonight but a great time being in the woods this season! Enjoyed following everyone’s hunt! Worked hard to harvest and now enjoying some of it...although not working hard at eating it...tenderloins Swiss-steak style...melts in your mouth! Cheers! Good luck tomorrow!