I'm heading out tomorrow with my brother to see if we can harvest a couple of the 2 point mule deer we saw 3 weeks ago over our opening day, 4 day Muley hunt. We covered a lot of ground, and have a good idea of where they go, so we're hopeful. One thing I don't see talked about much here is preserving the deer hide. I'd like to use as much of the animal as possible, and I think having deer hides would be pretty cool for rugs or blankets, if done right.

Does anybody here do it themselves? Or do you send it to a tanner?

If so, what is the process that you do once you take down the deer; do you skin and remove as much fat/meat off the hide right away, or just roll it up and do it later.

Sorry for the newbie question, just putting positive vibes out there that we'll have success, not trying to count chickens before they hatch

Thank you,

Josh