Tanning bear hide at home

[MadMango]

Hi, long-time lurker, first-time poster here. I am planning on going on my first ever hunt soon, as I missed the spring bear season due to CORE courses being delayed from COVID. I have a blackbear and a mule deer tag. I was planning on taking the hide as well if I manage to harvest a blackbear. I have been looking into tanning the hide myself at home for a rug or wall hanging and it seems like every video or guide I see is slightly different. I also live in an apartment so will be doing this indoors.

Does anyone have a method they prefer or any tips they would like to share?

also somewhat related: is it safe to drink bear blood? I watched Red Dawn last night...

[tigrr]

What are you smoking? Drink bear blood.
First question have you ever felt how course a bear hair hide is?
2nd get it done by a guy with a 45 gallon bucket of formaldehyde. If its on the wall who cares how stiff the leather is.
My last 5 bears, the hide fed the ravens from the 4 inches of fat on the hides. Then the wolves came along and ate the hides. All of it.

[MadMango]

Thanks for the stern warning, any idea what % concentration of formaldehyde will be adequate?

[Downtown]

I am afraid, your Landlord wont be your Friend much longer !

Cheers

[MadMango]

True, whenever I have been around formaldehyde I can still smell it in my nostrils hours later. acid-based pickling methods + commercially available tanning rub seem to be popular methods.

[RugDoctor]

The trick with drinking bear blood is you have to drink all of it....and the best form is to suck it out of the rump. When you tan your hide in the apartment, just let the flesh rot off for the first week or so, then use a strong formaldehyde solution.

Of course I’m totally kidding....as I assume you are. Don’t do any of the things you, or I mentioned other than the hunting. And if you weren’t kidding, rethink the hunting as well.

[MadMango]

Are you trying to tell me it's a bad idea to tan a hide in my apartment and let it stretch on my balcony for the whole neighbourhood to see?

[RugDoctor]

Are you trying to tell me it's a bad idea to tan a hide in my apartment and let it stretch on my balcony for the whole neighbourhood to see?
Maybe start with some stray cats and see if everyone is accepting, and then move onto larger game.

[tigrr]

Please take videos of what ever you do! And post them in this thread. Know any people who work at embalming?
Now I have to search for formaldehyde.

[Ryan_92]

If your planning on hunting bears i recommend being familiar with tuberculosis.

[MadMango]

Do you mean trichinosis?

[MadMango]

https://globalnews.ca/news/7335041/dead-bear-calgary-apartment/

These nosy apartment managers I tell ya.

[marshman,]

You can do it, hardest and most important is the fleshing, an ironing board would probably work & You can pickle it in the bathtub, get a commercial tanning kit or a formula off the net. I don’t know anyone that drank any blood, but maybe just consider eating it’s nuts.

[pin_head]

I used this stuff a couple times. It works but the hide was pretty stiff afterwards. Should be good enough to hang on the wall.

https://www.cabelas.ca/product/61349/trappers-hunters-hide-tanning-formula

I will tell you however, there’s a reason taxidermy costs so much. It is a frickin pain in the cunning linguals. I had a deer hide in my basement bathtub for weeks going back to flesh, wash, dry, repeat.

go forth with vigour, but understand you’re going to battle!

Brad

[MichelD]

All I can say is that just scrapping fat and flesh of the hide prior to salting is a Phuq of a lot of work.

I gave a hide to a buddy and we laid it out on a 4x8 piece of plywood, scraped and scraped and scraped until just the hide was exposed and then put a thick layer of coarse salt on it, with the plywood tipped up at at angle and you wouldn't believe the volume of water that soakd out of th ehide intothe salt and ran on to the floor. fortunately the garage was not level and it drained outside.

We did this as prep prior to taking it to the tannery.

[MichelD]

If your planning on hunting bears i recommend being familiar with tuberculosis.


Why do you write that?

[chappy]

first you have to shoot the bear. skin it out without damaging the hide then being its a fall bear is the coat thick enough to make it worth while.then home tan it. sounds like a tough task.

[Rieber]

Yes. Make sure you slip the bear out of his pajamas before griping him into the bathtub of brine. These guys scratch like a housecat when they get wet.

Out of curiosity, have you ever stepped into a taxidermist office - stinks to high heck to someone not accustomed to that smell. Consider that when you try doing this in your condo. Should be an interesting learning opportunity. I look forward to learning of your results.

[Rieber]

I saw on mountain men, Tom the oldest guy boiled the brains as a tanning step. Is this really done or is that just a backwoods old school method? Or is the commercial kit something that replaces using the brains rendered down?

I’m getting a little more interested in this now. I would also give it a try if I had any use for a bear hide or any hide for that matter.

[WWBC]

Did one this spring

step #1
flesh hide as well as you can then salt the hide heavily, fold skin to skin and let sit over night. ( preferably on a slope so some of the liquid can drain off.
Step #2 make a pickling solution using citric acid and salt. ( google will give you a ratio and PH level )Make enough to half fill a plastic garbage can. You want to fully submerge hide. Let sit for 2 or 3 days.
Step #3. Pull hide out of pickle solution and flesh hide again. You’ll see the hide will have plumped up and will be easier to flesh.
#4. Quickly neutralize in water with baking Soda then make a degreaser bath. Dawn dish soap works okay. Soak and agitate for a few hours.

Step #5 repeat step 3 with another pickling bath for a couple days. ( make sure your PH is low enough. You may need to add acid after a day for so.

Step #6. Repeat step #4

Step #7 stretch hide out on a board and let dry. You can thin the hide with a wire wheel on a grinder or drill.

Now that the hide is preserved you can move to tanning. The Orange bottle tanning solution you buy from amazon does a good job. just don’t use too much as it has a chemical smell.


Fair warning this is tons of work.

have fun

[chappy]

i think you should video for us. would like to see you boil brains in a condo. i have boiled skulls but never inside.

[WWBC]

Keep in mind bears are super greasy.
You’ll have to work hard to get all the grease and oils out of the hide.
Dish soap might not be strong enough on a fall bear.

[Mosin]

You should stuff the bear instead of making a rug...put a funnel in his butt and pour see plaster down it and same with the mouth but have it in the position you want to turning out to look like, I prefer standing them up on two feet with their mouth wide open and ears folded back.

[bruce44]

Don't drink bear blood. They are wild animals with many parasites that can be transferred. You also don't know if they have any viruses like rabies. Treat bear meat like you would pig meat. Cooked well and can never be too careful.

[MadMango]

Thanks for the tips WWBC, I assume if I run into degreasing problems with dish soap, then laundry detergent may be the way to go?

and for the record, yes everyone I was not serious about drinking bear blood. But the home tanning - very real.

[RugDoctor]

Thanks for the tips WWBC, I assume if I run into degreasing problems with dish soap, then laundry detergent may be the way to go?

and for the record, yes everyone I was not serious about drinking bear blood. But the home tanning - very real.
Good on ya. I’ve done rabbits in the house, but nothing more than that. Of course they were small, in ice cream pales and easily fleshed. You could run into some stink with a bear...maybe not if you flesh it well before bringing it in, and keep on top of it....as far as leaving it on your balcony....I’m not one to hide the fact that I hunt and then use what I take, so again....good on ya.

[britman101]

I am still working on the bear I got this Spring. Decided to save some money and do the tanning myself. I own my own place in the country and could not imagine doing a bear hide in an apartment. To me it would be a sure fire way to get evicted. There is a reason why most hunters only skin and freeze the bear hide and take it to taxidermist for them to finish the tanning of the hide. However, if an individual is inclined to go the do it yourself way, get the Trubond tanning supplies. There is an outfit in Alberta called Coyote trapping supplies that can help you out with placing an order for these items.

[Rob Chipman]

What are you smoking? Drink bear blood.

My last 5 bears, the hide fed the ravens from the 4 inches of fat on the hides. Then the wolves came along and ate the hides. All of it.

Can't believe you don't take the fat! Great for cooking, even better for leather.


Aside from that, skinning them nicely isn't that hard, but it will be greasy as f*#@! Careful around eyes, ears, lips, and paws.

Great rug by the bed.

[Ryan_92]

Yes typo my bad lol

[Retiredguy]

Can't believe you don't take the fat! Great for cooking, even better for leather.


Aside from that, skinning them nicely isn't that hard, but it will be greasy as f*#@! Careful around eyes, ears, lips, and paws.

Great rug by the bed.

Yes, render the fat down and use it for many things....good for leather, but it makes the best pastry. My wife uses bear lard for pie crusts and it is incredible. First nations use it for arthritis, rubbing it into affected joints.

An early fall bear hide is a tough item to tan as it is a long ways from prime. When fleshing it most people damage the hair follicles at the base and a lot of the guard hairs fall out. You pricked the worst time of year to tan a bear hide and to do it at home. As mentioned, I think it is a good way to get your butt punted out of your apartment block unless you have some other place where you can do all the dirty work with fleshing and stretching, etc etc etc.

If you go ahead with it...good luck and I hope it turns out for you. Good practice run anyways and then maybe you will learn a lot and be ready for doing another bear hide on a bear killed in early spring or late fall. :)

[tigrr]

I insist you video all this!! You'll be famous.
I know a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy who tanned a bear 15 years ago. He is still trying to get the smell out of his clothes.
Neither my wife or I can eat much rendered bear fat. So to nature it goes. But I can eat a greasy pork chop and no problems.
Oh and they can't kick you out till dec!! Covid rules!