Save $100 on the Leupold VX-3HD

Cow moose hide

Save or Not?

  • Save for tanning

    Votes: 19 70.4%
  • Leave in the field

    Votes: 8 29.6%

  • Total voters
    27

Addicting

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 19, 2017
Messages
7,780
Location
SW Michigan
I am wondering what to do with the hide. I’ve done a whitetails hide before and when came back it stunk so bad of chemicals it was unusable. Aired it out down stairs for years and it still stunk of chemical. Ended up giving it to someone and I’m pretty sure he pitched it. I would hate to tan this and have the same problem, big waste of money. Also cringe thinking about just letting it rot in the field.
 
I’ve seen a moose hide just tanned and draped over a stair rail. It looks cool. Moose hair falls out like crazy if they have ticks though, it might be a pain to deal with.
 
My first consideration in saving the hide or not would be how far and how difficult is it to get that thing out of there? How much does an entire cow moose hard wiegh?
Heavy, but not that much of a concern. Talking with the BIO/Warden he doubts it will be off a trail more than 500 -1000 yards. He said it is pretty easy walking. So it may be another trip but not anything that would be a deal breaker.
 
If you don’t want it I do 😂😂 do it! Flesh it best you can and then salt the piss outta it. While that’s salting, I’d suggest framing something up to stretch it, it’ll help to get it fleshed easier and more thoroughly. Dump your salt the next day-Poke holes stretch it tight and try to flesh it completely completely done- salt again overnight rubbing it in well every time. When it’s done the next day- you do a homemade pickle or salt bath.. use a fine comb to get out ticks and bugs/burrs.. as long as you’re adding pickle or salt; keeping ph low- it can stay there AWHILE although I only leave about two days. Also, moose is bigger than any I’ve done! I buy the orange bottle hunter and trapper hide tanning formula and that stuffs cool as hell it works really good. Haven’t had any hair slip that wasn’t my own fault. Good luck
 
Let us know what you end up doing. I have a cow moose tag this year and am planning on keeping the hide to get tanned. Probably have it done professionally.
 
My son harvested a nice young bull moose, so the hide was nice and black. I had the hide tanned for him and it’s one of those things that not everyone can say they have … a tanned moose hide. I depends where you shoot that cow moose and whether you can care for it. As someone said, you will most likely need to freeze it if you can‘t flesh and salt it properly. I recommend tanning it. It cost me $700, but worth it to me. A lot of great memories associated with that hide.
 
We tanned the pieces we got from legs. Left hide on them till got home. Cost a fortune but only get 1 1st moose with dad. Was going to make some mitts out of them till Bernie ruined the whole mitt thing. Maybe some slippers.
 
Many years ago when I still lived in Colorado, Joe Jonas Taxidermy in Denver had a deal where they would tan (hair on) any size elk hide for $35. I had them do 3 of my elk hides. The first one was a big, old 6x6 bull and that tanned hide has covered one wall of my Reloading room for over 40 years. Another was a raghorn that I gave to my folds, and the third was a cow that I gave to my sister.

About 15 years ago my folks sold the one that I gave to them for $100, and I think my sister still has hers hanging over a railing in her house.

Over the years I've had deer hides tanned into leather, and one or more antelope hides tanned that I wanted into leather, but they came back tanned with the hair on. All of those hides have been stored in plastic bags since I got them.

Since then I leave the hide on the quarters of my elk, deer, antelope or anything else until I process the meat. Leaving the hide on keeps that side of the quarter clean, and when I process it I don't have to cut the crust off of that side.

The two Shiras moose that I shot I had shoulder mounts of the fronts and threw away the back halves.

When I shot my American buffalo, I took the whole hide into my taxidermist to have a shoulder mount of the head. He asked me what I wanted done with the back hide and when I told him to throw it away, he said "Good!"

Hollow hair hides (deer, elk, moose, antelope) do not wear well on floors or the back of couches as the hairs tend to break off easily making a constant mess, and eventually look bad. Tanned hides also take up a lot of wall space, something many of us are very short of.

On several of my African animals, I knew that I was going to have them done in pedestal mounts so I saved the back skins, had them tanned, and cut the hides to fit the panels in the pedestals.
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Another option is to take a portion of the hide and have it tanned for whatever application you want.
For example, take the thick neck hide for knife sheaths and holsters, etc.
Take the thinner part of the hide for chopper mittens, etc.
Take the mane for fly tyers, etc.
 
We have 2 moose hides tanned hair on and 1 as leather.
They look very nice and no smell at all by now.
Moyle will tan your full hide for less than $400, it has to be fleshed and salted and dried though.
I got lucky with Rocky Mt Tanners on my leather, they actually did a nice job and in a ok time frame way back before they closed.

Shipping the salted and dried hide was kind of expensive though, took a big box.
 
The hide along the legs below the knee has both long n short hair and thick hide. Also multi colored. Probably the easiest to roll up a piece of hide from here I'm thinking. And generally they come out on the leg anyhows to keep the meat clean so it should be easy to get. We throw them out along with the hoof, if someone wanted one.
The older cows get almost yellow and usually in good shape
 
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