Skinning Birds?

D

dickey

New member
Joined
Oct 21, 2009
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6
I got some birds from some of my upland hunting friends and am going to skin them myself does anyone know of a good site to assist me, or can someone explain it to me. These are some nice pheasants, chucker, and ducks with the potential to yeild thousands of flies for nothing, I just do not want to mess them up.
 
Here are a couple sites about skinning birds.

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/atlantic/skinning.php

http://www.flyfishingwis.com/html/tying_materials.html#brids
 
Live2Fish,
Thank you for the information, this will be a big help.
 
I'm a plucker.
 
Check out the tips and tricks forum I posted an article on preserving the hides there. I just did 2 phesants myself this past week and they came out great.

Couple tips for ya
bird skin is very thin and punctures easy when skinning but peels off very easy.

Ducks and phesants are very fatty and it sticks to the skin. If you want to do it right purchase a fleshing tool it will save you a big headache. I used a razor blade and paid the price. If you do not remove the fatty tissue it will rot and you skin will be all but trash.

When skinning remove the wings and tails and just pluck the best feathers. Defleshing is a mother.

I personally laid them out on a piece of cardboard and just used thumb tacks to stretch the hides. Scrap off the biggest fatty tissues and rub in borax.

Let it sit for 24 hrs remove the borax and the fat will have a thin dry cover on it. Now is when I really took my time in removing as much fat as possible. When finished rub in borax and let sit 24 hrs.

Dump off borax and you should be good to go if you have fat you missed scrape and recoat those areas. You can do this as often as necessary. No need to rush.


As for my loose feathers just put them in a zip lock bag with alittle borax, shake and let sit. Shake the bag around when you think of it for a day or so and they are good to go.

Hope this helps if you need anything else email or pm I'd be glad to help.
 
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