salt on pheasant skins?

[fatoldman]

A few years ago I saved a pheasant skins for a guy I worked with. I salted the skin and scraped it down for him. He chewed me out pretty good. He said the salt would contaminate the feathers and rust hooks. How should I treat pheasant skins?

 

[Bamboozle]

I believe most folks prefer borax for birds.

Some good info here as well:

Thread 'How to prepare dead animal parts to fly tying materials?'

Nov 24, 2014

I was talking with a guy that comes into my work the other day and he mentioned he was an avid pheasant hunter. I, having just taken up the art of fly tying and having no clue, mentioned to him that I could make use of some tails off his kill. He very happily brings me a bag full of pheasant tails with feathers and whatever you call the fur they attach to, with skin/meat still holding it all together. Well I really didnt know what to do with it so i put it in the garage and it got infested with maggots and smelled rather unpleasant faster than I thought it would.

In the future what...

• dudemanspecial
• Replies: 21
• Forum: Fly Tying

 

[dudemanspecial]

I believe most folks prefer borax for birds.

Some good info here as well:

Thread 'How to prepare dead animal parts to fly tying materials?'

Nov 24, 2014

I was talking with a guy that comes into my work the other day and he mentioned he was an avid pheasant hunter. I, having just taken up the art of fly tying and having no clue, mentioned to him that I could make use of some tails off his kill. He very happily brings me a bag full of pheasant tails with feathers and whatever you call the fur they attach to, with skin/meat still holding it all together. Well I really didnt know what to do with it so i put it in the garage and it got infested with maggots and smelled rather unpleasant faster than I thought it would.

In the future what...

• dudemanspecial
• Replies: 21
• Forum: Fly Tying

As a side note....I still have and use the pheasant tails that I referenced in this post. Not the maggot infested ones though, they got tossed.

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

(Adding to other's...)
Borax and no salt. (Borax will also repel roaches if sprinkled in the corners of the kitchen floor. Just don't over-do it.)
Remove as much fat as possible before applying preservative. Tame rabbit hides and ducks have more fat than most wild animals, but every hide will typically need some gentle scraping. Nothing makes a hide more rancid than fat.

 

[PennKev]

A few years ago I saved a pheasant skins for a guy I worked with. I salted the skin and scraped it down for him. He chewed me out pretty good. He said the salt would contaminate the feathers and rust hooks. How should I treat pheasant skins?

Scrape the skins well. Go heavy on borax, it can be dusted off later. Clip the wings off and try to deal with them separately, there's too much meat on them and they can be difficult to preserve whole without smelling terrible.

Personally, I did not find male pheasants worth the trouble. I saved three complete skins many years ago and never found much use for most of the feathers. The tail and rump feathers are the most useful. I would just save the tails at this point.