How to prepare dead animal parts to fly tying materials?

dudemanspecial

dudemanspecial

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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 should I have done besides the obvious plucking the tail feathers out? The other parts with the short feathers looked like it could be useful but what about all the dead animal stuck to it? What do people do with rabbit/squirrel fur that is still on the skin to keep it from going rancid? What if i see something dead on the road that looks useful? I am not above buying materials but if I see a way to be resourceful I am going to jump on it, but I need to be educated on what to do.
 
Scrape the flesh, fat and meat off the skin and coat it liberally with 20 mule team borax. Allow to dry out until skin is dry and smooth. Dust off and you got yerself a skin.

KIMIHKIWIATA
 
Check out the book "From Field to Fly" by Scott Seymour ($8.85 from Amazon.) It gives complete instructions on preparing and preserving fly tying materials from wild game. I've even made my own zonker strips using his techniques. I get a lot of satisfaction from catching fish on flies I've tied using materials I've (legally) harvested with my shotgun, .22 and deer rifle.
 
Borax works well.

For feathers I just trim off the end. Way easier that way.
 
Thanks guys exactly what I was looking for. I didn't even know they still sold borax. I remember cleaning my dirty hands as a child with my grandfather using it. I'll pick up that book too.
 
Borax can sometimes be hard to find. I think Walmart and Weis markets usually have it.
 
20 Mule team borax works well, got mine at Walmart. I've had four hens and two **** birds drying in my garage for about a month now. I will scrape the first coating of borax off and reapply a fresh coating this week. In another month the skins, wings and tails will be good to go.
 
After you have dried them using borax or borax and salt, it is not a bad idea to put them in the microwave for 20 seconds to kill any eggs that may have survived deep down in the feathers or hair. If the skin is not completely dry, it will sizzle in the microwave and really stink up the kitchen, so try this while the wife is out of town.

I'm always on the lookout for roadkill birds and I do a little pheasant hunting, so I always seem to have some dead parts hanging around, literally. I have skinned birds and treated them in the past but mostly I just pluck the useful feathers and cut off the wings. The loose feathers go into ziploc bags and are hung above the woodstove for weeks to dry out; same for the wings (stove is in cellar man-cave). I always follow up with micowave treatment. Besides the pheasants, I've also got a coot and a woodcock working now.
 
Borax for birds, salt for mammals.
 
Tups -The microwave doesn't hurt the feathers?
Brooke chaser- does it matter what kind of salt?
 
I use regular table salt.
 
Skin your pelts or hides....bird or mammal...remove all fat & meat etc. and press the flesh side against a piece of cardboard to absorb any excess fat in the skin. Let dry for a few days then peel off and store in a bug proof container. You'll notice you don't see any borax or salt on a Whiting, Metz, etc. pelt.
Also for bugs in the hide, etc. Don't ruin the wifes microwave. Place in a plastic bag and placed it in your freezer...dead bugs...no stink.
And that soap you and Grandpa used....BORAXO...not borax...I used it with my dad.
 
codym: I use regular table salt and borax (walmart clothes detergent aisle). The microwave will not hurt the feathers in any way, but, if the skin is not entirely dried out, the fat and moisture will sizzle while cooking. This is a good wat to confirm whether or not your skins are truly dry.

ukey: The freezer treatment is good in theory, but many insect eggs have a way of surviving frozen temperatures. But the micowave boils their vital juices causing certain death.

Never mix and store your roadkill feathers with your expensive genetic hackles, just in case a couple of eggs survived your ethnic cleansing procedures. A buddy of mine lost several hundred bucks worth of Whiting feathers by storing them in the same container with his ruffed grouse feathers.
 
Tups..sorry, no microwaves when I started to save pelts in the early 1950's. And be careful fellas, it's against Pa. Game Comm. laws to pick up roadkill of any type, bird or animal, without a salvage permit....with the exception of whitetail deer , which must be reported within 24 hours.
 
freezers work. When in doubt pull them out let them thaw out for a few days and refreeze. As with the last option I posted, this method may not kill all the eggs, though it usually does.....thawing and refreezing will take care of the rest or at least put your mind at ease.

Borax and salt as stated....They'll only penetrate so far. Salts around 1/4" clean it up good than borax. The more meat/fat/oil glands you remove, the better the salt/borax/alum or drying hides will do its job. For what we do using borax salt or alum wont hurt a thing and imho isn't a step I'd not do. None of my whitings are showing borax...but most of them that have the attached card are showing oil stains. Which in turn is a magnet for dermestids to destroy your fly tying arsenal!

If you're worried about bugs initially (lice/fleas), throw it in hole in the freezer first in a bag....freeze, Than thaw, de meat (make sure you get any preening glands around the base of tail feathers) and scrape fat on furs and pin out. now you can salt/borax/alum. I like to pin out tails in feathers as well. If theirs any meat it will keep it from becoming a rock hard mess, if not it helps with the drying process. Borax/salt/alum is not required on pelts, though I'd recommend them! Its only typically used on green hides in the trapping world to prevent slipping, alum rocks in this department btw! Though you wont get docked at the sales normally if you do use it, I like using borax/alum on the face area if I'm not able to do a good job fleshing. I'd rather show a little borax than loose a hide to slippage!

If you do end up with problems, which can happen in any fly tyers/trapper/hunters life (it has mine), a trash bag and raid will fix the issue depending on the degree of infestation. Put whatever is infected in a trash bag, seal it up just enough you can give it a shot of raid, than seal. Things will be dead in short order. If its a egg situation (dermestids) you'll want to repeat this a time or two as the initially usually doesn't kill egg stages. If you hunt, watch your mounts as well.

Freezing in general is a good place to keep materials if you believe there's an issue. Sealed boxes with moth balls work to an extent. If there is an issue I'd immediately put the materials I have that are not infested into the freezer in bags as preventative.

You can use borax on mammals or birds, along with salt. I've only used Alum on hides. If in this case your pheasant tail base goes bad..pull the long tail feathers and be done with it. Freeze and use them. I've never tried alum on bird skins though I don't see why it wouldn't work. Its extremely effective on hides that have a suspect spot or a spot you cannot for whatever reason flesh as well as you'd like.

You'll regret getting dermestids! Or lice/fleas on your pets!

Trappers or taxidermy.net are also good places for fur/feather handling tips.
 
Guys, dudeman is a beginner at this. Dudeman the advice here is almost all good. But a couple replies refer to "slippage" or "slipping" of a hide. What this term refers to is the hair/fur falling out of a hide. In my (unfortunate) experience using heat on a hide or even a bird skin can cause major slippage. Lots of people dip their dead gamebirds in a bucket of hot water to cause the feathers to slip. It makes them much easier to pluck. I have not used a microwave to heat sterilize a hide/skin. I'd be afraid the fur/feathers would slip. If others have done this successfully please advise us how to go about it. Thanks.
 
sabot, why cook knowing its a dicey game? cleaning and salting is about as close to guaranteed as buying it from the shop would be.

One other issue with water on feathers is you end up steaming them back to shape....the idea is to not have to do these things until you're done fishing them!

My apologies on not clarifying slippage.

dermestids are a beetle you can get at ANY, repeat ANY time! Once they start laying or you find larva in you're tying material, game mounts etc, you have to deal with it. They'll destroy good materials or mounts! Their eggs are not always killed by freezing or the raid method. Knowing the cycle, or removing them from the freezer and refreezing usually gets them. Same with the bag and raid method. You may have to raid a few times to get them all. Either way protect your materials well!

Once you start playing with hides and end up with bugs they can forever haunt you!

 
This from the head chemist at J C Ehrlich Co., a pest control company with offices in 14 states.
You could load a 40 foot trailer with feathers, fur and hides, throw in a 'NO PEST STRIP', seal it up and any bugs, etc. would be dead in less than 24 hours.
You can purchase these strips in local hardware stores and drug store chains. I get mine at Rite-Aid for about $8.00. They are re-sealable/re-useable but make sure you CAREFULLY read the directions.
My fly tying mentor smoked cigars. He would save the butts and place them with his materials and even crumble some in his fly storage boxes. Nicotine is a potent bug poison...will even kill people in large quantities.
Any of you raising fowl...place some tobacco in your nest boxes.. works great on lice...birds will be bug free.
 
I use to collect and skin out bucktails. Not worth it IMHO. Playing with dead birds and all their parasites seems less worth it.
 
Microwaving does not kill small insects. This is not the best video demonstration of this, but it makes the point:Ants vs Microwave: http://youtu.be/z7Cs1gSQnjA
Freezing is unlikely to kill all insects at egg or larval stages. They survive just fine through the winter.
Boric acid is the thing that makes borax toxic to insects. 20 Mule borax is recommended because it has the higest percentage of boric acid. Boric acid is available at most drug stores, is inexpensive, and is relatively low in toxicity: http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/boricgen.html
I've only had one infestation in over 15 years and that was quickly cleared up by boric acid.
Mike.
 
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