Field Preparation

Southern Africa has hot climatic conditions, and decay sets in immediately after the death of the animal.

IT IS OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE THAT SKINNING STARTS WITHOUT DELAY.

This will ensure less chance of the trophies being ruined. If the trophies are left for too long, the bacterium attacks the hair roots and “Hair slip” occurs. (This is when the hair of the animal rub’s off the skin). Once this occurs, a fine trophy can be ruined beyond repair by the best taxidermists.

To prevent bacterial damage, the skin must be removed IMMEDIATELY. It must be washed and cleaned to remove all blood & dirt, and packed into salt. If water is not available, clean as much as possible and pack into salt. Ant-Bacteria solutions, such as “F10 sl” are available, which can be diluted into water and then washed on the skin, this will assist in preventing “Hair-Slip”.

Skinning Procedure:

1. Skin out the animal according to diagrams and instructions.
2. On a heavy plastic sheet, place a layer of salt 10mm thick.
3. Place the skin onto this layer of salt HAIRSIDE down.
4. Cover the skin with another layer of salt, making sure that this is completely covered and there are no folds where salt has not penetrated.
5. Remove the skin after a few days; shake the excess salt away, not to forget the ears.
6. Hang up to wind-dry in the shade. NEVER leave in direct sunlight.
7. When the skin is almost dry but still pliable, fold into a fairly small, neat, parcel with the hair on the inside to protect the hair from damage.

Diagram 1:

Make an incision on the back of the animal’s neck down the centre line to a point behind the shoulders .Cut around the chest behind the front legs. Split each leg from the rear to meet the body cut. At the starting point “A”, make two cuts to the base of the horns, and neatly cut the skin away from the horns. Pull the centre piece of scalp between the horns to the front.

Diagram 2 & 3:

Keep trimming skin away from the head & back muscles. Take care not to cut the eyelids, and cut down the muzzle to the nose tip. The fatty tissue and cartilage around the base of ears and nose must be cut away. The lips must be split from the inside and opened. Thick tissue should be trimmed away. (Note: On a Zebra, the extra fat on the skin side of the mane needs to be removed, and the area well salted).

While doing this, a good procedure is to keep your free hand under the skin where you are pulling the skin slightly and cutting, this is to act as a guide for the knife. If you cut though the skin you are liable to cut your fingers, so, be careful.

Diagram 4:

For the skull, cut through the centre of the eye sockets and through the centre of the brain cavity, and remove the top cap for use in trophy. This is all that is required for the mounting of trophy head’s and full mounts. If a shield mount of any sort is required, than the whole skull will be needed for the processing of the shield mount. Clean away all flesh and brain tissue and pack the skull into salt.

Diagram 5:

This diagram shows the skinning cuts to be made to a skin, which will lie flat after dressing. I.e. Rug mount, Full mount.

Diagram 6:

This diagram shows the skinning cuts for a flat-skin trophy. I.e. Zebra or lion Floor rug.

Diagram 7:

This diagram shows the skinning cuts for full mount of all antelope.

Diagram 8:

When removing the cape from the carcass, cut off the ear muscle close against the skull for removal later. The ear Muscle must be loosened from the skin, right up to a point where the cartilage becomes clearly visible. Carefully trim all the flesh off this bugle shaped cartilage. The ears must now be split and turned inside out. It is advisable when splitting the ears to use a blunt object, such as the back of a spoon, or large blunt screwdriver to pry the skin on the back of the ears away from the cartilage.

A Few Handy Tips:

NEVER! Use formalin on a skin.

Heat damages skins, even during winter the metal floor of the back of a hunting vehicle becomes extremely hot and hair loss is guaranteed from skin in contact with the hot surface .To overcome this problem, lay large amounts of leaves or grass down before placing the animal in the vehicle.

When skinning manned animals such as Zebra, make the incision very close to the mane.

Do NOT transport wet salted skins in plastic bags. Rather use an open container such as a plastic bucket container.

Birds, porcupine and fish can be frozen as they are and MUST NOT be gutted.