Caring for a pheasant carcass

Pink Nighty · Dec 4, 2022

A buddy shot a beautiful rooster this morning and offered me the carcass as I was over to pick up some mallard flanks. He has removed the meat, and my plan is to skin it off the bones relatively intact.

Once I get it there, how should I go about drying/curing/de-lousing the skin? Not looking to have bugs in the feather box, nor a wife wondering what that new and interesting smell is emanating from my tying corner.

M_D · Dec 4, 2022

I'm no expert but I've done a half dozen or so pheasant.

First off, I found the biggest part is skinning the bugger. Their skin is very thin and easy to cut through, tear or rip. I found an exacto knife with a curved edge worked the best for me.

Once the bird is skinned and I've removed as much of the fat & tissue as possible without further damaging the skin, I'll wash it in luke warm water with some mild soap to remove all the blood and stuff. Your wife will really love it if you do this in the kitchen sink

Next, I'll dry it off with an old rag or some paper towels and then staple it feather side down/skinned side up to a piece of plywood. I have a bunch of 1/4 inch or 3/8 inch thick pieces I use for this purpose.

I'll separate the wings and the tail/butt from the rest of the skin/pelt. I like to extend or spread out wings and tail section when I staple them to a board. I think it's easier to identify which feathers I want to pluck after it's dried.

Finally, I'll put the boards in some sort of container (currently I'm using a paper box lid for some deer) and cover the skins/boards with a 50/50 mixture of Borax and salt. Then I'll put them on a shelf in my garage and forget about them for a while.

My OCD will have me checking on them from time to time (once a month or so)...shaking or moving around the salt mixture and generally futzing with them to make sure there's dry mixture against the skin.

Don't be in a hurry cuz it can take a couple three months to dry everything out...and you want it dry to avoid smells later on. Once dry, I'll store them in cheap plastic shoe boxes from Freddy's or Wally World and I've never had problems with bugs, moths, or larvae infesting my materials once dry.

I'm sure I left something out but that's about it. Have fun and before you know it you'll be scavenging road kills and playing around with dye baths

Mike d

Skeena88 · Dec 4, 2022

I haven't found it necessary to wash the pelt, but scraping off as much flesh and fat as possible is key to get a nice product. I tried using just salt on a few pelts, but wasn't thrilled with the result. I have used straight borax for decades, but I think I will give Mike's 50:50 mix a try. It might dry the pelts a bit faster than just borax. And as Mike said, be patient. It will take a few months.

nwbobber · Dec 4, 2022

I have always put suspect feathers in the freezer for three weeks to kill bugs and their eggs. That gets most of the likely ones. Once I take em out I keep them in a ziplock or a Tupperware type airtight container.

Kilchis · Dec 4, 2022

If you stash it in your freezer be sure to mention it to your wife in order to avoid later unpleasantness when she opens the freezer to find a dead rooster staring at her. This holds doubly true for pretty much any roadkill, too.
Especially, say, a whole mink stashed for later prcessing.

ABITNF · Dec 6, 2022

I've preserved skins before simply by laying them out on cardboard and completely covering them with table salt and letting them sit for about 3 months. Never had a problem but I'm now more inclined to pluck the feathers I want and keep them in a ziploc bag.

TicTokCroc · Dec 6, 2022

I would rip or cut all the body feathers you want to use off the carcass and put them in corresponding 1 gallon labled ziplock bags with some desiccant packs. Cut the nub with tail feathers off and stand this nub up in a cup of borax/salt till dry and stiff, then bag. Cut wings off and do the same with fleshy nubs. If it's for your use only there's no need to make a pretty skin, skinning a thin bird sounds like a lot of work to me.

Pink Nighty · Jan 31, 2023

A thank you to all who replied here, your advice was taken and a couple months later I'm happy to report the skin turned out really well and I'm having a blast tying shit up with it! Using it for cheeks and hackles so far. Here is one that is all pheasant except the dubbing.