In a nutshell, what can cause hairslip? And is hairslip only visible after tanning?

Bacteria, spoilage , heat, ......


hair slip can happen at anytime, from before skinning through tanning.

Thanks JP,

Can it be caused BY tanning process?

What is an acceptable timeframe between shooting an animal and skinning it under African temperatures (25 degrees C - 32degrees C) to avoid hairslip?

If you can't skin right away, does it help if the stomach is removed and left 2-3 hours before skinning the rest?

Mich,

Hairslip is dependent on a number of factors including heat, timespan between death and skinning/salting etc. It also varies from species to species. Wildebeest for example seem to be a lot more resistant to hairslip than many other species and from my experience, the animals with hollow hair such as klipspringer etc are most susceptable to it.

Many years ago, when I first got into African hunting, my old boss would never salt a skin at all, instead he used a liquid muti that he just washed over the wet side of the skin and let dry in the shade and it worked a treat. This stuff was truly fantastic and once the skin was dry, you could fold it up, chuck it in a cupboard, and leave it for years and eventually, when you did get round to tanning it, you'd have no hairslip at all. The only drawback with this stuff was that you had to be ultra careful about wearing gloves and washing your hands properly afterwards. Years later, after the old boy died, I found the recipe for this stuff and it turned out to have both arsenate and arsenite (that's from memory and I might be slightly trchnically wrong)..... anyway, basically 2 types of arsenic.

Obviously I never used it again!

To the best of my knowledge, hairslip might become evident at tanning but can't be caused by tanning....... I'll try to call my buddy who owns a tannery to confirm though.

Thanks Steve,

I understand all that and I guess I was just looking for confirmation to what I already understood or any other "trick" used to avoid hair slip

On the more susceptible species, how do hyena and carnivores in general fare? and what is a suitable timeframe between killing and skinning? 1, 2, 3 hours?

Michel,

So much depends on the skinner. If he does a good job and gets all and I mean all the meat off the skin and pays especial attention to any thicker parts of skin and all the nooks and crannies such as ears and lips and if he washes the skin in cold heavily salted water then most species shouldn't slip if skinned within a few hours - more with some species and if the animal is carried rather than dragged. Also when loaded into the truck, the animal should be laid on a bed of leaves and branches rather than laid stright onto the floor of the truck. Then cover the animal with more leaves and branches to keep the sun off and don't let the blokes in the back stand on the animal.

If I'm planning to be out all day, and I usually am, I take a sack of salt in the truck with me and if we shoot something before mid afternoon, I usually skin it in the field, salt and fold it and then do the leaves and branches thing. Then when we get to camp, I have the skinner recheck it for any meat, wash it in the saline solution, dry and resalt it in the skinning shed.

Hyenas don't seem particularly susceptable but as I'm sure you know, the cats are, and I always make sure I'm around when a cat is being skinned to make sure it's done perfectly. Salt quality is also vitally important. I never buy cheap and if I'm on a cat hunt, I make sure we have a few sacks of best quality table salt for that.......... you gotta watch the bloody Masai though as the bastards will steal it if given half a chance!

Exact timespan varies for example, in your neck of the woods, you'll have more time than in the Selous because of heat and humidity but it's always a good idea to get it off asap. The longer you leave it, the more chance of hairslip and it's always a good idea to have your trackers trained as skinners as well. - Mine are all trained to do everything....... and if you're looking for one like that, let me know, because I know of one who's looking for work. He can drive, track, skin, shoot, clean rifles, speak English and pretty much anything else you want.

quote:

Originally posted by Bwanamich:
Thanks JP,

Can it be caused BY tanning process?

What is an acceptable timeframe between shooting an animal and skinning it under African temperatures (25 degrees C - 32degrees C) to avoid hairslip?

If you can't skin right away, does it help if the stomach is removed and left 2-3 hours before skinning the rest?

The tanning process will reveal problems with the hide but not cause the slippage.