There is your game,you take the shot and a few minutes later you are standing over your kill. Ok , take some pictures of the harvest and now what. The temp is between 50 and 90 and you are wondering what to do now. First of all now is the time to start on the trophy, its not the time to go find your hunting friend or to talk about the hunt, its time to start on the trophy. You now must skin out the game animal by starting to anline the animal on its stomach and by skinning the animal down its back. Start by placing the knife where the head joins the neck and making the main cut all the way to the tail of the animal, even if you are only going to do a shoulder mount. Skin the hide off the animal and cut off the back half if you are only doing a shoulder mount and then cut the quarters,back straps,etc.. off the animal and place the meat on the back half. Then you must skin out the head, its easy and just take your time. Start by cutting a Y cut to each horn and the start on the face. After its off you will need to keep it cool in the shade or whatever to keep it cold.You can fold the skin in half so its skin to skin and the hair on the outside. You can throw in some sticks in the inside of the cape/ hide so air can move around inside the skin. You can let it air dry a little but not so much that it is hard or getting a film on it. If you are camping you should have some fine salt and if so rub the amount of salt you have on the flesh and rub and rub again so you are not missing any of the flesh. If no salt then you must get going..start back packing the trophy out . If you have any unskinned parts of the trophy you are packing out you must leave that part out when you roll up the skin for the pack out, For example a bear, leave the head and feet out for they still have body heat on the unskinned parts.When you arrive at the truck,camp you must keep the skin cool,place it in the shade,on ice,whatever but its your responsible. When driving in you should be calling the taxidermist like Capp’s Taxidermy Studio LLC and meet them at the studio so the pros can get the skin in the salt or if you are going home, you can freeze it as long as there is no bad smell starting. My Otto is if you can freeze it,freeze it..!!!. The main thing is to think,simple as that and don’t get lazy, improvise and think it will be OK or I can not save the skin so I better just do the meat,its the same dam thing. I have had stupid people do that and if you can save the meat then you can save the trophy so that is never a excuse. I recently had a sheep hunter harvest a bighorn ram and never took the time to learn what to do for the meat or skin and when the outfitter was 1 day late, he blamed the outfitter when the skin spoiled and most of the meat too. He never knew how to skin or cut the animal so it could and should of been saved, or all he gets out of the hunt of a lifetime is a skull mount, what a waste. Before you go,call the taxidermist, it will save the trophy now and years later if you ever harvest one in the summer heat.
