bear skinning/ meat processing Ottawa

[corzatrr]

Our group has always hunted deer in the Ottawa/Smiths Falls area. Although this year we hope to harvest a bear or two and have rugs made/meat processed. Can any experienced bear hunters explain how this works. We're fine field dressing and skinning a deer before bringing it to a butcher and I suspect field dressing a bear isn't much different. We are not comfortable skinning a bear for fear of damaging the hide. Do butchers generally remove the hide and put it aside to be brought to a taxidermist?
Also, is bear much different than hanging a deer outside overnight before bringing it to a butcher? will meat go bad overnight once its field dressed? (5-15 celcius)

 

[hoytcanon]

No butcher is going to skin your bear for the taxidermist. It is not difficult if you follow the right lines (google), and simply sever the head and paws and leave them attached to go to the taxidermist, he will do the detailed caping and skinning around mouth/nose/eyes and paws. You can hang the carcass as you normally do... make sure it is in the shade, keep the carcass as cool as possible, and keep the flies off... and get into a walk-in cooler at 0*C asap. If you get lucky with sub-zero temps you can leave the hide on, just open the cavity to cool it down, but if you are above freezing, skin the carcass out and get it cooled as fast as possible. If you have done alot of deer, you will have no problem taking care of your bears.

 

[MiG25]

Obviously a long ways from you, but around here the butchers generally charge $50 to skin an animal.

 

[hoytcanon]

Obviously a long ways from you, but around here the butchers generally charge $50 to skin an animal.

They skin it to butcher... they don't skin it for taxidermy... do NOT take a carcass to a butcher to be skinned if you want to make a rug... unless of course he is also a taxidermist!

 

[Butcherbill]

Here’s a link to a video the Colorado parks board rangers made re skinning and field dressing a bear, they talk specifically about skinning if you are going to taxidermy the hide. I thought it was a good straightforward video.

https://youtu.be/wLit4KrL2hU

 

[Ashcroft]

If skinning for taxidermy you will need to be much more careful than when skinning your deer to butcher although small nicks and cuts in the hide can be repaired. Bear skin is surprisingly thin and fragile and you need to be careful not to shave it down to the hair roots, this can cause the hair to slip ( fall out). The job is made more difficult by the large amount of fat which gets in the way and obscures vision of where you are working. Be careful, go slow and as mentioned, leave the head and paws attached for your taxidermist to deal with. I would also recommend that you skin to the meat, leaving most of the fat on the hide for the taxidermist to safely remove, less chance of a miscut on the hide this way. Chill it, fold it skin side to skin side and then roll it up, keep it cool and get it to your taxidermist asap.

 

[theshootist]

What about rubbing the skin side with regular table salt? Bad idea?