How To Tan A Coyote Hide Or Pelt At Home: 5 Easy Steps

Coyote hides are always high in demand. Considering the value of coyote hides, hunters try to utilize the animal skin after hunting. Some hunters may want to get rid of the animal hide immediately by selling it off, while others prefer keeping the hide for their personal use. Either way, it is necessary to tan the hide of a coyote.

Coyote hides decompose quickly; hence, people do not prefer buying them raw. Several places and tanneries provide tanning services. However, if you know the correct process of tanning a coyote hide at home, why do you even need a service? In this article, we will discuss how to tan a coyote hide step by step.

Why Do We Need To Tan A Coyote Hide?

Before we talk about the process of tanning a coyote hide, it is essential to know why tanning is necessary. Fur coats, rugs, covers, and anything made of animal leather, look attractive. How do you think it is possible to store and use something made out of raw animal skin? One of the main reasons we can use the finished product out of raw animal skin is tanning. Here are some reasons why tanning is necessary:

• Preventing decomposition: animal hides start decomposing after the animal dies. The tanning process involves getting rid of bacteria and germs that cause decomposing. 
• Altering the hide: Apart from germs and bacteria, animal hide contains other substances. Tanning involves a thorough cleaning of substances, blood, and remaining flesh or fat. Tanning helps to alter the protein structure of collagen present in the skin. 
• Making the hide durable: Proper tanning is essential for the durability of an animal hide. The finished product that we get after tanning a hide can last for a lifetime if we take care of it. 
• Coloring: Tanning is also the final touch of the animal hide product. The process makes the hide look better by giving it a nice color. 

How To Tan A Coyote Hide At Home In 5 Simple Steps

Coyote hides are usually thick, and the fur is important. You must handle the hide carefully to get the perfect product. Now, one of the questions that might pop up in your mind is ‘How much does it cost to tan a coyote hide?’. Well, tanning a coyote hide does not require expensive equipment. All you need to buy is some chemicals and tanning products. Here are some other things that you need for the tanning process:

• Hand gloves
• Skinning knife
• Fleshing board
• Stretching board
• Scraping knife

Once you have the necessary tools and a place for tanning, you are good to go! Let’s get started with the tanning process step by step.

Step 1: How To Skin A Coyote For Tanning

The first step is skinning the coyote. You must skin the coyote as quickly as possible before it starts decomposing. Put on your hand gloves and grab the skinning knife. Put the coyote on its back and start skinning from its back legs. You need to be careful while skinning and prevent poking holes. There is a condition called the green belly.

Some of the areas of the skin start losing its fur. This happens because of bacteria. In that case, you have to skin quickly and throw away the loose furs.

Step 2: Soaking

After skinning the hide from the animal, the next step is to soak the hide until the day you decide to tan it. Fill up a bucket with water, non-iodized salt citric acid. Put the hide in the solution and leave it for soaking.

This process will wash off bacteria, unnecessary substances, and blood. Some people think you should soak the hide upto 5 days, but that is not necessary for a coyote hide. You can soak the hide for 1 or 2 days until you are ready to tan it.

Step 3: Removing the flesh

After soaking the hide for more than a day, you are ready to remove the flesh smoothly. Grab a knife or scraping tool to remove and scrape off flesh sticking to the hide. Start scraping from the head area of the hide down to the tail. Make sure you remove all the flesh, grease, and fat until the surface is smooth and clean. Once you remove the flesh, put the hide back into the solution for another day. You can make a fresh bucket of the solution if necessary.

Step 4: Drying

When you finish soaking the hide for the second time, it’s time for drying up. Before you put out the hide for drying, wash it one last time. You can use soap water or create a solution using salt and washing soda. After washing the hide, hang it to drip off all the water. Leave the hide on for drying overnight.

Step 5: Tanning

Finally, when the hide is dry and clean, you are ready to start the tanning process. Remember, tanning does not work on extra dry skin. You can loosen up the dry areas by rubbing water on them. When the hide is clean and ready, start applying your tanning product. Use it on the skin side of the hide without touching the fur. There are several tanning chemicals and oils available on the market. You can also make your tanning solution following tan solution recipes. Apply the tanning product thoroughly without missing any spot. After tanning, leave out the hide for drying up for a day.

Once your hide is dry, you are ready to use it! The 5 simple steps are all you need to follow to tan a coyote hide at home.

Additional Tips For Tanning Coyote Hide:

• Keep the coyote hide in a well-ventilated area. 
• The primness of the fur is important.
• Remove the hide from the coyote as quickly as possible.
• Always use rubber hand gloves during the entire tanning process.
• If you poke holes during skinning, you might have to sew them before tanning.
• Use a proper brush if you are using hot tan oil. 
• Soak the hide in a solution until it’s clean.
• Stretch the hide after it’s dry to prevent wrinkling.

Tanning A Coyote Pelt

After you have skinned a coyote, the next step is to prepare the pelt for tanning. Personally, I prepare my hide by laying it on the ground with the flesh side facing up. Then I salt it using non-iodized canning salt and leave it overnight.

This helps prevent the hide from getting damaged. This step is essential if the hide is not fresh. However, it is important to note that if your hide has started getting spoiled, it cannot be salvaged. This means no amount of salting will get the hide fresh again.

After the salting process, which is optional, the second step is to wash the pelt. Take a five-gallon bucket and fill it with water and add dish soap. Next, immerse the pelt in the water and slosh it around until the water is dirty.

After doing this fill another five-gallon bucket with cold water. Immerse the pelt in the water and slosh it around until the water is dirty. Repeat this rinsing until the water is fairly clean. Let the pelt dry for about an hour. The pelt should be placed somewhere cool and away from the sun.

As your pelt dries, start preparing the tanning solution. In a 5-gallon bucket put 2 gallons of white vinegar and the same amount of cold water. The add four pounds of canning salt into the solution. Use a broomstick or something similar to mix the solution thoroughly. After this take your coyote hide and immerse it into the solution. Leave the pelt in the solution for three days, and keep stirring it on a regular basis.

After three days take the pelt out of the solution and let it dry for about half an hour. As it dries, add baking soda into the tanning solution. The baking soda will make the solution to foam. Once the foaming has stopped get rid of the whole solution and rinse the bucket. Next, fill the bucket with 4 gallons of cold water and 12 ounces of baking soda. Take the dried pelt and immerse it into the baking soda and slosh it around for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Then remove the hide and rinse it in cold water and then hang it to dry. After this, apply tanning oil to the flesh side of the pelt. Let the oil soak in for about an hour. Next stretch the dry spots on the pelt to make it soft.

Tanning a coyote hide is not difficult if you have some time and patience. Yes, a tannery service may save some of your time and effort, but the cost is higher compared to the self-tanning process. By following some simple steps and instructions, you can easily tan a coyote hide on your own. Once you know how to tan a coyote hide, you would always prefer to do it at home without any hassle. If you have the raw material, you might as well learn how to turn it into a finished product don’t you think? We think you should!