The fella that advised me of the salt bath is a taxidermist. Maybe you want to sell your land to him.
For anyone that may be interested in how things went......
The taxidermist recommended soaking the paws, tail and head in a salt bath for three hours and recheck. Rather than fart around checking all day and night, I soaked them for approximately 16 hours.
Tail - I had split the tail to the end and although it wasn’t completely rehydrated, it allowed me to skin a little more on the sides of the cut and pull the tail off intact.
Mouth/Lips - It worked great rehydrating them and I had no problem skinning it so the lips could be turned. There was still some hardness on the edges of the lips but nothing drastic.
Paws - Due to how dry the bottom of the legs were, I had cut the leg bones approximately 4” from the paws. The lower legs rehydrated well and I could skin right down to the large pad fairly easily. This was the show stopper for skinning for taxidermy. Turning the large pad was like trying to turn a hockey puck inside out......hard as a rock!
Ears - Forgetaboutit. Totally dried out. I ended up taking the cartilage right out.
No good for taxidermy at auction but I have a nice 3XXXL black wolf for a wall hanger to sell.
