Monday night I killed my first deer ever a doe, with my bow from my stand at sunset. We followed the blood trail dragged her back to the trucks. I gutted, skinned, and butchered it right there. I hadn't prepared to keep the hide, I had no idea how nice and soft it would be. The hide has been sitting outside for 36 hours, is it to late to do something with it. been in the 70's here. Also I kept the head as a souvenir of my first deer now I don't know what to do with it, it is also sitting outside. I would appreciate any advise. I used a Mathews MQ1 with grimreaper mech. broadheads and luminoks on beeman ICS hunters.
Congrats on your first deer! The hide is probably bad. The head however you could boil the skull. Many people do that with bucks, I don't see why you couldn't for a do. Skin off everything, remove the eyes and cut away as much meat as you can. Boil in a big pot (outside) with some dawn dish liquid, & baking soda. Boil & pick/scrape, repeat until clean. Peroxide or paint the skull when finished. Do not whiten with bleach.
You can take the head and put it in a big ant bed and they will clean it up for you make take a while
I've done this with beaver sculls before. Take a five gallon bucket fill it with water and put the head in it and leave it for about six months. Put it some place where nothing will bother it (not in the house it will smell) Gently stir it now and then. The meat will melt of the head. Next you want wash it off with a hose then soak it for three days in peroxide. Rinse it again and then sit it in direct sunlight for three days. You may have to glue it together, I used Elmers glue. Paint it with clear lacquer. Pull the hair on the skin if it pulls out then you can't save it with the hair on but you can still make buckskin out of it. If the hair doesn't pull out then put salt on the flesh side. You can look up on the web how to cure it or make buckskin.
