bear is one of the few animals here in BC that you don't have to harvest the meat, you can hunt a bear for the fur. So, my question is - has anyone here actually tanned a hide with brains? Seems like a good skill to have...

and I'm not sure when bear season is in BC, I'll check the regs tonight and post.

we hunt only what we eat, My family dosn't eat any store meat. Tanning is not easy. we do keep skulls claws but not the hides, back to the forest with them.

Black bear season is April 1 - June 30.

And if I ever hunted bear, I'd use as much as possible 🙂

bear is one of the few animals here in BC that you don't have to harvest the meat, you can hunt a bear for the fur. So, my question is - has anyone here actually tanned a hide with brains? Seems like a good skill to have...

See Working with hides post

http://internationalpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=2897

I have done brains but perfer to use the egg yolk method personally if going all natural.

and I'm not sure when bear season is in BC, I'll check the regs tonight and post.

thanks farmgal! that was useful thread. I think I may try to start with a deer this year and maybe work up to an elk or bear in the future.

Hi Better Safe,

Just keep in mind that its almost impossable to keep hair on a deer hide, so you will end up with leather or buckskin depending on what you do with it, (they are not the same) where you can of course do a bear rug..

thanks for the heads-up! I have been researching this stuff, but I really appreciate a little personal info to go with the random online tutorials. Darwin mentioned that tanning is hard, and if no one else here had ever successfully done it I might have abandoned this idea. but since I got the idea that this is something the average joe can do, then I think I'll try it!

will be trying for leather with the deer hide - buckskin is supposed to stink!

Tanning, per say, is not overly difficult. I have done 3 -4 goat hides with hair on. It takes some practice but it is definitely a worth while skill to have. I was supposed to tan my deer last season, got skunked so kinda hard to tan it. Brain tanning, from what I have read can be a rather smelly process so unless you live in a rural area with no near neighbors, or real don't like the people around you, I wouldn't suggest it. Going to try it if I get something this year but that wont be until mid Sept. at the earliest. The tanning I did just used a cheap kit from Halford Hides in Edmonton. Not a bad way to start learning though.

Good luck with it either way.

I used to guide for bear hunters back in the 80's. Still have connections with various tourist camps in the area that have fall hunt packages, ect. You could go that route which can be expensive or I could maybe even swing a cheaper deal too. What we do is bait the bears to have a steady local for lunch, and you sit on the bait in a tree stand. I do both shooters and primitive weapons but prefer the latter as bears are easy to take this way(and we have lots). I live in the Lake of the Woods region of Ontario. If your interested, let me know. Now adays it seems they want a guide to acquire a license (which we never needed years ago), but I was considering doing it again in my old age. 😆 If not, I can still get you a deal with others who guide too.