where can i find woodchuck tanned skin?

[sonny]

can anybody tell me if they know of somebody selling tanned woodchuck skins?.........thinking about a woodchuck hunting bag,thanks..........sonny

[Ky Ken]

Try Moscow Hide and Fur on line.     Ken

[David Rase]

I don't know about wood chuck hides but Curt Lyle had somebark tanned squirrel hides for sale.  He said about 3 of them would make a nice bag.
DMR

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

If you can get it, you can bet it will wear like iron.  Chuck skin is tough.  I lashed an iron lance head to an ash haft when I was a boy, and used it hard, and it is just as tight as it was then.  Strong stuff!

[Robby]

Sonny, Just pack up your ML, and go out and harvest one.  Like Taylor said, It is some tough stuff, as raw hide or tanned. Tanned it makes some of the toughest, longest lasting lashing material, like boot laces, you will find. Plus, if fixed properly, Its very good table fare. Good luck!
Robby

[Leatherbelly]

 Don't get much call for them from trappers. Are woodchucks and marmots the same thing?

[Lord Calvin]

  They make banjo's with woodchuck don't they?  "Skin that one pilgrim, and l'll get ya another !!!"    ha ha !!

[rich pierce]

If you can get it, you can bet it will wear like iron.  Chuck skin is tough.  I lashed an iron lance head to an ash haft when I was a boy, and used it hard, and it is just as tight as it was then.  Strong stuff!

I can picture this now- young Taylor with a spear.  I wonder what Momma was thinking she had borne!

I slew a chuck a month or two ago while gathering flint.  First one I ever took with a rock.  I skinned it on the spot (yes, used a sharp piece of flint) and the hide is in the freezer now.  I plan to use it as rawhide to make a bowstring.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

My mom, dad, Gramma, aunts uncles and cousins were quite used to Daryl and I goin' Indian.  I can remember the winter the year I turned seven, as I could hardly wait for the snow to go so I could go and look for rocks that looked like arrow heads.  Not much has changed.

[acorn20]

A buddy and I decided to try our hand at tanning a hide when we were younger and more ambitious.  Instead of jumping right in with a deer hide we thought a groundhog hide was more our size to start out.  We both removed the hair with an ash solution.  He wanted a chrome tan and was going to use some kind of acid.  I wanted a bark tan and boiled walnut hulls on advice from my grandfather.  I don't know what type of acid Keith used but it ended up eating his hide.  Mine turned out a nice, rich medium brown color.  After rinsing the hide several times, I stretched and tacked it to dry.  After drying I lightly dampened the hide and applied neats foot oil and proceeded to "break" the hide over a rounded board that I had secured in a vise.  That's when the work begins.  That hide became pliable and I made a wallet out of that skin.  The color stayed fast in the leather until the wallet wore out. You would only need a couple of nice sized skins to make a bag.
Dan

[rich pierce]

If you skin them cased (peel skin off like a sock) you could make a bag from one fat old chuck.  I never skinned one cased starting at the head but that would be the ticket, with the head as the flap.

[t.caster]

I tanned a biggun once w/hair on, and made a neat hat out of it with the little tail hanging out the back and a leather brim. My buddy "Flopping Trout" still wears it in cold weather!

Hey Lord Calvin...BOTW Rendesvous is this weekend up near Sanford. You going?

[Randy Hedden]

Sonny,

You should have been here.  Not more than 10 minutes ago I chased a big old boar groundhog out of my back yard while mowing the lawn.

Randy Hedden

[Bob F]

My son got one this evening with his bow at about 30 yards.  Big fat old chuck!  He's gonna skin it in the morning when he can see better.  I'm sure if anyone tells him how to cure the hide, he'll let you have it.

[omark]

Don't get much call for them from trappers. Are woodchucks and marmots the same thing?

leatherbelly, i think they are the same or at least first cousins. around here we call 'em whistle pigs or rock chucks.     we have more rocks and less trees.            mark   

[chapmans]

  My son and I have killed 4 in the last week in the back yard, a big old sow and 3 half grown ones. I grew up killing them for the farmers in the neighborhood, they paid $1 apiece. Once I started to clean one because my Grandmother would cook any animal I would clean and bring to her, but it was a hot day and the odor was such that I just threw it to the hogs and never gave a thought to eating one after that. I worked with a fellow that wanted a young one and told me if I got one he would clean it and cook it so I got a young one with a CF headshot and took it to him, the next day he said what in the heck did you shoot that with ? it was bloodshot all the way to the hips. 6MM Rem.
  Steve C.

[sonny]

thanks bob..sonny

[Jim Filipski]

I have a few here with some scraggly hair on that I hand bark tanned about 8 years ago. Nice leather, very strong I love that knarly hank of hair now & then. Would need probably two for a bag. Been hanging on to them for my own projects. Got a good crop of the suckers growing under and about my patio this year ( probably why I have so many ticks  & Lyme near my house!

If you want the raw skins I can harvest a good crop. If you don't want to go the "long" Bark tan route you can get the Tanning oil they sell at Tandys which does a nice and rather quick job on the thin skins. I did a bunch like that back in the 90's and the held up very well

Or I guess I will be humane and start trapping the buggers & let them go the other side of the mountain
Jim