deer skin chaps?

[horsinaround930]

i plan on making myself some shotgun chaps, my question is if i use deer hide will it hold up, what are the pros and cons just curious because i can get all the free deer skins i want. also what do i do to the hide after i take it off the deer to be prepared to be worked into a pair of chaps

[Saddlebag]

If you are being given fresh deer hide they must be rolled lengthwise, and stored in the freezer until you can get them to a tannery. Unless you want to use the brains and tan it yourself. You can buy tanning kits but the deer supplies enough brain matter to tan it's own hide. Tanned deer hide doesn't have real strong abrasion resistance but getting wet doesn't make it stiff after it's dry. I'd love to offer you 6 or 7 hides but you'd have to come shoot them first.

[mulefool]

Just my personal opinion, but I think deer hide is a little too stretchy to make a good pair of shotguns. I think it would get pretty stretchy in the knees after a bit. Would probably make a nice pair of armitas, though. Chris

[alyshae]

Hi There

I was just asked to make a pair of deerskin chinks for a friend who fell in love with a pair someone else had. I double checked that it was deerskin ( I thought it might be too stretchy and thin, too, and maybe it was elk or deertan) and they assured me they had asked and it was. As far as durability, though, I was told these things were several years old, heavily used, and while they looked like they'd been dragged by a horse and probably had been, they had held up wonderfully. What he loved was the feel, and that they didn't feel hot on hot days, and that is a characteristic of deer. I plan on using veg-tan yokes and maybe oil-tan reinforcements at buckle attachments, etc, so there isn't any direct pull from rivets or stitching on the deer skin itself. I agree with Chris that for shotguns it would likely stretch too much over time, but for something less fitted down the leg like chinks or chaps it seems to be okay. Just my two cents!