Cape care?

[USMCret]

Just wondering what some of you experienced successful sheep hunters can comment on cape care. I never seen anyone mentioning caring salt to preserve their capes. How long have you been able to care for a cape without salting to get back out of the mountains and not have slipage? Do you carry salt and if so how much? I know the general answer will be depends on the weather so for you Alaskan august hunters?

 

[S-3 ranch]

“”I packed salt for years and all it did was add weight. Since most sheep hunts are usually not more that a week and if you kill midway you only have a few days before you're back in town. As long as you wash the blood off it, flesh it out properly, and turn everything, and drape it over some brush or out on a rock to keep it cool and let it dry out it will be fine. I've done several like this over the years and never ruined a hide. I do take salt and leave it at base camp where I get picked up but never pack it up on the mountain anymore””

 

[Rackmastr]

I carry a gatorade bottle full of salt, as well as my partner carries the same amount. If for some reason we double-teamed a ram, we'd have enough to put a quick coat on and get out of the bush and back to base/truck where I usually have a small home depot bucket full. If we want to stay and hunt, the two small ones together work great and then if we killed another animal later we would pack out quickly with the second one (rare rare opportunity I find).

Having shared weight of a bottle of it each is simple and left at camp. With good fleshing and splitting work, its also plenty to reduce a ton of moisture/weight in a cape for pack out.

I'm a part time taxidermist and have seen some disaster capes from guys who have tried to get a cape home and spent a few days getting there in mixed weather with mixed results. I'm picky on cape prep so the extra weight of salt is well worth it for me.

The reality is there are a lot of people out there who carry salt without considering proper caping/fleshing/splitting skills beforehand unfortunately.