Shipping and Receiving

Shipping

The process begins with you

Proper preparation is the key! In order for us to give you the best possible product, we need you to do the following:

1. Carefully inspect the skin when you get it. You are looking for damage, holes, drag marks, strange odors, and making sure the hair is tight. We strongly urge you to use STOP-ROT on all skins. We are a proud distributor of this product. We use it and so should you! Take the necessary measurements and we recommend that you mark your skins with a punch system or use a small round number tag placed in the ear. These are the best two methods. Avoid metal or wire tags or other tags that may fade or fall off in the tanning process. Don’t worry that your tagging system will interfere with our marking system. We use color combinations of zip ties.
2. Make sure that the skin is properly scraped and that all tail bones and feet bones are removed, eyes and lips are split, noses and ears are turned, and remember to flesh out bear pads/paws.
3. Proper salting will help eliminate most problems. The cleaner the skin and the better the salting job the better it will turn out and the less money you will spend. To be clear, after the animal is skinned and scraped, it should be placed on a 45 degree angle with a finer grain salt rubbed into the face and any folds of the skin. The salt should be at least ¼ inch thick covering the entire skin. Using a fan will help to dry the skin. Leave to drain at least over night. The next day the salt should be shaken off and the process repeated again at a 45 degree angle with fresh salt. This process should be repeated until the skins are dry. Then fold and box.
4. When you are ready to ship please completely fill out and enclose our Shipping Form. You can download and print a copy of our shipping form by clicking the link below. Be sure to include the number and type of skins, any special instructions, your return address, phone number, email address and any prepayment. If sending multiple boxes please label them 1 of 2, 2 of 2 and so on. If you have a questionable skin, please call us and let us know in advance or make a special note on your packing list. This way we can work with you and in most cases save the skin with special treatment during tanning.

Download our Shipping Form here:

Call Tag Program

The Call Tag Program is something that we started offering a few years ago. Because of our shipping volume with UPS, we have negotiated discounted shipping rates. Typically you receive between 30% and up to 50% savings on shipping.

We will order the Call Tag on our UPS computer, UPS will show up at your door (you don’t even have to be there) and pick up your boxes with our pre-printed labels which gives you our discounted shipping rate and special insurance.

All we need from you is:

• Your name and/or Taxidermy name
• The address UPS will pick up the box from
• The day you want it picked up
• The weight of the box or boxes
• The length, width, and height of each box
• How much insurance you want on each box
• And you must have a credit card on file (or a check in the box)

We will bill your credit card the day the call tag is ordered. We make no money on this service. It is designed solely to save you, our customer, money on shipping.
 

For example: “I have 3 boxes, box #1: is 25lb, it is 8 x 18 x 27 and I want $100 insurance, box #2: is 30lb, it is 11 x 20 x 31 and I want $300 and so on.”

Smaller is often better-For example it is better to send two smaller boxes than one big box that weighs over 70 lbs because you will get surcharged with a fee for overweight or over sized boxes.

Receiving

We tan skins year round. We receive delivery from UPS, FEDEX, USPS, trucking companies year round and customer drop offs by appointment. Once we receive your skins, the boxes are opened in most cases that same day depending on delivery time. They are checked against your packing list and a post card is mailed or emailed to you listing the number of boxes and the date they arrived. The skins are then sorted and marked using color coded zip ties. If any skins are damp they are re-salted and fully dried. Assuming there is no obvious damage, they are then placed in a separate temperature and humidity controlled room until the lot is ready for tanning.

Download our Rehydrating Instructions here: