worth the trouble ?

[blue]

I've just been given a red legged partridge (french partridge) today,
that had flown into a fence,and had to be put out of its misery
is it worth trying to skin the bird,or should i just pluck the breast feather's?

some nice looking looking feathers on it that might look good in picric

what do ya think?

cheers blue

a caserole dish springs to mind

[Chuileog]

Split the breast skin open with your fingers and with a sharp knife separate the breasts from the bone. Should only take a minute or two. Partridge is very tasty and strong tasting.

[mayflyjunky]

Hi Blue
You should skin it I love these skins for river spider patterns and for tying small octopusses(sp) 12 -16



The alternative octopuss feathers come from towards the back near the rump and the spider or head hackles for wet flies come from the neck down loads of movement and perfect for size 12 down to maybe a size 18 .

I though there was some worm present in french partridges thats why alot of poeple don't chance eating them. Maybe I was wrong.

[hobble]

hi blue,
just mind the "AH" FEATHERS ON THE PARTRIDGES, THEY ARE SOFT AND VERY IMPORTANT FOR THE PARTRIDGE

[blue]

Originally Posted by zoomer

a caserole dish springs to mind

Yep,mrs Blue is going to be a busy girl tomorrow

[blue]

Thanks for that Mayflyjunky,i did think spiders when looking at it

anyone know of any links on how to skin birds?

cheers Blue

[North Country Angler]

Out of interest, how do you best preserve a game bird - or rabbit for that matter - skin? A shooting friend gave once gave me a snipe skin which he had by the looks of it, just salted. a few months on it smelled so bad I had to bin it....

[Fishtales]

I posted this before somewhere, but here it is again

FAQ - Processing Fly Tying Materials at Home

I have used Borax and the skins don't smell.

[mayflyjunky]

I don't usually use preserving agents unless there is any flesh present and to be honest unless you really need the wings its alot simpler and quicker to chop them off and preserve them seperatly. Usually I throw the French partridge wings away.

How I do it is use the scissors cut off the legs at the knuckle and the wings at the elbow.

Use a sharp blade and make a small incision through the skin then using the scissors again point the lower blade through the incision and cut towards the beak right the way up and repeat the process down towards the rear.

Using your fingers open the skin like your taking off a jacket. On french, pheasant,snipe and such it's easy and comes off without any flesh attached but woodcock is a bu*ger the skin is like paper and you keep ripping it.At the head pull the skin as far up over the head and cut with the scissors.

When you come to peeling off at the wings there is 2 sinues attaching the flesh to the skin, one above and one below where you might need your scissors or scalpal just to cut to prevent the skin ripping.

When your this far the skin should be completly off the top half, next is to lay the the bird on its back and push the legs back through the skin, then a constant pull on the skin downwards will remove the skin at the tail with no flesh. On a bird where you want the tail you will have to cut the flesh and treat it.
On shot birds remove any blood from the skin.

Preserving
Lay the skin skin downwards on a news paper for 24-30 hours in a dry,warm environment then lift the skin and lay feather side downwards on a new newspaper for another 24 hrs and this should do it.

Killing mites
Freezer for a few days but ive started microwaving for a few seconds

Washing (optional)
I like to wash mine in detergent rinse then wash with conditioner


Sounds complicated but when you get the hang of it, it will take you literally 1 min to skin a bird.

Disclaimer
I am by no means a professional bird skinner guy, so the chances are someone could disagree with some of the above. I do recieve an enormous amount of game and the above works for me, ducks are alot more fiddley because of the fat attached to the skin.
I would welcome any better way of doing it.

Hope this helps