Has anyone used sleepy creek tannery? Do they take green furs? I am a new trapper and dont have everything I need quite yet to flesh and put up. Am I able to send my furs and have them do the fleshing there as well as tan them? Also what is soft tanning? Is that considered a garment tan? Would it be better to just get them soft tanned if I dont know exactly what I want to do with them yet as far as making something with them or hanging them up?

They offer the services of skinning, fleshing and drying

Yes they will flesh them for you. Call them and talk to them, real easy to do. 641-485-2172 They answer the phone when folks call most every time.

www.sleepycreektannery.com I have used them several times and I'm always very happy with the results.

I have used them, have been happy with the results. Coyote, bobcat, otter, muskrat, beaver.
I’m new too and my skinning is very rough, as in I leave a lot of fat and meat on the hide.
Final product has a soft (supple) leather hide, perfect for display and handling (showing off). I’m not sure about using for garments but it seems like it would work.

If you plan on tanning your hides soon, then you don't really need to do a good job of fleshing. But I would recommend getting a fair amount off and dry quickly. They will shave off any excess flesh after it's been tanned. Sleepy Creek does an OK job for their price but if you want garment quality I would probably look elsewhere.

I've been very pleased with the things that Sleepy Creek Tannery has done for me. Great people to work with too.

With the high cost of tanning dried skins I cant imagine what they charge if they have to add costs to scrape the skins as well.
Shipping will have to be expedited also since there is a much greater chance of the skins spoiling when shipped in a raw state.Salting the skins would be an option but you still need to flesh them before salting.Also salted skins are heavy so likely added cost of shipping as well.

If you just want to do a few hides and want to play around with it for yourself, trappers hide tanning formula worked really well for one of my friends. He showed me 2 fox and a coon he did and I was impressed.

I just talked to another trapper this morning who sent in a a large order of beaver to Sleepy Creek. Service was good and the time was spot on but said the quality was so poor he decided to scrap the whole lot.

Ben there tells me he gets some very poor hides in from time to time. Poorly put up or lots of nicks in the hide that open during the shaving process. You can't make a silk purse out of a hog's ear.

Once you get set up for fleshing and get to the point where you skin/flesh/board yourself, look up Moyle Mink & Tannery. I’ll never go anywhere else and I think their tanning prices are very fair.

Ive had 10-20 hides done at sleepy creek. I will continue to choose them.

From my experience with sleepy creek I wouldn’t send beaver or otter to them.