Was thinking today and it made me curious.....

Hides, tails etc. I have lots of squirrel, coyote, muskrat, racoon, water and ground fowl etc extremely close to me. What's needed to make the hides or chopped off wings useable? So they don't rot etc. I know with single feathers it's quite simple. But patches of hides...

The reason I ask is a couple of hunters around here know I fly fish and one of them tonight asked me if I wanted some "material". So when I asked (assuming he was a fly fisherman himself) he said he hunts and does pretty much nothing with the hides etc.

Any info would be appreciated! Thanks,
Shane