# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Making Stuff >  Rabbit Skin Blanket

## corndog-44

Has anyone slept out in the woods in cold conditions with a rabbit skin blanket? Do they really keep you warm when the temperature drops down to 20-30 degrees below 0? If I can find enough bunnies I'm thinking of making one if they really do the job. I've done cold winter camping before with straw bales when the temperature drop down to 20 below zero and the wind was howling. I slept warm and snug. Cold winter camping to me means having no fire or gas heater or other heat source.

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## pilgrim

Never used a blanket but my rabit skin hat is the warmest piece of clothing i own.

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## trax

You're going to be looking for an awful pile of rabbit skins to make one decent sized blanket there buddy. Don't much care for rabbit skin myself, it tends to shed, if you want something really warm, look at animals that spend a lot of time in the water beaver, muskrat, otter, and the main predators in the north country, wolf, (although I think I should be allowed to hunt people who hunt wolves, but that's another story) coyote, wolverine is awesome. 

If you can get a bearskin, you're set, but it's going to be really heavy if you're packing it in and out of places.

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## Tony uk

I like synthetic fibres better and i think that there lighter and more usefull (altho they might not be warmer)

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## LadyTrapper

Very good advice on the water animals and thier fur. The beaver hides/blankets we have prepared for self use and fur auctions are top notch for thickness and warming abilities.
A bear hide would be the warmest, and I have seen some thick carpets of blue black fur that would be great insulation from the cold.
I had a local native drum maker make a drum from my bear hide last year...its speaks again through the drum.

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## corndog-44

What's the weight differance between a beaver blanket and a rabbit skin blanket? Also how many beaver skins would I need for a blanket?

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## trax

The beaver skin blanket would be substantially heavier, as far as number of beaver pelts, how big of a blanket do you want and how big are the beaver pelts? If you had six to eight really big beavers you could make a single sized blanket or blanket liner out of them, provided they've been stretched and dried properly. Average sized beavers and a larger blanket? Might be as many as twenty.

Rabbit fur, though, does tend to shed away from the skin, use it for a blanket and I'd say you're going to spend a lot of your sleep time sneezing.

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## corndog-44

The shedding of rabbit hair isn't so objectionable if I have to contend with zero or below weather. Along with the blanket I would need a good night cap.

Even though a rabbit blanket appears bulky it weighs around 8 pounds. When rolled up it measures around 10 inches in diameter by 20 inches in length.

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## trax

Rabbit makes me sneeze, it floats around when it dislodges from the hide and tickles my nose, kind of like cats do to some people. The only thing I recommend using them for is decorative fur on moccasin slippers or the edges of mitts, but to each his own, I'm not meaning to sound critical here. 
 How big of a blanket is that rolled out and how many rabbit skins does it take to make one?

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## HOP

Old time outdoorsman Calvin Rustum swears by taking a rabbit skin blanket and sewing a shet on each side no rabbit hair problem and it is even warmer . Snowshoe hares were what was used back when. It trakes a lot of rabbite the fur is cut into long strips then wove basket pattern .

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## hello15944

what about deer with hair left on the gard hairs are hollow  helps with warmth

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## corndog-44

100 rabbit skins are required to make a blanket to fit a double bed (80 by 90 inches). Could cut back the number of skins required if I went to the twin bed size (66 by 90 inches).

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## trax

> what about deer with hair left on the gard hairs are hollow  helps with warmth



Traditional Inuit clothing was made with two layers of caribou, inside layer with the hair inside and outside layer with the hair outside. I'm thinking if you want to know how to stay warm, check with the real experts  :Smile:

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## marberry

i wouldnt use rabbit , not waterproof enough , go to a trappers table (the biggest one is annually in thompson manitoba in dec 23) the prices for quality pelts in manitoba are at the government website  wolverine is hands down the best fur there is but its more expensive then lynx so i wouldnt bother. you could try coyote since its cheaper but still about as warm and waterproof.

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## corndog-44

> i wouldnt use rabbit , not waterproof enough , go to a trappers table (the biggest one is annually in thompson manitoba in dec 23) the prices for quality pelts in manitoba are at the government website  wolverine is hands down the best fur there is but its more expensive then lynx so i wouldnt bother. you could try coyote since its cheaper but still about as warm and waterproof.


If it's warm enough for rain a rabbit blanket is not needed...that is the time to use the woolen blanket. The fur on the outside may be more or less wet, presumably from the moisture which the blanket throws to the surface. This is only on the outside fur and will soon dry off if the blanket is hung where the warmth from the fire can reach it.

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## dilligaf2u2

The warmest winter blanket I ever used was horse hide blanket. Wolf is often used on hoods. Condensation does not stick to it. I have an old army field jacket hood with wolf fur liner. It is often to warm for this area of the country. 

Don

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## Bladesypher

The killing of wolves was against clan laws in primitive times, infact the killing of any hunter that wasnt prey in the forest was breaking clan law Diligaf  :Stick Out Tongue: . If your planning to catch rabbits its gonna take ALOT, I mean ALOT of rabbits.. your better off getting yourself reindeer hide, its fairly thick.

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## woodwose

> The killing of wolves was against clan laws in primitive times, infact the killing of any hunter that wasnt prey in the forest was breaking clan law Diligaf . If your planning to catch rabbits its gonna take ALOT, I mean ALOT of rabbits.. your better off getting yourself reindeer hide, its fairly thick.


Smaller towns out in the eastern parts of Oregon and probably Washington (or maybe your part of the country?) have 55 gal. barrels set out on the streets for hunters to drop off their hides of deer after they dress them out... and at the end of hunting season.. you might try fenagling a few of those hides. I would talk to the local authorities in those towns first though.. don't want to get into one of those local jails for the sake of keeping warm in the winter.  :Smile:

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## Nativedude

Caribou, bison, beaver*, moose, bear, deer. . .these are some of the better choices for blankets, clothing, mittens, footwear (Moccasins & Mukluks.) You can tan the hides with the hair on and they shed very little. I had a set of deer skin mittens with rabbit fur lining and they constantly shed, to the point where the hair almost completely wore away. I took them and re-lined them with shorn beaver plews. . .Much better!

*For outer wear you have to make sure that the beaver plews are not shorn. The outer guard hairs need to be intact to keep it resistant to rain, snow, etc.

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## FVR

I had a coat once, I called the TENT.

My grandpop gave it to me.  It's outer shell was made of a tight military style canvas.  The liner was wool that was a little over 1/2" thick.  It came down to my knees and in the coldest winters in Jersey, kept me cozy warm duckhunting on the Delaware river.

The coat was a US Army special cold weather coat that was used in Siberia.  Always wondered what happened to that coat.  I spent many snowstorms in the pines, I would sit at the base of a pine tree, pull my legs up under the coat and nap.  I would wake up, oh so warm, with ice and snow all over me.

Drawback of the coat, if I had ever gone overboard into the river, it would have taken me straight to the bottom.

I'll stick with wool.

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## carcajou garou

My father in his youth was very poor and used rabbit skins as socks in winter in rubber boots, constantly had to replace them as they wear poorly. they were snaring rabbits all winter just to keep themselves from getting frost bite.

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## randyt

I came across this old thread and hope it isn't too old to reply to. Rabbit skin blankets are light and warm. The cree and ojibwa still use them. The rabbit is not tanned but is fleshed well and cut in to strips, it will curl into a fur rope. the strips are woven into a blanket. Kinda sorta like making a net but tight. They were in very common use years back, I think if memory serves during the early 1900s a rabbit skin blanket could be purchased from the natives for about 6 dollars, that seems like a lot of money for the times.

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## hunter63

Has seen a couple of those blankets at Rondy......were the woven strips.
Never tried one....

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## oldsoldier

A couple of my fondest memories was at my grandfathers house. He was full blooded Cherokee. He had a HUGE buffalo pelt on the bed in his spare room. Bed was a queen size and the pelt hung almost down to the floor on three sides of it. He said he had killed the buffalo when he was a young man while visiting relatives on the Res out west. One of the last ceremonial hunts they had. Loved to curl up and nap on it. 

 He also had a long coat made from a bear hide trimmed with wolf pelt. His father had made it. Thing was huge on a 10 year old me! :Innocent:   But I loved it! Tried for years to get it from him. Sadly shortly after I turned 12 he passed away and a couple months later his wife, ( my step grandma) went to a nursing home and her kids went to clean up the house and mysteriously all my grandpas "Indian Junk" disappeared. 

 But I remember grandpa talking about how extremely warm both of them were.  While they wouldn't have been his I thought about buying some but at a starting price of well over $1,000 each............... :Blink:

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## 1stimestar

I will add to this zombie thread that a rabbit blanket will not be sufficient in 20 below, much less 30 below if you don't have proper gear on.

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## Rick

I'll bet those naked rabbits won't be too thrilled about that 20 below weather either.

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## finallyME

Native Dude!  Man, this is an old thread.  :Smile:

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## Rick

Yeah, we wax nostalgic from time to time.

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## WalkingTree

When I was a kid, we were poor. had some pet rabbits out back in a hutch. One day momma says hey what about butchering one of those rabbits? So big brother does. I'm eating stew one day, and ask hey was this skippy?

Next thing we know there are a few rabbits done been butchered. Big brother tries to do something with the hides, but doesn't know what to do. None of us do. We were lucky that we even butchered the rabbits for food in the first place. So the clothes line at some point has several rabbit hides hanging from it, all stiff as a board. I think he just cut them off, scraped them some maybe, then just hung them up.

My best knowledge of rabbit fur is from being told that it sheds easily relative to other hides, so isn't really that desirable for anything long term or valuable.

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## hunter63

> Yeah, we wax nostalgic from time to time.


We all need our nostalgic shined up, from time to time.....

The traders (venders) used to sell rabbit tanned commercial hides for about $1 at Rondy....the kids had a pile of them.....they mostly used them for rubbing on your face.....
Still a few around here ....somewhere.

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## Rick

The bad part of that is you never know what part of the rabbit is getting rubbed in your face.

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## 1stimestar

I used to use them as doilies.

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## hunter63

> I will add to this zombie thread that a rabbit blanket will not be sufficient in 20 below, much less 30 below if you don't have proper gear on.


20 below vs 30 below....seriously?....anything under 10 below falls under of "Kee bird cold"

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## Fixit

I am beginning to suspect that the rabbits skined to make the blanket were related to the Energizer Bunny as this thread keeps going and going and going . Then again with the age of the thread it must be a rechargeable Energizer Bunny .

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## hunter63

Things have been slow.......What's new with you?

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## 1stimestar

> 20 below vs 30 below....seriously?....anything under 10 below falls under of "Kee bird cold"


Lol you'd be amazed at the difference in those ten little degrees.  I think it is the ten degrees that are the most different out of them all!  -20 is easy.  Heck, our kids go out to recess down to -20.  -30 though is a whole other thing.  Sure you CAN go out in in.  But no one wants to.

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## kyratshooter

I am not even comfortable staying inside at -30!

I have even been known to skip going to check the mailbox when it is zero, much less lower.

Nothing out there I need to know about if it is zero.

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## crashdive123

I hear you guys.  I have to bundle up when it drops to 60.

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## kyratshooter

Yea, but for you bundling up means wearing socks with your flip flops!

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## Rick

Yeahbutt. Our glasses don't fog up the minute we walk out the door either. And then there is the list......

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## hunter63

> Yeahbutt. Our glasses don't fog up the minute we walk out the door either. And then there is the list......


Yes, There is "The List" to think about.

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## crashdive123

Rick - if you would be so kind as to send the list to the folks from up north.  Nothing like leaving where you are from because of (insert reason here) and then trying to change the place we call home into what you left.  Why leave in the first place if you miss that crap so much?

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## Rick

No problem. I made zillions of copies so I would not misplace it. I could send out a few. We're suppose to have snow flurries Sunday. I'll mail you some.

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## 1stimestar

Opening the door at -40.

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## Rick

That is just so wrong in so many ways. Brrrrrrrr.

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## hunter63

I could *feel* that.....from here.....OMG

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## WalkingTree

My laptop screen got frosty. Thanks a lot. Had to use a scraper.

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