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i dident think of that use the brain from the kill.
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Sorry, I just assumed you knew. Yeah, like kenny g said, the common tale is that every animal has enough brains to tan its own hide. I don't know for a fact whether it's true or not, but like I said, I've never found it not to be the case. I
have tanned some though where I had
just enough, but that was probably due to me not diluting it enough.
If you are really interested in doing the brain tanning thing, this fella, George Michaud, wrote a pretty good "how to" article on it. You can find it
here. It's basically the same thing I do, but he uses store bought and frozen brain from the butcher instead of from the animal. I always just take it from the animal. A BFH and a cold chisel, or a hacksaw can help you get into the cranium. You might could even use a hole saw on a drill- never tried it, just now thought of it actually, so I don't know if that one will work or not, but the other two, along with some elbow grease, will let you get in there.
I do want to caution you though, there are some brain-borne diseases out there, like mad cow disease, chronic wasting disease, etc., mostly forms of spongiform encephalopathy caused by prions, which are not really understood well. If you suspect an animal might have had a disease like that before killing it, don't mess with it. There's no evidence to show that CWD is transmissible to humans, but I wouldn't risk it if you think that the animal had it.
Also forgot to add, winter hides on pretty much any animal are going to be much better suited for tanning than those taken during other seasons.
Jason