First, you'll need to strip the hide off the carcass. You have it hung from the neck from a beam between two trees. You'll probably, in the rugged outdoorsman style, accomplish this by cutting a slit down the front of the animal from the neck to just above the anus. DO NOT cut the anus. That's a world of stink you do not want on you. Very carefully cut a ring around that black hole. You'll have to make a cut on either side of the private bits as well. Cut a ring around the neck and around each paw, somewhere between the elbow and the wrist for the forelegs and about the same length down on the hindlegs. Starting from the ring you just cut around one of the paws, carefully cut a line up to the nearest point on the first slit you cut down the belly. Now you're ready to start skinning. It's gonna take time and you're fingers are going to ache. It's tedious, but you have to carefully pull at the skin from the outside and cut the tissue that connects the skin to the muscle and fat. Use a scraping motion. Eventually you're going to have the entire hide on the ground.

Next up, you're going to have to get gruesome. That bear is going to give you an important ingredient, but you have to get it. Brains. Time to get bashing. Cut the scalp off the bruin and have a go with an axe. Scoop that brain into a bowl and don't touch anything important. Congratulations, you now have the first two things you need to really get started with Brain-Tanning.

Now about that skin. You're going to need a large surface to work on. A section of log should work. Drape that hide over it, fur side down. Now get something like a dull knife or a sharp chunk of bone. Start scraping. You need that skin to be clean of all extra bits of fat, anything stringy, everything you can get. This shouldn't take more than a couple hours. It helps if you do this near a creek, so you can use the running water to clean that stuff off regularly.

Next is the easiest part. You're going to stake it to the ground. Again, skin side up. Get a bucket of stakes, wooden is traditional but those plastic ones for tents do fine. Poke a hole in one side, pound the stake through and into the dirt. Go to the other side of the hide and poke another hole, but this time stretch the skin out before you put the stake into the ground. Do that a few dozen times, stretching and staking, until the thing is pancake-flat. Let it sit there for a while to dry out and take a break. Warm those fingers over a fire. Maybe cut the a backstrap off that bear and slice a steak off, fry it up with some onions, get some of your energy back.

So the hide is now dry. Mostly. You remember that brain? Yup, it's brain-time. Put some warm water in the bowl and start mushing up the brain. Once you've got a good slurry, smear it all over that hide. Really work it in. Massage that crap like it's massage oil on your first girlfriend's back and she needs a full Swedish to get hot. Get every inch of that skin. Good job, and you hardly gagged at all. You're reward now is that you don't have to do anything else for a while. Just... keep critters away from your future coat while it dries again.

A week later! Well, almost a week. Almost done. Your hide should be a bit brownish now, dry, and look a little puffy. Pull those stakes and toss that thing in the creek. Get all the crap washed off. Chemicals in the brain will completely saturate the skin, so you're just washing off excess. Once you've got that done, pull it out and squeeze as much water out as you can. Still got that fire going? Well start it up again.

Get a couple long sticks over the fire. You're going to drape the hide over it. You need it high enough that it's not getting too warm. What you want is the smoke. Let it smoke for a while. Do that until it's dry and still a bit soft. You don't want it stiff. That's too dry. When it gets to where you want it, get ready for more finger punishment. Wrap that hide around another stick, maybe as thick as your wrist, and start pulling it back and forth. This is going to break fibers in the skin and make it really flexible. It'll also remove any remaining moisture and make it very soft and supple.

Done? Great, your back hurts, your fingers hurt, your arms ache, and you're pretty sure you picked your nose while mixing brain and you can't get the smell out. But you are now in possession of one quality Grizzly hide. Find a good winter coat pattern and cut the pieces out that you need. You'll need a large needle and some stout thread. Sew carefully, fit to your body as needed. Ron will be proud of you.