Red Dead Redemption 2: How to Skin Animals & Where to Find Animals

How to Skin Animals & Where to Find Animals in Red Dead Redemption 2

While you’ll likely spend most of your time helping your fellow Van der Linde gang members escape the law as you travel across the old west in Red Dead Redemption 2, there are other, less criminal activities that you can partake in. Be it fishing, hunting for dinosaur bones, or just going about doing some regular hunting. The latter, in particular, is important as it can give you valuable pelts for crafting, and meat for cooking, too. As such, you may be wondering how to skin animals and where to find them in Red Dead Redemption 2. We’ve broken all of that down for you below.

How to Skin Animals

It should probably go without saying that before you can skin animals in Red Dead Redemption 2, you’re going to have to hunt and kill them first. I mean, Arthur can be a mean guy, but he’s not going to go around and skin animals alive.

We’ve got a comprehensive hunting guide (and a fishing guide, too) to assist you with everything you need to know to nail your kill. If you want the best pelts in Red Dead Redemption 2, you’re going to want to use the bow. Using any actual firearms is a surefire way to get yourself poor pelts, which not only can’t be used for crafting but won’t net you much money, either. You’ll want to creep up on your target with crouch. This can be done by pressing in L3 on both PS4 and Xbox One. Having done so, get yourself in range, aim your bow and fire.

Once you’ve landed your shots and killed the prey, you’ll now want to make your way over to its body. To actually skin animals, it’s then simply a case of pressing and holding Triangle on PS4, or Y on Xbox One. You’ll then see Arthur rather graphically begin slicing the creature open and relieving it of its pelt.

Where to Find Animals

Honestly, you shouldn’t have much of a problem tracking down animals to hunt in Red Dead Redemption 2. The world is teeming with life, be it little hares running around for you to nail with a quick arrow, or deer bounding through the forest nearby your first camp. Even if you’re out on a road, chances are you’ll see birds in the sky, or other creatures ambling through the grass nearby that you can take down, should the desire to skin animals in Red Dead Redemption 2 really grab you.

What to Do With Pelts

Now that you know how to skin animals in Red Dead Redemption 2, you’ll now need to know what to do with those pelts.

Once you’ve got yourself some pelts, what you do with them ultimately depends on what their quality is. If you’ve managed to get a perfect pelt, which is indicated by three stars next to its icon in your inventory, you’ll definitely want to keep hold of this unless you’re particularly strapped for cash.

You can hand it over to the Trapper in your camp, marked by a little butcher icon, who will keep hold of these until you’ve got other pelts used to craft some improved gear or clothing for Arthur.

Anything that isn’t of the highest quality you’re likely better off donating to the Trapper in your camp to raise camp funds, or just selling to stores or other butchers in the world who will take them off your hands. They don’t tend to fetch you a lot of money, but every little bit helps, and you can rack up a tidy sum if you spend a little while out hunting in the wilderness.

That’s everything you need to know to skin animals in Red Dead Redemption 2 and what to do with them. For more tips, tricks, and information on Rockstar’s western, be sure to check out our complete Red Dead Redemption 2 guide wiki.