Wife's Buck - Taxidermy

[CaptnC]

I thought this would be a good forum for this even though the hunt is already over.

I'm a "do it your selfer" so it only natural I do my own taxidermy as well.

My wife's first buck, a mature nice buck to boot deserves to be respected and put on the wall. Her shot was impressive too for someone who had never been exposed to hunting, to make a 307 yards one shot DRT shot!

So it has been a while since the last anything I have wanted to mount so my stan didn't make the move a couple moves ago, so I had to make another.

Once the hide was fleshed and dried it was ready so I started documenting the process after the hide prep was ready.

So here is everything gathered up ready to start!

Next ; get the form on the stand to prep it to receive the hide and horns.

I've had this form for about 15 years so most of the release agent was gone but I still like to clean off the surface to the hide glue can hold better.

Hard to see but I also added the front edge of the legs to the bottom of the form.

I also don't cut the back of the deers neck all the way to the shoulders...more on that later...so the hide goes on before I set the antlers.

While the paper machete drys around the antlers I use clay to set the eyes.

Now it's time to start getting the hide set on the form. I always start with the lips and nose. The I align the shoulders before I start sewing.

Like I said earlier I don't cut the back of the neck all the water to the shoulders. I cut just far enough down to get the head out so I can continue to skin out the head. It makes a much cleaner look once the mount is finished.

Now is the time to slow down and make sure all key areas have plenty of glue. I normally have to rehydrate the skin around the eyes because they dry out.

In my opinion the eyes make the mount. If you screw up the eyes the whole mount looks like crap. So I spend a lot of time making sure they are even and the same. And most important accurate!

Once the eyes are set the ears get attention, then the rest of the hide is set into position and some areas "carded" to help hold details.

Now it's on the wall drying on the wall...when I get ready to do the finish work I will up date the thread.

 

[joseph singleton]

Love to see finished pics;you got to be proud of her/your wife...1st buck(awesome)

 

[CaptnC]

Love to see finished pics;you got to be proud of her/your wife...1st buck(awesome)

Yes I'm very proud of her.

A little of the story;

The rifle was a fresh DIY Savage build that didn't have 50 rounds through it at the time. I had bought some primed brass that up to that moment had worked fine.

But! Not this time she squeezed off on a dud! I cleared the dud and chambered her another round then set her back up for the shot. It was a clean bang flop! Her bullet placement was within a quarter of an inch of where I had instructed her to shoot...at actually ranged 307 yards.

This was a few minutes before the buck walked out.

 

[dmoon]

Thanks for sharing, can't wait to see the finished product. Congratulations to you both!

 

[stwcattle]

Congrats on nice buck.

 

[jimbires]

congrats to your wife , that's a nice deer . your mount is turning out great . I've never seen this done before . please keep the thread updated as you work on it , I'm interested in seeing this get finished up . thanks Jim

 

[CaptnC]

I guess I should have started taking pictures earlier in the process. Hide prep is one of the most important parts. If you don't get the hide fairly thin it will drum really bad.

Some of the facal features always drum a little, but that's fine because they don't look very realistic as deep as they were originally.

It still needs a couple weeks of drying. I'm still checking the neck and shoulder areas to make sure they don't drum too much.

Thanks everyone for the comments!

 

[CaptnC]

My wife wanted to bring her buck in the house and let it finish drying on the wall...she is eager to have her buck on the wall is an understatement. LOL

Any way I was also fleshing her doe's hide and thought I'd give you guys an idea what that looked like. Same process whether your tanning it or mounting. I've already tanned the 3pt she shot right before Christmas and it is on the floor in front of her fireplace.

I also pulled the carding off the area where I sewn the cape together on her mount. You can see where the "baseball" stitches end...plus how clean the back looks because the hide was untouched.

I have not done any work on the hair yet. It will look better once it brushed out and a good coat of hair spray is added.

He still needs the finish work on the eyes, nose, mouth and of course the hair. As soon as I get the paint in I will be finishing the mount.

 

[Topgun 30-06]

So you also tan your own hides for your DIY mounts, rather than send them out somewhere?

 

[CaptnC]

I use a dry preservative that does a great job. I've used it for years and the mounts have held up just fine. The oldest mount I still have is 30 years old and looks great except is was hung in direct sunlight for a few years. That kills the hair color.

The detail is still great on this mount...it is old...done years ago.

 

[CaptnC]

So you also tan your own hides for your DIY mounts, rather than send them out somewhere?

I am tanning her whole deer hides, but it would work very well for a mount...pretty easy too!

 

[alien308]

Nicely Done.