wooly

Haha- learning already! Maybe I will wait for pics before proceeding on my own,lol Thanx G-man!

After seeing blackradios euro mount in the taxidermy forum, I thought I had to give this a try today. I've done full skull mounts in the past with less than desireable results, so I'm hoping this one will be interior wall worthy upon completion.., instead of hanging on the shed outside with the rest of the old skulls I never got around to finishing. Anyhow, sometimes I have a tendancy to procrastinate with these kind of projects, so I figured a step by step picture tutorial would motivate me to get this done in a timely fashion. Feel free to point out anything that doesn't look right, or other pointers or suggestions that may be relevant. I may be looking for advice or opinions at some stages of the process. Lets get started shall we.. The tools for this phase: 1) Hacksaw & 2 blades 2) sharp knife for skinning Time involved to final step of this phase = 1 1/2hrs First the hard part... you'll need to find a buck willing to offer up his head and lopp it off. Here we have the perfect candidate that wont put up much of a fight! A few whacks with a sharp hatchet and you have your specimen! The first thing I did to this head was cut the ears off just to get them floppy suckers outta the way. Next I drew an imaginary line from the corner of the mouth to the back of the skull through my ear holes and began sawing as straight as I could from the back of the skull towards the front. I suppose it doesn't matter which way you go about this, I'm just trying to be as detailed as possible. I'll be re-cutting this line later to remove the upper jaw teeth. For now I'm just getting rid of obsolete matter that gets in the way. ...and a view from the bottom of both halves with teeth still in tact. The line I cut here worked out real nice for opening up the brain cavity and access to pop the eyeballs out through the bottom. This was always a problem area I had in my experience with full skull mounts. This technique has several advantages I like already. Easy enough so far. A sawzall would have probably made this step a lot quicker and easier but I'm sitting down at the crick right now, and not in much of a hurry. Speaking of being down at the crick, it's a good location to find myself for the next step.... skinning! I've skinned a few heads here before, and a couple advantages of this location is #1 the water available, and #2 the sandy shore that sticks to the skin making this slimey slippery stuff easier to grab ahold of and pull as you cut. I don't know that there's a right or wrong way to go about this, so I attacked it one half at a time. Getting the fur off was my main objective at this point, and it didn't have to look pretty.... but it kinda does,lol Once that was done I got started on the other side. I always feel like I'm getting more accomplished than I really am when I break it down into sub-steps like this! So that's as far as I got today plus a little extra scraping after the final pic I posted. Depending on the weather, I may or may not work on it some more tomorrow. If we don't get any measureable snowfall tonight, I'll likely be looking for antlers instead. Next installment should be some scraping and trimming, perhaps some slow simmering over an open fire, some more scraping, and a finish cut of the lower section of the upper jaw. If you've followed along this far, thanks for checking it out and constructive critisism or questions are always appreciated and welcome! I'll post progress as I make it.

I'm glad you guys pointed it out that this was a true euro. I didn't even notice when I first replied. So today it had motivated me to get out and clean up one of the dead buck skulls I chopped off a few weeks ago. I think this technique is going to be a lot simpler and easier than the traditional full skull mounts. One things for sure, after getting the skull capped length-wise, it sure does make access to the eye sockets and brain cavity a piece of cake, especially to a do-it-yourselfer without a beetle colony to do the work for him. So far, so good.... I hope mine turns out half as nice as yours blackradio!

Darn it, I just mapped it out and it looks like you're 5hrs 36min away... or 305.79 miles. I'm guessing that's a tad far,lol You're more than welcome to make the trip if you think a horn or two is worth it.., or if you'd just like to come over and sit under one of my trees and watch the critters.... I spend more time doing that alone than I do finding antlers. If not, I'll just have to see if Red wants to come over and play again!

Looks like you got the best seats in the theatre for the big show !

Yep- The Crystal Springs subdivision comes to mind when you mention that. Used to see a lot of slammin' bucks cruizing through there even as the dozers were plowing everything down. I used to cringe at the thought of how many antlers they were burrying with every pass. I found quite a few dead deer along that stretch of woods while I was working there. Always wondered how many of them were casualties of the bait and shoot program. It really is too bad they never let hunters in there to get things under control. Any time cynthiafu! I have a doctors appointment today, then I'll be hiking out the back door of her office this afternoon,lol. Maybe we could schedule our appointments accordingly and haul out some bones for the good doctors to examine. Might be a good idea to get our heads examined while we're there,lol. Sams got the right idea!

Some real nice antlers gonehntn! In almost 20yrs of doing this, I've only found one shed hanging in the brush and that was last season. Pretty rare to find them like that around here. I just noticed you're from Amherst. I used to do a lot of work in the subdivisions out there... you've probably seen me hiking around on my lunch breaks,lol. Some nice bucks in those woodlots!

2-13-13 Thanks guys! I ran out today for a bit and found #15! Found two more dead doe today also. It's one of those antlers that shouldn't have been found. Only reason I spotted it was because I was expecting to see a horn laying there where it was melted out! I knew if I looked hard enough one would magicly appear! Most likely last years antler but I aint complainin'! Untill I get back to freshie land, these oldies will have to do! I saw a couple herds of all antlerless as well. Almost got run over by a few of them when something spooked them from the field above me. These two stopped for a quick shot. Antlers- 15 Sets- 2 Dead bucks- 8 Dead doe/fawns- 7

I'm actually glad I haven't been stomping around this area with so many antlers still on the hoof. These guys are in prime wintering grounds now, and it'll take quite a bit of pressure to make them leave at this stage of the game. I'll probably let this area be untill closer to spring when I'm sure they've all dropped and I can spend some serious time in the area. There's zero competition in this spot so that's not really an issue. Once it starts to warm up a bit, I'll probably pack the tent in and have myself a little horn hunting rendevous for a couple days! I'm sure there's antlers on the ground in there right now so the hardest part for me is being patient.

At first I thought he might have knocked them off in an antler trap just out of frame... but if you watch his shadow, it looks like he just shook them lose on his own. I'm gonna have dreams about this tonight.., but I'm gonna grab those horns before I wake up,lol

Saw this on another site. Pretty cool!

Prayers on the way up...

I finally got off the hill for a bit today and ran down into the valley. The sign down there is incredible, and just what I was hoping to find! I was really happy to see so many deer had retreated to the lower elevation. By the time I got there I didn't have much time to do any serious searching, but I saw enough to know I'll be back in this area soon. I also saw 5 bucks still packing both sides, and countless antlerless deer while I was there. Here's a few long range, tight cropped shots from the open timber I managed to get. I couldn't get pics of all the bucks because my focus kept locking on the trees in the foreground. They were all pretty similar in size though. Can't wait till these antlers ripen up and start falling!

Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama... I don't belong here.

I had a young buck charge me several times one morning on the way to my blind in the dark. Shined my headlamp right in his face but he kept on coming at least 3 x's within feet of me even when I hit the deck. It may have had something to do with the 1/2 bottle of Tinks I accidently spilled on my hunting clothes the day before though..

Thought this warm up would melt some of the snow, but it didn't really help out much today. Maybe tomorrows rain will take care of the rest of it. Didn't find the kind of horns I was after today, but I did find this neat old skull! I loaded the pics and had to run out and look at him again. He's got a BB stuck in his left sinus cavity. Guess the poachers around here are a little under-gunned since the new assault weapons ban,lol If I can't find some freshies soon, I may just have to grab the bull by the horns and make something happen!

Very cool your daughter enjoys the antlers. That's a nice gnarly little set of horns! Sure beats watching them mutilate a set of Ken and Barbies at $30 a pop,lol

Ha- I know exactly what your talking about Sam! I may call it quits for a few upcoming hunting seasons.. heck, I may be done at this point, I'm not sure yet. I may miss the venison for a while, but there will never be a lack of antlers, pics, and adventurous hikes and stories around here!

Sure looks like a set to me! Hard to tell from pics sometimes, so you just gotta go with what you know about where you found them, the similarities and differences, and what your gut tells ya! I've seen a lot of antlers that don't even come close to looking like they came from the same deer, but I have proof they did! Two nice antlers to tag team up on with your son regaurdless!

Would like to see that antler gonehntn! Not retired yet,lol. Just pack my work load into a few days a week and everything else is my time to dedicate to this stuff. I probably spend more time at it than I should..it's more of an addiction at this point that I don't expect everyone to understand how I MAKE time for it! I've been single the last 5 years or so and probably another 5 years coming up, so that helps,lol I'm not a big fan of hiking for antlers in the snow either, but I still do it. Something special about pulling a shed outta the snow. I just can't get enough of being outdoors every chance I get whether it's hiking, shed hunting, photography or camping out. We should melt out again soon allowing me to get back to some serious hikes again. Good luck to ya next time out!

4" of light fluff I can sweep away with a broom! Should be gone by Monday... wahooo!

Looks great! Nice and symetrical rack!

I wouldn't have been able to resist a peak. Could have been bags full of money and sqashed tomatoes..

Buy the after market blaze orange flush handle and cushioned seat kit!

TIMMBERRRRRRRRRRRRR...lol