sampotter

Dang Wooly! I had a good day yesterday and found 5 in 3 hours, putting me up to 26- I was sure I had pulled ahead, but alas, it wasn't so. Nice eagle eye on those stubs!

Just watched the youtube video. I'll stick with the potassium permanganate- at least it isn't combustible. I wonder what the "activator" is with antler magic? The guy says to treat it like gasoline...

Works great on any skulls

I sure like the way they look, especially if you do them fresh. The skull ends up really white and the antlers keep their color. Thanks Wooly- an evil voice in my head keeps trying to talk me into messing with some of my white sheds...

Thanks Grow- this isn't the first one I've tried, but it is the 1st one that I followed the "instructions" and am actually pretty proud of. Here is a pic of it on the wall:

Ok, finally finished. It took about 6 hours to clean in the Buck Boiler. After it dried I put ladies' hair bleach on the skull to whiten it more. I then stained the antlers with potassium permanganate. Once that dried I lightly sanded the high spots on the antlers to lighten them up and add depth to the color. The finishing touch was a light coat of Minwax polyurethane (satin finish). After skull whitening, before staining the antlers: Halfway done with the staining: Staining finished, pre-sanding: Final product: What it used to look like: Detail shot of bladed brow tine: Close up of the skull- these are the most intricate skull sutures I have ever seen...

Antlered doe perhaps. The antlers never harden. The tips break off due to frostbite. My cousin shot one like it a long time ago.

I tell you what -I'd rather have you smash my thumb with a hammer or kick me in the crotch.

Tuesday was rainy- ideal for spotting sheds. I spotted this fork in the morning. Ruby "found" it and brought it to me. Found this dead yearling buck on the same property that had already shed, The girls sniffed out this dead buck. This is the 4th in the same 30 acre block of woods. A piece of aluminum foil that a rabbit was carefully collecting its pellets on: A buck that died last year right after shedding his antlers. He was fully mature and we were disappointed to not find his crown. A small 4 point we missed last year. A nice 5 point off a 2 year old buck I passed on last fall. He was eating the grape pumice left over from wine making. Winery in the background. Shortly before I spotted it I managed to get poked in the eye by a buckthorn! branch. Don't know how I spotted this antler as I have been to the ER once and an opthamologist twice since. “These are antler search and rescue dogs!” Miles: 96.7 WT Sheds: 18 Sam: 14 - New York: 10 - Connecticut: 2 - Ohio: 2 Fleur: 3 - Ohio: 2 - Connecticut: 1 Ruby: 1 - Ohio:1 Dead Bucks: 9 - New York: 7 - Connecticut: 1 - Ohio: 1 Dead Does/Fawns: 7

Good job Wooly! Thats a nice one.

The Sierra Club and the U. S. Forest Service were presenting an alternative to the Wyoming ranchers for controlling the coyote population. It seems that after years of the ranchers using the tried and true method of shooting or trapping the predators, the Sierra Club had a "more humane" solution to this issue. What they were proposing was for the animals to be captured alive. The males would then be castrated and let loose again. This was ACTUALLY proposed by the Sierra Club and by the U. S. Forest Service. All of the ranchers thought about this amazing idea for a couple of minutes. Finally an old fellow wearing a big cowboy hat in the back of the conference room stood up, tipped his hat back and said,"Son, I don't think you understand our problem here. These coyotes ain't screwin' our sheep, they're eatin' 'em!"The meeting never really got back to order.

Got out for an hour and a half after work yesterday. Saw these 5 bucks- 1 still had a single antler on him. Found this fresh one in a bed. Turned out to be the cutest little fork. Also found this older 3 point. Wooly- Watch out, I'm gaining! “These are antler search and rescue dogs!” Miles: 83.5 WT Sheds: 15 Sam: 11 - New York: 7 - Connecticut: 2 - Ohio: 2 Fleur: 3 - Ohio: 2 - Connecticut: 1 Ruby: 1 - Ohio:1 Dead Bucks: 6 - New York: 4 - Connecticut: 1 - Ohio: 1 Dead Does/Fawns: 5

No Joe, repro specialist i suppose. Embryo transfer and IVF is my game. Pav- i do the heads at the farm. Not usually the worst smell around.

Not often. Lameness stuff. I mostly make babies for a living.

Update already- I put this in the bucket at 2pm and pulled it out around 6:30. I did cut the now super-soft skin off, took me about 10 minutes. It still needs an hour or so, but is coming along nicely.

Don't worry Wooly, I kept the bones. We use this special epoxy to glue wooden blocks on the bottom of cow's hooves so they bear their weight on the unaffected claw. It also works well for fixing radiators and especially well for glueing nose bones back on.

I also need to glue the nose bones back on.

Well, I'm not sure it is either. I've never done one this old and dried out. Here is one I did last week. It was a deadhead I found this year and I just threw it in as is. It does need to be whitened but it cleaned it uo in about 6 hours.

Yes, although on a fresh one I usually skin it, remove the eyeballs and brains. Just makes it go quicker.

Nothing puts a bigger smile on my face than a nice fresh one with a heavy base and no chews! I keep remembering that quote of yours Wooly- something like touching a boob (maybe not the word you used) for the 1st time. Never gets old...

That is a Buck Boiler. You add Cascade granular dish detergent and on a fresh skull it will be clean in 5-6 hours.

Here's a project Wooly will enjoy. I was staying in Connecticut with a family friend while shed hunting and he showed me a nice buck he'd shot while hunting with my Dad at my family's place in the Adirondacks. Nice buck for sure except it has been hanging in the rafters of his barn for the last 22+ years with skin and all still on it! I offered to clean it up so he could maybe hang it in his house so here are some before pictures. Bases wrapped to keep the scuzz off... Just add some veggies...

I went down to my old stomping grounds in Connecticut. There was a pretty good amount of snow on the northern and eastern hillsides but fields and south slopes were pretty much bare. I walked nearly 19.9 miles in 2 days and only God knows how many the dogs covered. We found an old deadhead pretty early on. Hung it in a tree (sorry Wooly). Ruby working hard (she likes to roll in the snow) A welcome sight: 60" 5 point with a 25" main beam... I spotted this 58" 4 point from a long ways off. It would've been a road shed had I been the driver of the car in the background. Fleur picked up a fresh fork. My reaction time was a bit slow and the picture blurry due to the rain. “These are antler search and rescue dogs!” Miles: 80.7 WT Sheds: 13 Sam: 9 - New York: 5 - Connecticut: 2 - Ohio: 2 Fleur: 3 - Ohio: 2 - Connecticut: 1 Ruby: 1 - Ohio:1 Dead Bucks: 6 - New York: 4 - Connecticut: 1 - Ohio: 1 Dead Does/Fawns: 5

Joe- what position do you play? I used to play center all through high school. I made the mistake of going to Michigan State so I only made it as far as the final cut- for the club team. Ryan Miller was the same year as I was and set the career shutout record for MSU- as a freshman!

Interesting story, certainly a different one.