blkbearklr

Not seeing any thing on facebook?? Maybe you should post a link on here Found it

As a taxidermist I can say greybeard was spot on with his information. I will only add a couple of things. One if the tail feathers do not fit inside the bag or the pantyhose do not try to make them, let them hang on the outside a lot less damage will occur. Second thing is whatever bird you are choosing get to it as quickly as possible. Nothing worse than shooting a trophy bird and then letting it flop all over the place and damaging feathers. Thirdly a lot of people say oh just put it in a brown paperbag/cardboard. Not a real good idea these are paper products and they tend to wick the moisture away from the animal. They can become freezer burnt within a matter of days/weeks. Good Luck hunting.

That was a nice shorter haired cape on that buck, tell your buddy next time to look at HQtaxidermy.com look at their WO series from Gene Smith, there would have been a lot more detail in it. For the eyes, reference pictures help a lot

Nice bear congrats to you.

I don't smoke cigars but I love me a good cigarette. And as was mentioned it only takes a second to field strip it and put it in a plastic bag in your pocket. I have bow hunted most of animals, 2 moose, 3 elk, 4-5 bears, I forgot how many deer all done while smoking. Nothing like bugling in a bull elk for your hunting partner 75 yards away while I am enjoying my Marlboro.

Well since I have shot quite a few bears, I will say a couple of things as some already stated the meat is excellent if shot in the right place. I have taken two bears in huckleberry patches and I enjoy the meat. They were around the 200-225 pound range. I shot a bear in Alaska along the coast that was eating kelp, that was not even edible after I made it into sausage. So it truly goes with what they are eating. The only bear that I have shot and did not eat was my grizzly. In Alaska you do not have to eat the meat, but I was determined to. After boiling some of the meat at camp and eating a small portion of it I racked out for the evening. Got up the next day and there was at least a 2 inch layer of hard fat in the boiled water so I now understand why it is not edible. As for dragging a bear, I have never done that, No matter where or how close I am I always quarter them up and pack them out. The only time I did not do that was I shot one about a mile in when elk hunting and knew my buddy was close to me somewhere so just waited and when he showed up we just tied the legs together threaded a stick through them and carried it out. One more piece of information if you are going to want to get it mounted, wether it be lifesize or a rug. Dragging it out can remove a lot of the hair making it not so nice of a mount.

I do exactly as Pygmy said. I reload each bullet by hand, you are reloading to make sure everything is identical it will not be if you don't go slow and precise. Joe

Oh and Antelope

If anyone is still looking at a mule deer hunt you can contact bearpawoutfiiters.com He hunts in Washington, Idaho, Utah and Montana. Dale himself is usually on the hunts or his wife Tara, or son Brian. He is a super great guy I used him 2011 for my cougar hunt. He guides for bears, cougars, moose, whitetail and mule deer. Joe

yes same thing, it is a lot cheaper though to just go to a beauty salon local and get it. Joe

thank you steve, Geno never use bleach, no part of bleach once used it can never be removed and it will continue to detoriate the skull. Sometimes not always, but if you have ever seen a skull that looks chalky and if you touch it, it feels that way that is usually caused by bleach. Joe

you can go to my website and look under antlers/skulls and see what they look like. I have a ton more to add just finding time it is the busy season for me right now. www.alivingmemorytaxidermy.com Joe

If you soak it a week or two there should not be an issue. What you are doing is called maceration. I usually soak my skulls for a minimum of two weeks, You know they have soaked long enough when the teeth start falling out. That means the soft tissue has detorated. From there after the soaking in just warm water, I usually just use fish tank heaters. I will then soak it in dawn water changing the water every couple of days for about a week and degrease it. I dont do anything other than that on deer skulls. Most of the times on bears and other oily skulls I will use lacquer thinner to break up the grease. From that you can go to any hair salon, get basic white and 40 volume peroxide and make a paste and whiten them. There are a lot of methods but leaving it in water will not hurt the nasal cavity bones. Joe

man that thing is sweet, good job. Would be awesome in a full body mount thte way you got it laid out there. Joe