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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

yes it can be done, I have done quite a few of them. Same concept as the turkey fan. Joe

the beetles are a pain, you have to constantly feed them, they have to stay at a certain temp. If they get out of contanier they will be every wheres. In your house etc. Unless you are planning on doing a lot of skulls you are better off not getting beetles. The skulls stink because a lot of people throw the entire thing in there without taking most of the meat off. The object is to take most of the meat off so it can be consumed within about 5-7 days before the meat starts spoiling and rotting. Joe

I am retired from the Army and own my own taxidermy business. Joe

Tug Hill Hunter. First I would like to say thank you from the bottom of my heart as I am a disabled Vet also. I am out in Washington state right now other than that would love to take you up on the opportunity. There are a lot of programs out there that are setup exclusively for this http://huntforvets.com/ Also can go to Fort Drum to the rec center and talk to them and they will give you a lot of names. Joe

Sorry I will make it very slow and simple for you, ROT the meat off with the use of water, hence MACERATION. You are on the computer look it up there are all kinds of videos about it. But I will tell you it stinks not bad, but really really bad!!!!!

would still strongly recommend maceration or beetles, you can see where some of the delicate bones on the inner nose are gone. Also there will still be residue on the back sides of those. Joe

I still say you should go to a competition, they can give you a lot of critiques that will help you improve. You did not hit a nerve with me, I hope one was not hit with you. There is a lot of things you can learn hopefully you will do that and not settle. Joe

Boiling is really hard on a skull. You lose a lot of the inner nasal cavity bones. You should really consider maceration or send it out to a beetle guy. Do not use bleach on it. It will detoriate the bone over time. Joe

the bear was about 400 pounds give or take 25. I charge 160.00 a foot, double felted, double padded, all sewn no glueing. I do not know what the taxidermists in New York charge. I would want to say around 140.00 a foot. Thanks for the comments. Joe

Starting to get a lot of new stuff in this year, just got 2010 finished up I got to do 9 bears this year this was the biggest one. Thanks Joe