Some of us were blessed to have known Terry Davis both personally and professionally for many years, while some of us only knew him for a matter of weeks. In May of 2008 he lost his battle with cancer. There are no words to adequately express the grief many of us felt for Terry & his family. For many months we read his “Cancer Blogs”. Through the good times and bad, Terry tried to smile and tried to help. He gave his life, his family, and this industry that he loved so much, everything he could, until he could give no more.
I hope that in some small way, by putting the tutorials that Terry had on his website, here on Taxidermy.net, he will continue to teach, inspire, and watch over all of us. His beloved wife, Maggie, has given her blessing to this project.
I haven’t changed a word of the tutorials. The methods described within are entirely Terry’s. I made the pictures taxi.net friendly, but other than that, this is the exact tutorial Terry had on his website. 
Enjoy, and God bless. L
wrapping a mammal for mountingthis is the way i see doing it - it is my first - i am sure there are many other variations available to do the very same thing
1) start out with excelsior (wood - available from McKenzie

2) soak it to make it pack better

3) take carcass parts and trace around them to build armatures for each individual piece

4) cut out the pieces - THEY SHOULD BE UNDERSZIED on purpose

5) i had already cast the head in alginate and made positive from bondo

6) cut off tail at beginning - made plaster cast and filled in with rtv to give it flexibility

7) heres the way it came out of mold


i drilled out holes for ear drums

9) same with eyes

10) filled eyes with epozy sculpt to set eyes in

11) eyes set...................
bubble eyes

12) .................. same here - use reference

13) notch back side of legs

14) notch back side of feet

15) cut wire to fit notch

16) staple wire in place and then hammer the staples down

17) get out the glue fun

18) fill the slot - staples and anything else in the way with glue

19) make sure and support the end of the feet - they are relatively delicate

20) take the main body and put some smaller drive screws in it - this helps to keep the wood wool in place

21) another shot of previous

22) you need some kind of caliper

23) very hard to break this line by hand

24) real body on left - wound body on right

25) bondo head onto form

26) wrap legs same size as sample

27) another view

28) go back to body and check where arms join shoulders

29) put on both front shoulders and see how they line up

30) turns out screwing the pieces together is much better than with the wires

31) double screwing keeps legs from pivoting

32) here he is finsihed and ready to slip skin on

33) tail will be back support - i may have to move back legs a little to when i mount - we'll see what happens

34, 35, 36, 37, 38) Finished mount




