Diamondback Flat mount, coated with 'bartop' (poly resin)

[ShawnQ]

Hello guys,

Saturday morning at around 1am I was awakened by my dogs barking. They had pinned a 4'6" Western Diamondback. Luckily neither of them were hit.

Against my better judgement, I went ahead and killed the snake. We live in a residential neighborhood, and I'd rather kill the snake then have it bite one of the many neighborhood children or dogs.

So, needless to say, I've now got a 4'6" Snake, on Ice, in a cooler. It's been on ice since about 2am Saturday morning. I need to hurry up and do something with it so as not to waste it.

I've got a really nice piece of mesquite wood that I would like to flat mount the skin on. I'd like to use a cattle brand (With my iniitials) on the mesquite, add in a barbed wire frame with actual barbed wire, and maybe a few TX Stars or something similar. I then would like to build a temporary border around the piece of mesquite, and poor a coat of self leveling 'bar top' over the snake skin, the barbed wire, the mesquite, and whatever else I put on it.

What I need to know is the best way to gut/skin the snake, and then the best preparation for the skin to apply it to the board, prior to putting the bar top coating over it.

Has anyone seen this done? I think the clear coating will help keep the colors vivid, and also seal it from the elements. That Poly resin should last forever...

Anyone?

Thanks
Shawn

[fesekula]

ShawnQ, Your best bet is to go to www.taxidermy.com and order their book "The Breakthrough Reptile and Amphibian Taxidermy Manual". WASCO is the taxidermy supply company and the owners of this forum.

[ShawnQ]

Will I be ok freezing the snake, whole(Meat, internals, head) until I can receive a kit/book?

Thanks
Shawn

[Wally B]

Freeze it until you are ready

[Evelyn Billington (Superpig)]

You snake will have to be properly taken care off before sealing it with the resin. You need to flesh and tan it up correctly. If you go to hidetanning.net and click on the snake skinning illusrated article, this will guide you through the skinning process. Ordering the reptile manual is a good idea if you plan to do more snakes in the future.

Since your snake is now in the freezer, order yourself a snake tanning kit from any of the suppliers. I would recommend either WASCO True Tan Reptile Tan, or Rittel's snake tan. Both tans will do an excellent job and come with detailed instruction on fleshing and tanning.

Once the snake is tanned and oiled (optional in your case), tag it to a long piece of cardboard and let it dry. If you want the skin to stay pliable, oil it, if you don't care whether it gets stiff, skip the oiling. The dry hide can then be tacked or glued on to the piece of board of your choice. I would suggest to tag it rather then gluing it. The glue in time may dissolve and loosen the hide off the board. Tags will hold forever. After you have everything where you want it you can then encase/seal it with your resin.

[ShawnQ]

Is there a resin you would recommend for this?

Thanks for the help you all, I'll be sure to post pics of the finished product!

Shawn

[Evelyn Billington (Superpig)]

I am not too familiar with the poly resin as I don't use it on my snakes. To seal ours we lightly coat them with matte modge podge. This will give them just the right sheen that they possess while they are alive and at the same time seals the skin against dust and dirt. The modge podge does not encase them though. If you want to encase the skin completely in the resin, I suggest to read up on this some more so you get it right the first time. The resin won't allow you to redo it if you mess up.