Rick Carter's DVD on Whitetail A to Z

[George Roof]

NOW I KNOW WHO STARTED THAT RUMOR!.  Two people had contacted me on that exact issue.  They said "someone" told them that Rick had put the Meder eyes in backwards.  Well, you need to go BACK and look at the video AGAIN.  You'll notice that the eye in Rick's hand is canted a bit towards the camera exposing the white FRONTAL sclera and hiding the back.  This give a false impression that the eye is reversed.  If you continue to watch, however, you'll see Rick SET THE EYE in the socket.  His manikin, as he explains, has eye orbits cut to fit these eyes and the eye sets on the bottom of the shelf after hot gluing.  When he sets the eye and you look at it perpendicular this time, you see that the eye is positioned as you'd expect it to be.  The first time I heard that (I won't name names to protect the guilty) I almost sprayed Diet Pepsi over the keyboard.  A World and National Champion being filmed by a world class videographer who just happens to sell taxidermy supplies on a project costing several thousand dollars is going to set the eyes ass backwards just to see if we're paying attention?    I think I'll question my observation techniques several times before I think up something that goofy.

[Nickie]

George replied before I could....

I was simply going to say:  Rick Carter making that kind of mistake?....impossible.

[RWTaxidermy]

So George, are you implying that not all meder eyes are the same? In the video the eye is glued in with the brown to the rear of the eye. after seeing this I contacted Joe Meder questioning this, his reply was " The eye installed correctly will have the brown in the front corner of the eye not the back". So if this is the case then is Tohikon selling defective eyes? I understand  with the eye installed the bulge of the eye will indeed face towards the front corner of the eye as will the brown, in Ricks case if the eyes are indeed installed properly and the brown is in the rear corner of the eye then this must be possibly be a Tohikon defect?

[RWTaxidermy]

Maybe someone could make up a tutorial on the correct way meder eyes are to be insatlled.

[Rick Carter]

I did it deliberately to see if anybody was actually paying attention! LOL  Actually the eyes in the video WERE IN FACT set "flipped" or reversed.  It was brought to my attention by several viewers over a week ago that the eyes were inadvertently set incorrectly with the corneal bulge in the back half of the eye instead of the front when I set the Joe Meder 650IQ eyes. My bad. Any excuses? Sort of. Let me begin by pointing out that in most similar types of eye such as the Trueeyes from Brad Eppley and the Van Dyke Natrural eyes the common brown band of color overlapping the scleral band is in the back corner of the eye with the corneal bulge in the front. Many reference pictures can be used as evidence of this being factual. I had used these type of eyes many times before the Meder eyes had become available. When I  used the Meder eyes in the DVD I assumed the brown overlapping color was also meant to be placed in the back of the eye without even examining  the projecting corneal bulge. After an inquiry to the possible error was requested I went and checked to see if any real problems were obvious. It seems evident to me that if the Meder eye were to be rotated that at least one of the eyes would have to be set backwards or it would be highly distracting for the back looking eye to have so much brown in the front corner . Another discovery I made was that even with the eyes mounted as they were in my DVD, The corneal bulge still ended up slightly forward of the center line of the set eye. The eyes do not appear distorted no matter which side you determine is the front.  I went back and set some more Meder eyes "correctly" and compared them to the eyes on the mounted video deer. There actually was not a very significant difference in the location of the corneal bulge. It appears that the brown spot on the Meder eye is there because some folks are too lazy to make nictitating membranes which would cover that part of the eye anyway. Too much white could possibly show without the membranes. So, what can be learned from all of this? Let me be the very first to point out that although my friends and associates or people who saw an article in a magazine may refer to me as an "Icon", "Master", or "Champion" you have never heard it from me. It is very flattering and appreciated when people voice confidence in my abilities but I will be the first to tell you that I am nowhere near perfect in any way. The mistake I made on the eyes is positive proof that no matter how hard you try the best work you can do still falls far short when compared to the live animal. It also reaffirms that we shouldn't sweat the small stuff! I still stand by all of the other "correct" information on the video. In ten years we will probably find many more mistakes!

[George Roof]

Well, I guess I made a presumption incorrectly, but I know well how film can make things appear versus what they really are.  Can I have my crow fricasseed? Then I can send half of it to Rick.  LOL

[mr.T aka mr. friendly]

And Rick judged my mount three years ago,,, and all my eyes have been put in backwards since? LOL

[Nickie]

Ooohh.  That pedestal I had him on just got shortened an inch or two!

Just kidding, Rick.      You're still awesome.

[Jerry H]

Hey Rick I want my money back. Just kidding. I will stick with my original comment on page 2 of this thread. It is the most informative DVD I own.

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.

[RWTaxidermy]

Well, I guess I made a presumption incorrectly, but I know well how film can make things appear versus what they really are.  Can I have my crow fricasseed? Then I can send half of it to Rick.  LOL

 Well like I said, I DONT ALWAYS AGREE WITH GEORGE!

 Rick thanks for clearing this up, You and Ken did an awsome job on the video. Well worth the money spent.

[Nathan B]

 The Archives do work...

  I watched the video and have been scratching my head for sometime on how to install these eyes. I am glad I found this post.

  Sorry for bringing up a dead post, but it  answered alot of my questions about the eyes ,and proof that George can be wrong LOL

  Sorry George.

[coonhollow]

the Rick Carter DVDs are great! Theres a new era in gasoline ass, its Habenero ass! like the energizer Bunny just keeps going and going!

[michael p.]

It appears that the brown spot on the Meder eye is there because some folks are too lazy to make nictitating membranes ...............

GUILTY HERE!

Your video is still the best out there in my opinion though!

[bear_country01]

I agree RICK'S video is great ! I have it and learned so much from it. Keep them coming RICK

[armymac26]

I agree as well I have learned so much form Rick's video. I find my self going back to it on a regular basis and realizing that everytime I watch it I learn something new