Whitetail deer neck inscision

[Larson]

I am working on my first shoulder mount white tail.  The book I used for the caping procedure has me cutting the back of the neck from the base of the antlers all the way down to the end of the cape.  Is this common practice?  Dont most just do a "Y" cut around the anters  and turn the caper over the head?  What is the point of cutting all the way from the anlters to the shoulders as shown in the guide I am using?  The bad part about it is I have extra sewiing to do because I followed the instructions before I figured it out.  Or does this need to be done to fit the caper over the chest of the form?

[Nina]

Most people now just use the Y incision....it cuts down sewing time a lot, so that is all I use

[mr.T aka mr. friendly]

6 of one  and a half dozen of the other, An open long cut is easy because you can set the antlers first and sew the cape around it, on the short Y cut, you place the antlers on last after the cape is on the form. Being new, sewing can take a long time on the long cut. You can turn the cape inside out, lay it on the table, sew it up and turn it into a short Y,  before you put it on the form.

[chris_kreiner]

I have done it both ways.  The short Y makes for less sewing but it can be a little more difficult to fit the hide over the form.  I don't mind the extra sewing myself it only takes an extra 10-20 min. to go all the way down the back seam.  I really don't have a preference either way works for me.

[Bobbi Meyer]

I can follow your pictures until the last two then I'm kinda lost..what are you hooking the metal hook into? are the skewers just there to hold the hide out of the way? Then which direction do you peel the hide off? Sorry so many questions, but it looks like a real time saver and we all know time is money...more details please !!! Thanks

[mr.T aka mr. friendly]

I think what Mike is showing you, is how he removes the antlers so the customer can brag them around town, then hangs the head and skins it out the rest of the way after the antlers are off. But his main point I think, is he shows how little he has to sew up using this method.

Thanks Mike, I think Santa needs to get me a Saw's all now.

[Matt]

Short Y incisions make sewing easier and if you are working on a really short haired wt, it's the only way I would do them. If you stretch the cape alittle before fitting, you shouldn't have any problems getting it on the form to fit and prep.

[Bobbi Meyer]

Less sewing for me would be great since I'm not too fast at it. I'm just confused about how he gets the skin off the remaining part of the head, thats all. I mean does he skin back as far as he can from the nose portion then cut the front of the face off  then pull the skin over the remaining face part or does he cut the neck off flush with the base of the skull and pull the skin down over the neck portion???

[Cole]

Bobbi, once the antlers are removed he hangs the head from its spine upside down, then skins from the back of the neck forward. No antlers in the way so it comes right off.

[Jerry S.]

Sorry but I'm confused . . . I've used the short incision for years on whitetail but I completely skin the head out through the short incision and remove all hide before cutting the antlers off. The method shown seems to be a lot of extra work trying to keep the hide out of the saw cut - not to mention the brain stuff getting into the hair.

 

Jerry S.

[whitebuffalo]

I like that V cut never thought of that.

[mr.T aka mr. friendly]

Jerry S, go back and read why Mike does it that way, the customer is standing there wanting his antlers to take home.

[Jerry S.]

Actually, Mike said that IF the customer is standing there, he didn't suggest using chisels. That indicates that he also does it this way if the customer isn't standing there.

Nevertheless, it only takes a few minutes to skin the head out through a short incision so why not just skin it out and then cut the antlers off?? It would result in a lot less messy stuff on the cape.

One day I had a slew of deer come into the shop and when I started skinning them out my wife timed me. The average skinning time per head, using the short incision, was less than 6 minutes each . . . and that was with no holes cut in the capes. Add a couple of minutes to pick up the sawzall and cut off the antlers and you are still under 10 minutes. If a customer is in a bigger hurry than that then he can go somewhere else!!

[Cole]

You have much less sewing w/ the v-cut. this is the advantage. To each his own, there are always advantages and disadvantages to every method.

[michael p.]

Why thje hell would you cut the antlers off BEFORE I've heard of bass akwards & this kind of reminds me of that