i have a friend that has a deer head and his freezer went out i need to know how to cape it out so i can store the cape i have a video coming in mail but it is not here yet i have it on ice right now any help would be grateful
thank
Chris
Chris, First relax. Take a sharp scalpel, or sharp knife and start inside the mouth. Place the blade as close to the bone as possible and start working the mouth skin off. Your goal here is to keep enough lip skin to tuck in later. I start with the lower lip first and work until the skin starts to get too tight to work any farther. Then go to the top lip. Again the goal here is to keep lip skin. Its a little deepr here thoogh. As you start in the center of the upper lip you will run into the nose cartilage. Stay close to the bone on the upper side of the deer head. You will probably cut out more cartilage then you need to, but since this is your first deer that is better than cutting your nose short. Keep skinning around the mouth until either it gets too tight to work or you get within about a quarter inch of the tear ducts. Stop short of the tear ducts to keep from cutting a hole in them. Now take a breath and relax again. Take your knife and turn it upside down. Locate the area in between the antler burs in the middle of the head. Place the tip of the blade throgh the skin here and make a cut. Work the blade until you have a cut big enough that you can now slide the blade between the burs. Make sure that you keep the knife blade upside down, cuttin from the inside out so that you don't cut hair. Complete the incision in between the burs. When your blade reaches the pedicle of teh antler, make sure you cut al th way through the skin. You should now have two corners which meet on each anler base. Keep the blade upside down and go to the neck. Start at the back of the neck and make an incision down the middle towards the head. When you are about 4 inches from reaching your first cut between the burs, turn your incision towards the right antler. You need to connect this incision where the corners come together from your first cut. Visualize a cut that is in the shape of a 7, your incisions will come together to form a 7. the first incision between the bases and the second connecting down the neck. Now start working your blade under the skin around each bur to free the the hide. As you do this you can seperate the forehead skin and some skin on the side to to releive tension. Removing the hide from the bur can be tricky. Some like to follow all the way around the bur with the blade to remove it. Personally, unless its is a really tough one, I will free up about an half inch around each bur and then take a set of needle node pliers. Grasp the skin in the pliers and start to pry the skin off around the bur. As you progress you will again free up more skin that you can get to with the blade now. As you work around the back side you will notice that the ears are starting to hold you back. Free the ears from the head, cut as close to the skull as possible to keep from cutting your ear base up. When you see the ear canal open up don't panick, that means you are doing fine and the ear is almost free. Once your ears are free you can finish removing the skin around the antler bases. Keep skinning until you reach the top of the eye socket. Now reach from outside the hide and place your index finger in the eye. Grasp the skin and continue to skin. Keep the blade behind your finger and you will keep from cutting a hole in the eye. This keeps you behind the lid of the eye and protects the skin. When the eyes are free you must free the tear ducts in the front corner. Some tear ducts can run really deep, so work the blade close to the bone until you free the ducts. now you can move down the head a little. Free all hide up to the bottom jaw and again place you finger inside the skin. Reach into the mouth and find the back corner with your finger. Cut the skin free behind your finger. This will give you a lot more lip skin then you need but as you learn you can trim that off. Now all that remains is to finish freeing the skin from the back to the front of the jaw and you will meet the free skin you started in the mouth to start. Your hide should now be completely free and you can work on removing the skull cap with bone saw. This may look like a complicated process and that you are over your head, but its very easy once you get the hang of it. My instructions over a keypad may seam tedious, thats just because I can't type well. You will do fine...take your time and relax. Let me know how it goes. Good luck.(sorry for the unoraganized writing)