I've been skinning,trapping, and coon hunting since I was 7yrs old and always wanted to do a Deer mount. I'm 34 now and I finally bought a Synchron Eye kit through Van Dyke's but the instructions suck. I've read alot of the postings here and I think I did some things wrong. First one is, it said to separate the outer(back) ear skin from the ear cartilage. This opening of the ear is done to allow tanning cream to be placed on the inner portion of the ear skin and also for the placement of the plastic ear liner. Do I need to remove the whole cartilage from the ear, or put ear liner between the cartilage and the back ear skin, my ear liners are Brad Eppley Ears. Second I didn't Split the lips, eyelids, or nose I salted for 24 hours, and then pickled for 36 hours, 7 gallons of water, 7lbs. salt, 21 oz pickling crystals. Reading some of the postings I checked the salt I was using and some was un-iodized and some wasn't, also the hide wasn't dry before I put it in the pickling solution. Now is my cape ruined and should I start over with a new cape. I know beginners are a pain in the aspirin because I called a local Taxidermy and he didn't want to talk to me. I think this web site is great that their are people willing to help others.
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I went back and read some more postings and I found what I needed to know, If I need more help I'll call you. Thank you
The best decisions I ever made were to have my deer capes commercially tanned, and to have them wet vs. dry tanned. It takes a lot of work and worry out of mounting deer, for minimal cost. If you want to jump in and start tanning, which I consider an art in itself, you can always do that later. Get a couple videos, as a picture is indeed worth a thousand words. There are a thousand opinions out there, and this is only mine. Your second deer will look 100% better than your first and so on. Good luck.