A customer brought in a mount that he had done by another taxidermist last year, and he is not pleased with it. He showed me a pic that he took right after the deer was shot and you can see the swelling in the neck, it was in the middle of the rut, my first question is; after a deer is dead does the swelling stay in the neck for several hours and longer or does it return to normal size?. He said that he watched the taxidermist take measurements, but you can see a difference. My second questions is; I looked at the back of the mount at the skin there, the skin is "rock" hard, I have a mule deer that is over 10 years old and the skin is still plyable. I am only familiar with tanned skins, I was wondering about dry preservitive. Does it leave the skin hard or plyable. It actually looks like the skin has just been salted and that is all. Do some people actually just salt there capes and then mount them?
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I use Liqua-tan, and it dries up pretty hard in back, even on thin-skinned pronghorn's. It also seems like the neck always looks bigger in my pictures. I think the muscles being all relaxed, and the neck not being stretched out makes it look more massive. But that's just a personal observation. See if the measurements that are written down, and the measurements of the mount are close.
I'm always amazed at guys who think "rutted up" in an inflamed gland or something. The rut with its inherent activity of head butting, tree polishing and running actually builds those neck muscles up to where they are bigger than during the docile days of spring and summer. My bet is the taxidermist took the eye/nose measurement and either bought a form off a supplier with few choices in circumference or just plain bought the "pre-rut" phase of forms. Dan's right on the money about the hardness bit. Even tanned hides get hard if they haven't been tumbled or broken.
George , your wrong about the neck muscles getting bigger . I butcher about 200 deer a year and I noticed , that these deer that come in during rut , that the neck meat is covered with a jelly like substance sometimes a few inches thick and very watery . When I skin them , the water sometimes pours out . David , the necks stay swelled for days .
Hi newbirdman, I don't know where you are located, but your deer must be waterlogged. I have never seen any jelly like substance or water in any deer from anywhere, unless found in the lake submerged. I agree with George.The neck swell will stay the same, until hung, which can stretch it out and make it narrower if hung for a few days.
Depending on weather conditions when shot, the hairs will stand out further in really cold weather (below freezing) which creates a even larger appearance of the deer.Because customers do not know how to properly take care of a mount with the hair standing out, deer are generally mounted with the hair lying down giving it a sleeker look, then what mmay be portrayed in the customers picture. The neck size has not change in the mean-time. It would also cost more to create this look because of grooming time.
It may also be a inexperienced taxidermist who has not thinned down the hide enough to get the proper stretch.
It could also be some new sub-species of deer that I am not aware of. :')
I possed a question as to the amount of swelling(water)I was seeing on the faces of whitetials that were coming in last year.Someone on the forum told me it was from the deer being hung head down and the body fluids draining towards the head.Sure enough I asked the customers when they picked up their deer how they had them hanging and by the back legs was the answer.You should have seen these faces it looked like they had a hose stock in their mouth under high preasure.
I agree with John. Here in the Adirondacks, guys sometimes spend a week or longer in the woods. If they bag a deer the first or second day, that deer is hanging on the pole for several days. I can always tell the ones that were hung by the hind legs, because the entire face and neck area is loaded with that jelly-like moisture.
Got a chuckle out of that one. You must be a newdeerman,too. As far as the "jelly", this is inflamation caused by traumatic shock. Sometimes a bullet, sometimes another deer. Same thing happens to you if someone blouses your eye. The tissues don't change, it's the sudden accumulation of water that has been forced out of the cells and the body's natural protection to replace it immediately. Shotgun slug kills are notorious for the amount of "jelly" around the wound.
David,The measurements the taxidermist took(if right) should be what the customer got.The swelling in the neck area is from muscle buildup from making rubs,fighting and the natural cycle of higher hormone output.I strongly believe in useing dry preservative too because you can get the stretch that most other tanning methods cannot give you ,thus allowing you to get the original size back(and it does cure out hard).As far as the gel like substance that some are refering to-In my opinion it is from being hanged from the back legs.It usually builds up in the lowest point (being the head)and from my recollection none of these had shotgun blasts to the head area G .