Im new to taxidermy. I have done a couple squirrels and in the middle of my third deer. Heres the problem. I do all my work by hand, the fleshing and shaving. So as you can guess they are not the best. but when I put the hides on the forms the eyes never match up right. I have ordered smaller sized forms but that has not helped. My last deer [a doe] was 7" A and 14" b I ordered 6 1/2" A and 13" B but when I put the deer on the form one eye would be in the right place and the other was almost on top of the nose. Im I not getting enough strech with my tan? or is this common with forms. I did get the eye to look ok after pulling and working with it for a long time. I also have trouble getting the hide over head onto the form. Help please.
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I sent you an email about this.
You answer your own question ,you pulled it into place, that is what we do is taxing the skin into shape or place. you might be using the wrong tanning, that is your not getting enough stertch, why don't you mount a few animals for practice using dry preserve ,this will give you a better perspective as to how a skin should feel and fit on a manikin ,and or try to break your tanned skins more as well as thinning them more.
cause the cape to shrink. Also you may still need to flesh the cape thinner. A really good Idea to help strech the heads, is to take a small wheel barrel inner tube and put it into the head and pump it up with a air compressor. I like to remove the inner valve in the stem so the air can be quickly removed and i can hole my finger over it to hole the size better. it works very quickly and stretches the hole head evenly. Just do not get to carried away. I also use a larger truck tire inner tube for the rest of the hide. I use the short neck incision and am let with a tube cape. it works wonders.
Anything more I can only think your cape is just not thin enough.
For the most part, the heads on my deer go on just fine.
Also, are you sweating the rehydrated skins over night so they are totally rehydrated? just afew ideas
Roadkill gossard@gtelco.net
Like I said in the email to you, if you don't split the neck a little way on a doe, it won't go on. The neck is smaller than the head and will not slip over it. (the form) Many animals have to be treated the same way, depending on the size of the head in relationship to the neck.
(Don't know if you got the email or not.)