I just got a black bear hide back that was tanned. It is 56 inches long and only 30 inches wide and the head is 4.75 nose to eye. All of the forms for a full body mount for a 56 inch long bear are about 40 inches wide. Can I stretch this bear to make it fit the form and how do I do it. I am also concerned about the legs making it around the form. I could get a form that is much shorter and alter it but I am afraid that it will end up looking long and skinny. One other thing since I am on here is how do you soften the hide after it has been tanned? Do you mount the aninmal when it is still wet? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
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stretch it to meet the 40" width you will neet to shorten your form up quite a bit. I would rehydrate (if a dry tan) and stretch as much as you can and then re-measure the lenth of the bear and order your form acordinly. Joe
What do you use to strech the hide?
I'd get a mannikin with say 50" length then the girth would be smaller, perhaps closer to your 30". Then I'd lengthen the bear (depending on the mannikin girth). It's easy to make the mannikin longer to fit your hide rather then try to stretch the hide to fit the girth of your mannikin. I'm looking at McKenzie right now and page 240 has a 33X50 with 4 1/2 inch E to N. Bet you could use it without any modification to your mannikin (maybe lengthen 2 inches) and without suffering with stretching your hide. As far as the face, you can lengthen or get a change out head. Page 239 has even more that might work even better.
I'm guessing you might have measured wrong. Did you get a length measurement off of the carcass or are you measuring a loose hide? IF those are accurate measurements then you DO have a long skinny bear and thus he would look like a long skinny bear when mounted.
I lay them out flat on a table or clean floor and stretch width wise. I do the same for l/s coon. this is also how I do deer shoulder mounts. I should note when I tan coon for l/s I let them dry after tanned then rehydrate to measure and freeze till the form is ready to mount on. Hope this helps! and btw Hogger is dead on! all skins shrink and stretch quite a bit when tanned right. and you can get away with using a smaller form without trouble! Joe