I am planning to try and mount a white tailed deer. Since I do not know how long it will take to skin the deer, my question arises. I am planning on doing an H cut up the inside of the legs and the belly. I am planning on working down the legs, cutting them off about 6" from the hoof, than working around the back and front legs. I will work down the front legs and cut them off and work to the neck and cut the neck off. I then can remove the torso and be left with the legs and head. My question is if I run out of time, at this stage, what do I do? Do I salt the hide and refreeze it or do I just refreeze it. Or do I do something else. I hope to get back to it in a very short period of time but it may be the next day or two. I need to get all my questions answered before I start so it will not wreck my project. Currently the animal is in the freezer.
Thanks Joe
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You're jumping into water without knowing how deep it is. Did you think about doing a squirrel or a fox or a badger or anything small before taking on this project?
First, you skinning is going to punish you. With a whitetail, I cut from the brisket to just short of the anus. Then I cut the back of each leg from the knee to between the hooves. I take a pair of bolt cutters and lop the legs off in the middle of that cut ant then skin up over the knee and remove the entire lower leg bone. Then I skin out the hooves. It takes a little muscle, but the legs can then be pulled out of the skin. Then I hang the deer by it's hamstrings and skin it down to the last joint in the spinal column and sever the head. Then I use the short "Y" to remove the head.
If that's all you can do, then stop there, roll the hide up, and freeze it to work later. The skinning can't be stopped, but the fleshing can certainly wait til later. Fleshing and salting all need to be done at the same time as well.
If you've never even done a whitetail shoulder mount, you are just asking for trouble. I've been doing shoulder mounts and other smaller mammals for years. In all that time i have only done 2 life size deer. Reason? Its alot of work and without ALOT of experience in at least skinning some of the larger mammals, i.e. coyotes etc, you are going to get real aggravated and wind up giving up. Start smaller and work up to that gradually.
Another idea you might try, especially if you have never done this before, would be to take the deer to your local taxidermist. Have him skin the animal, prep etc, and at least get it salted. This way if you decide to do it now or later it wont be as hard because the trickiest part will have been done for you as a beginner. I've done this for a few folks who were just starting out with raccoons, fisher etc. Hopefully he won't charge you too much and it will be a good learning experience for you.
Good luck
Angelo G.
I skinned out my first lifesize Whitetail This weekend and fleshed and salted it last night. The only problem I had was the dang toes. but by the time I got them out and had the stop rot on the rest of the cape was still frozen. man, I am glad its mine I cut or ripped or both, one toe completly off. I don't think It will be a hard fix and a leaf or two will cover any bad spot on that toe up. My problem was I thought for some reason the whole toe had to come out and after the third foot I came here to check and found where some of the top deer guys on here said, that only to the last joint. well needless to say the last foot was a breeze. I do wish I had thought about it more before just doing it but, its The best that I have turned and fleshed yet and I know I can do one now. If anything I would recomend that you have stop rot in your place all times, I use it on everything I do need it or not. But If the deer is frozen whole I would get some stop rot for sure and then plan to do it when I had nothing else to do, start to finish.
If you are considering doing a full-body mount on a whitetail deer I would suggest that you go to my website and observe how I do mine. Click on www.griffithtaxidermy.com and about the center of the home page you will see an action button. Just click that button and you will see the sequence for mounting. Good Luck.
John Griffith
Thanks Guys for all your good advice. I appreciate it a lot. This is not a large deer, but my first and maybe only.(Who knows)
Joe