could you give me your advice on this deer mount?

Submitted by mike r on 3/17/06 at 5:24 PM. ( ) 24.210.205.246

hi this is my 3rd mount and i was wondering if you could critic it for me thanks and dont hold anything back

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f234/osuchem/MVC-014F.jpg
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f234/osuchem/MVC-013F.jpg

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f234/osuchem/MVC-012F.jpg
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f234/osuchem/MVC-011F.jpg

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Not the worst ive seen your on track

This response submitted by mike in iowa on 3/17/06 at 5:45 PM. ( ) 63.229.175.155

This not as bad as my 1st one ,one thing is the front corners of your eyes are white on both, that is a cross eyed look ,one or the other or none.Your colors are good,ears need alittle work edges ,is it bondo?grooming not bad.you are on your way .Go to your state taxidermy association competition.and really study your photos.
Great job


what did you use for ears liners bondo ?

This response submitted by john h on 3/17/06 at 6:25 PM. ( ) 152.163.100.70

how did you do your ears


Thinning is the key!

This response submitted by Tony Johnson on 3/17/06 at 7:01 PM. ( ) 208.159.223.79

You are on the right track, nose pad looks good, use ref. pics on the shape of your nasal opening. Get the skin really thin around the eyes, prob. 2 inch circle around the eyes. Also thin down the nostril skin, after you tuck the nostril skin, pack the nose with a plastic bag to hold it in place. make sure you are turning your eyes out to the extreme edge, and remove the little white fatty tissue. over all, it looks like a couple of my cometitors deer where I live. You are doing good, just fine tune it now! Best thing I ever did was join my state Taxidermy assoc. Worth every dime I spent, then some!
Next thing is don't get discouraged, it is going to take a lot of time, money and practice, to get things down pat.
Hope this helps you, we were all where you are at not to long ago.

Tony Johnson.


the deal

This response submitted by mike r on 3/17/06 at 10:57 PM. ( ) 24.210.205.246

the ears have eppley liners in them, i know they turned in on the edges i dont think i got them opened all the way out to the edges, i tore a couple of holes in them trying.i might not have got the liners trimed small enough. i joined my state assoc. going to the show end of this month. the cape i bought already tanned looks like they used a chainsaw to skin it lot of holes. I'm going for some training in april which i hope helps me fine tune alittle thanks for your input


eye shape is wrong

This response submitted by terryr on 3/17/06 at 11:14 PM. ( ) 12.207.33.102

check reference on eyes - yours are too circular and wide open - this deer is 100 times better than my first


EArs, ear butts, eyes and nose

This response submitted by Mike on 3/18/06 at 8:16 AM. ( ) 64.91.85.30

First, for your third mount this is great. To make your fourth better, your ears should have tight edges as you already mentioned. I agree the eyes are the wrong shape, they peak about 1/3 of the way back on the top edge and bottom out about 1/2 the way back on the bottome edge. The eye shape is similar to an egg. Catalogs sell an eye shape tool, you place it right on the eye to check the shape and it is a great place to start.
You should not be able to drop a straight edge from the top eyelid edge to the lower, the top should be out over the eye more, your upper swell and upper eyelid need to be out over the eye more. A 1/8" offset.
The inside corner of your eye could be in farther. I remove a very small wedge in the front corner foam of the form to make sure this area gets in, a 3-D reference cast or fresh deer will show how the skin in front of the eye bulges slightly over the orbit and then turns back in the the front corner.
Ear butts need some fine tunning. If you used Eppley's are you talking the buttless? Ear butts are always tough to get, I still have my problems here. Rick Carter did two excellent articles on ear butts in Breakthrough Magazine just recently, they are very helpful.

Reference. Get a lot of photos of deer and study them. Any of the books by Charles Alsheimer or Mike Biggs have tons of great photos. Go the the local library and request them, or find them on half.com.

Keep up the good work.


how can you make links to your photos and paste them here?

This response submitted by mike on 3/18/06 at 8:45 PM. ( ) 4.229.219.149

just wondered


I agree

This response submitted by outdoorslover on 3/19/06 at 8:08 PM. ( ) 216.188.206.52

I agree with everyone. Looks great for the most part.


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