I was asked by a customer to mount some pheasants. They want them to be "dead" mounts, that hang from a board or sumething by the neck. I have done tons of live mounts, but no dead hanging by the neck mounts. Any pointers? Also, what do you charge? The same as for standing, or less?
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It's just another pose. No special problems, but make sure the head/neck connection is sturdy!
Instead of suspending them by their heads, I hang them by one foot. That allows the wings to be semi-open and all the back colors to be exposed. Make sure which way your customer wants them.
...When they are hung by the feet. There should be enough information and reference out there that you should be able to find a picture to show your customer.
jj,
I do a lot of bird mounting for myself and family, and I have done a few pheasants as dead mounts, and from my experience at it, they are a lot easier to work with if hung by one foot or both feet. Then you can have one wing to look like it is broken, as well as expose and fluff up more of the birds colorful feathers. And don't worry about getting every feather perfect, I mean you want them to look really good, but you also want them to look like they were just shot. I may let the tail hang slightly to one side, or just leave a feather here and there out of place. It adds to the mount i think. I also leave the eyelids about half or 3/4 of the way closed, so some of the eye is exposed. Because every rooster that i have shot, always seems to it's eyes part of the way open when I pick them up and look at them. I hope some of this helps you out. Good Luck, Dana
Dead mounts are an interesting way to display a bird or better yet a group of birds. I like to hang by one foot for all the reasons already pointed out. before you start the bird, recreate the pose and photograph it and use it for reference. the feathers may not totally relax and fluff as they will when hung fresh, but you get the idea. Try a couple different poses and angles. I also like to keep one thawed bird to use for ref while mounting the other. You can also get a good looking mount from a not so good specimen.