Is there a standard technique for "keying in" leg wires to dead mount waterfowl legs? I've tried injecting Zap-a-Gap where the wire terminates near the ankle with minimal success. Thanks for any suggestions.
Chris Langston
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I'm not too clear on what you're asking. I've done plenty of dead mounts and have always wired the legs as any standard mount and run my support/stabilizer wire through the body and into the wall/Plaque..
What does the phase "keying in" refer to?
Jon
In order to make the dead mount more realistic, I tie leather straps around the ankles and hang the bird from a nail driven into a piece of wood. Since the only thing supporting the bird are the legs themselves (no wire from the legs to the mounting surface) the wire tends to pull out of the legs.
Chris
are you cinching your leg wires up snug into the artificial body so that they dont pull out...? Even on a dead mount they need to be cinched down, otherwise the thigh bone can pull away from the mannikin making for improper underlying anatomy.
In your previous post you say the wire terminates near the ankle...
You're leg wire should be inserted in the bottom of the foot, run along the backside of the visible leg (tarsometatarsus) then through the "ankle" and up along the Tibia and fibula (drumstick) and then completely through the artificial body and out the other side where it is turned back on itself and pulled into the body again. By doing so, this cinches the leg wire in place and unless you're duck weighs as much as a cinder block, I see know way that it could ever pull out under normal circumstances.
It sounds to me as though either you are taking a drastic shortcut in wiring your legs, or you simply aren't in full undersatnding of the general mounting process....
I hope this helps.
Jon
I should read what I type before pressing send..
"otherwise... the "drumstick" bones will pull away from the mannikin.." (Not the thigh bone)
and
"I see no way that..."
sorry about that.
Jon