Will be skinning a snow goose tomorrow and will be removing the entire skull for the first time. Read all the archives and it seems pretty straightforward. I would appreciate guidance, however, concerning the skin area directly under the bill, you know that V-shaped fleshy membrane NOT covered with feathers. Do you remove this piece from the lower mandible keeping it still attached to the feathered headskin or do you leave it attached to the bill? I will be using the real skull in the mount. I can envision it being done either way and assume that this area will need rebuilding under either scenario. Is this flap skinned differently if one used an artificial head?
Thanks,
Davey J
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Take it with the rest of the skin. Do not use the old bill, water foul have a real shrinkage problem, order an artificial from Tony Finazzo in CAL. He has a web page in the Forum. Once you have tried an artifiial head you will never go back. If you have a chance to order the head first you will see the 6 cuts you have to make and where.Talk with Tony he a super taxidermist,down to earth, and willing to help, tell him Don from IL.says hello
You can totally use the real skull! Some people still use the real skull in their mounts, just like they did in the "old days," lol!
Anyways, when you skin the head around the beak, you skin along the entire feather line. You will need to leave that V-shaped membrane of skin under the beak still attached to the beak. Cut only along the feather line.
Now, once you have the skull separated from the goose, you will need to clean out all the meat from the bone. Powder it with DP or Borax, then rebuild the entire skull. I use Apoxie Sculpt, but you can use clay or anything you want. Just fill in all the areas where there used to be meat, until your skull is nice and full.
When you mount the bird, you will put the head on Last. Once the bird has been "stuffed," and the neck material is inside the bird, you then attach the skull to the neck. I like to drill a hole in the skull, fill it with hot glue, and stick the neck wire into the hole. After the glue cools, you can make a nice union between the back of the head and neck, using clay or apoxie sculpt. Then just roll the goose's head skin over top of the skull, and super-glue the skin into place.