Hi,
I had a nice 120 class buck in hudson valley ny mounted last year.
At first everything looked good its been almost a year. But now i noticed the last time i dusted and cleaned the mount it split and pulled from the antlers behind the ears. I have other mounts in my game room i even have 2 i did over the winter after i took up taxidermy.I sent another big 7 point to the taxidermist just before i took it up now that mount is done.I want to know how i should approach this with the taxidermist none of the other mounts have this problem even my older ones and i clean and dust them regularly.
I checked with other people who have used him and they say he's really lost his touch the last couple of years.I don't want another mount to go bad or be ripped off. Any advice would be greatly appreciated thanks.
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It happens. I am not saying it had to happen if everything were thinned better or better glue used. You can ask him to repair it or repair it yourself. If it was not noticed until you cleaned the thing then apparently there is no problem with the face or front of the deer. if it is just around the antlers that is an easy fix. If it is the seam and you want just rehydrate it and re-sew it, or have the other guy fix it. Or you can just bad mouth the other taxidermist to other people like you are already doing. That will solve everything.
small problem, small fix, when I think off all the problems in the world today, cape shrinkage on a mount is not very high on the list. In a few years hunter22 will look at the work he has done and will see the same thing on his mounts. Be carfull on over reacting and talking smack about the guy who mounted it. And being ripped off is when the guy moves and you loose antlers cape and all.
i bet at least 75% of the commercial mounts out there have skin pulling away from the burrs. unless it is really apparent when viewing the mount from a normal position, i wouldnt worry about it.
look a the deer you mounted on your own. i bet they are pulling too. if they arent, just wait.
maybe your taxidermist really has lost his touch. there are a lot of guys out there that get burned out. but in my opinion, i would just use it as a learning experience. if you are going to start mounting your own deer, then now you know one area of concern that you will need to keep an eye on and learn how to control.
some info on how he does antler burrs? I think I rember seeing a post a few weeks back about using cable ties around the antler burr bone and then the skin? ? ? Any one else remember what this post was? Joe
I don't buy into the assumption that all mounts will pull away eventually. Perhaps if it is like 20 years old and above a fireplace.
If the mount is done right the hide will stay. The taxidermist did not get the distance from the eye to the antler base correct, and/or the stitches were not right.
If you test fit the cape to the skull cap instead of just eyeballing where the skull goes on the form, it won't pull away. There is no where for it to pull to. I test fit it so that there is a little slack and use a roll of epoxy putty around the pedicle. Then you use a good paste, tuck the hide up tight to the burr and pinch the putty up agains the burr. The hide will not move this way.
I might have descibed the damage right the skin is splitting down the head under the antler between the eye and ear about 1.5 inches ands getting worse. I wasn't bashing or as todd put it bad mouthing him. If you read my message i just feel let down where i hunt in ny deer don't get big or old i might never get a chance at another deer like this one. By the way i did have another taxidermist look at it but i won't say what he thinks cause i don't want to be bad mouthing anyone sorry.I just thought some taxidermists would help point me in the right direction.Well i hope i clarified things better. Thanks to the guys who really tried to help i got to get it fixed before i have to remount the whole thing
There are so many veriables in the mounting process that could have gone wrong. It would be hard to judge and form an opinion on what may have happened to cause the damage. We have to remember here that this is a piece of skin we have to work with. No one can say really how its going to last in the long run. That cape may have had some type of damage write from the start not saying it did but could have. If it were mine, I would get another cape they are a dime a dozen on here some times LOL and remount your deer. I know that when I first started doing taxidrmy I looked at every mount I saw with a critics eye. Nothing is perfect and if you look at others work as there work you will see that we all do things different. Some peoples work is by far better then others and what appeals to your eye and theres is two different things. I would not bad mouth his work but I would remount the deer head and forget about it. Sheeot happens. Jack F
with jack. my boss at my 'real' job just got his deer back from a guy that does this for a living and the skin around the burrs was not tight right after he picked it up. this was a 'premium' mount ($435). does it affect the look of the mount? if you look at it with a critics eye yes it does but this isnt a competition mount either. my boss is happy with it but i think he will give me the chance to do this years deer after seeing more of my work.
maybe he can offer a solution. This doesn't sound like the typical antler burr/hide shrink problem that everyone first assumed it was by your first description. This sounds a little more complex. I would ask what method was used for preserving the cape(tanning vs DP)? If tanned what method,(commercial or in-house)? If in-house, what type of tan? Was hide paste used on the form? These are things that would cause this type of problem.
Maybe this taxidermist began using a different method in recent years. New products come out all the time. If no one complains to the taxidermist then how are they supposed to know there is a problem with a particular product? Don't be afraid of offending him, be an adult and I'm sure he will be professional.
that sounds much more serious than what i gathered from the first description. From what i uderstand this time.....that is some major damage. i have never had a problem like that so i really dont have advice on how to repair it.
sounds like you need to go back to him and see what he has to say.