I have a deer another taxidermist mounted for me. I have only had it in my home for two weeks now, it was mounted the last week of February. The ears are really drumming. I do not know much about proper deer head mounting, but now I know that oversized earliners and bondo mixture is not a good thing. I will be highly pissed if I have to replace my monster buck hide because of the ears splitting. This is my 20 point that has a neck of 26 inches. I won a big buck contest and my mount was paid for by another business, but still some people do not learn or listen. They will go to the end of the Earth to pay very little for high expectations that equal in reality poor quality. I also now know that there is no need to fill in nostrils.
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Your got hosed for free. It sounds like a low or no quality mount at best. You got just what you paid for, a free mount. You turned it over to the cheapest bidder, no septem work, bondo in the ears without epoxy to bond the ear skin to the bondo. You might not even have hide paste on the rest of the form, watch for more drumming, and it may not even be tanned. Thank you for your post Allan, sorry you had to learn about the hacks that think that short cuts or an ok way to do business. My daddy always said, you get just what you pay for, and you get just what you dont pay for also.
would you let somone else pick the taxidermist to mount your 20 pointer. Looks to me as though you learned a tough lesson. Even if it's free, it may not be worth it. Sounds like another trophy ruined by a hack. By the way, 26" capes are expensive!
Sorry to hear it, I would sya you could return it t o the taxidermist and demand that he fix it, but if you never paid for it, he may not care.
Take it to another taxidermist and ask them if they would fix it.
If you brought it to me, I could possibly fix it unless it is a DPed cape. Then, it is time to find a new cape or learn to live with the mount.
I know every step that deer went through. I tanned it myself the hide turned out great, there is hide paste all throughout. the ears are bonded and lined with oversized liners.At the time I did not realize they were oversized. I have not done any deer until this last month and It has been only two. So The tackle shop owner that had the big buck contest paid for the mount and what I had seen of this taxidermist looked good. But I sat in on every step of the way. I wathced him flesh it, prep the mannikin, mount the deer, and finish work. I felt he knew what he was doing. I will wait and see if it shrinks anymore and seperates. It still looks good. Whether it will honestly stand the test of time is a waiting game.
"I do not know much about proper deer head mounting..."
Then you state you sat through the entire process and everything looked good to you and the taxidermist looked like he knew what he was doing. How do you know the taxidermist knew what he was doing and whether it was correct if you don't know much about proper deerhead mounting?
I'm confused here. Good luck with it anyway.