I realized today that I don't do many regular stright upright mounts, doing mostly different variations of semi-sneaks, which I happen to like. So today, doing one of those troublesome heads whose dimensions don't quite fit the form and that the customer wanted as a straight upright, I've encountered a problem I've had before but not thought about in a while. On the full upright, I wind up with a lot of extra skin at the junction of the head and the neck, where the white patch is. It makes sense that there should be extra skin there, since the skin is there when the head is stretched out in a sneak or semi-sneak, but I've never quite known exactly what to do with it, and reference photos I've looked at don't realy show any detail. So I wind up just kind of layering the folds, and when it's all done, it looks pretty smooth with some slight waves. I've thought about making grooves in the form to accomodate the folds and make a smoother appearance but never done that. You guys that do this for a living must do tons of uprights, so I was wondering how you handle that specific site. Also, this is an old deer, lots of scars and fairly thinly fured for a late season deer. I have a few small spots where the hair is just in little curls, along either side of the crest of the nose in particular. The skin is losely fit, and all the features are positioned correctly, so I've not overstretched, but, boy, those little spots are irritating. Any suggestions on cause or cure for that. Thanks in advance. The contributors to this site are really super!
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What form are you using? A few of the McKenzies are notorious for that.
I HATE! upright mounts. What I have done to help is shave down the throat a little. Next time you kill a deer feel the throat with your hands. You will find that the esauphagas (spelling) is usually narrower than on many forms. But the best thing you can do is steer your customers away from these mounts. I have found that people will want whatever they see on your wall for the most part, so I never have a full upright showing in my shop. I love semisneaks because they look better to me and are much easier to mount on. Out of 160 plus deer this year only one was a upright. Lucky me!
I mounted one on a Hilton Eppley upright. Try one, you won't be disappointed.
Sounds like I've used one of the notorius McKenzie forms Drew refered to. I use McKenzie for just about everything, so interesting to learn of the issue with the uprights. I'll have to try the Hilton Eppley for the few uprights I do.
Super tall and narrow rack then if an upright is not proper?