Okay I'm from Tn and I have never done a pronghorn but I have mounted whitetails, mule deer and elk. So my ?s are: when I shoot myself a pronghorn this fall is the Y cut okay, and do you just skin up to the horn and all or the sudden you run out of hide (no bur)? I've done a search and found tons of valuable info but nothing about the above. Thanks!
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It will allow you to salt the hide a bit better, you will have to determine the hair horn line by looking, I have seem many that were well defined and many that were just waxy as you work up the horn. Dont get to the hair roots on the cheek glands, you can cut right into them and see what I am talking about. You will have a mane to cover the long cut.
Take lots of reference photos, close up of the eye, from front, rear, side, top and bottom. Then the nose!
Measurments! will help!
Good luck
John
Every pronghorn I've ever gotten has had a head bigger than its neck. It'll come off, but it won't go back on the mannikin. If that's the case, your "Y" cut will be a foot long anyway, so what purpose does it serve? Just make SURE you keep the hair out of the blood or you'll be very sorry.
and I always use the smallest Y cut possible. Never had a problem with either pulling the cape over the form or loosing hair due to having problem with salting it down.
My motto is why make yourself more work then necessarry.
One advice though. Pronghorns have hollow hair and are very prone to loosing hair. Much more so then deer. I would suggest for you to either take a small freezer with you or get that cape into a freezer at your hunting camp ASAP after skinning it out. Even a couple of hours can in some cases make a difference between a good cape and one with bald spots later on.
Prongs can SLIP while they're on the animal. Their hair falls out because there's no "root" system to it. It all attaches to the epidermal layer and will fall out to the touch if you aren't careful. It's a protective defense resource and cooling it won't help stop it from happening. You just have to be very careful with prongs.
I plan on caping the animal as soon as I get a few photos, then salt him down on the spot and let him dry out before I head back home.
But I just wanted to stress to Dan how much more important it is to take care of a pronghorn cape then it is with a deer cape. Sorry I left out this information. I didn't think there was a need to get too much into details, but I'm sure he appreciates your added on info nevertheless.
Dan I am not so sure whether the salting and drying out on the spot idea is such a good one. You would have to rehydrate the cape before fleshing and anytime you have to rehydrate anything the risk for slippage goes up. If it were me, I would make sure I have a small butane freezer with me on the back of my pick up and freeze the cape immediately after skinning. But that is just my opnion.