can any one give me a idea on how much more trouble it is mounting a brown bear from a black bear? friend is going for one and wants me to do it lifesize, i did balck bears but never a brown, is there anything special that must be done? any tips ? thank you very much
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For the most part a bear is a bear, Ive only ever done 1 brown but done more than my share of blacks and the only major differance I found was size and weight of the form and skin, and you need to degrease a brown longer. Make sure that you have good facial and ear referance and you should be fine. Oh and make sure you get the right size form, They are more expensive and you dont want to find that you have the wrong size after you cut the armpits for tucking or start doing alterations, you may have an altered form taking up room for a long time to come. Do yourself a favor, Prefit the brown.
They aren't really harder.Obviously there is much more surface area to a skin,so it takes longer to prep,sew the mount etc.,but probably not as much as you would think.It probably takes me app. 2 hours longer to sew up and mount a brown bear.On the other hand,there aren't as many good forms available for the browns and often you have to do quite a bit of altering to make a skin fit like it really should.One of the most well known and complete lines of brown bear forms is notorious for heads that are too small,necks too long and rear ends that are too skinny- and they are very expensive as is shipping.That's just what you have to deal with when you mount a brown bear.You will do yourself a favor if you have it commercially tanned.You won't have any trouble at all if you have done black bears,most of it is extra form work.I have done quite a few and handle even the largest ones by myself.To handle the biggest ones I attach the temporary base while the form or mount is on it's side on the floor,one man can the easily grab the torso and stand it up.I do the reverse to get it into my sewing cradle after putting the skin on the form when getting ready to sew it up.Just think of it as a BIG black bear.
thank you so much for taking the time to reply, i mounted a couple life size bears but have little experence with form alterations, my friend will get me the measurments i need but changing the form may be a problem for me. the hide will be tanned in alaska so i do not deal with that. i been doing taxidermy part time for 25 years and mostly keep it simple, kinda thought before i leave this earth it be kinda nice to say i did a brown bear, i am 52 and live in pennsylvania pocono mountains and have a nice studio, will have to give it some serious thought, again thank you, you have been a great service to me.