My First Skinned Deerhead.

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By the picture it still looks like there is some hide left around the antler bases. When you are skinning around the bases your first cut should be all the way to the bottom and underneath the basees. Once cut all the way you will have to pull the hide out and from underneath the bases to skin it completely around. Maybe you have done this just by the pics like I said it stiil looks like there is some hide left. Don't get disgouraged and keep trying.

 

Take a flat head screwdriver and pry up the skin around those antler bases next time so you get everything. You are going to have gaps around the antler bases when you go to mount that one with so much skin missing.

 

Hey you gotta to start somewhere. And you'll never truly know how to do it till you get your hands dirty.

 

Use a Sawzall to remove the antlers. Much quicker than a hand saw.

 

Watch Tazzymoto video and note how he cut the nose it looks like you a lot of the nostril area on the skull. The septum is usually removed after it is off of the skull and from that pic it looks like it is still on the skull.

 

I actually sharpened a flathead screwdriver and use it to pry around the base, once I cut it.

 

you tube, you tube, you tube there are plenty of videos to watch

 

I use a small,sharp chisel and tap it with a hammer to get down under the skin to the underneath. It's a job that you just have to muscle thru. like Jeff said, use a sawzall to cut the antlers off. don't cut too close, you want some of the skull with it, you can always cut more skull away from the antlers when you are mounting it.

 

X2 on the flathead screwdriver. It's much MUCH easier though to use the screwdriver to do this when the cape is still on the skull. It peels it right off everytime.

 

Don't leave hair around the bases, that's the best tip. j/k Get yourself a scapel and some blades, sharp tools, are good tools.

 

You guys with your damned screwdrivers won't ever learn I guess. The very BEST tool to remove ALL the skin and thick cartilage under the pedicels is a CABINET MAKERS 1/4 INCH CHISEL, honed and sharpened. (Find one at www.JamestownDistributors.com. It's item # FUL-301 and costs $10.10) Invariably, a dull screwdriver is going to end up being pushed into or through your hand. A SHARP chisel will cut on contact and you slip the flat edge under the pedicel and simply life the handle upwards scraping the skin and cartilage down on the skull. If you try the chisel once, you'll put the damned screwdriver back into the tool box and leave it for SCREWS.

Thistle, most of us will get to the soft tissue on the muzzle and then cut the nose and septum off. We flesh that out later along with the ears, eye brows and lips. This insures you get enough of the nostril skin to tuck properly.

It doesn't look like you have any neck skin so I'm not sure you want to mount just the face like that.

 

Scalpels here.

 

The guy that is teaching me has taught me with a bird's beak knife..The method he teaches is a very short Y incision..I have learned to take the knife along the back of the head, where the hairline is different...(can't remember what he called this)..Take the Bir beak knife and run it slowly to the horn base prying (not cutting) as you go..When you can feel the bone where it attaches the horn then bend the knife back to you and backwards cut until the knife is out..Do the same on the other side, then make the small 2-3" downward incision to make the Y.

Then I take the birds beak and stay very close to the skull antler base cutting upwards as I pull with my thumb and it comes right off...This is how I'm being taught anyway..I'm sure there are many ways to do it though..

 

I guess as long as it works, it works. I'm a bit anal about the thickness of my hides. I want ALL that skin under the pedicel and I can run the hide through my shaving machine. That pedicel skin gets shaved to the same thickness as the skin. Too often when the skin is removed with a knife or scalpel, the very edge that I need to cinch the skin down under the pedicel with has been tapered too thin to hold a stitch. The chisel scrapes it so I don't ever deal with trying to clean under the pedicel later on.