meder semi sneak offset

Maybe i'm missing something here but i don't understand why folks need to see the hides on the manikins we have today to determine if they will look good. You would have been screwed 25 years ago with paper mache forms and the crappy catalogs we used to get. JMO

 

Id say because its kinda of hard for the average guy to know what a finished mount would look like from just a bare form
Im sure a lot f you guys can just look at a form and know if you will like it. Most hunters want to see the finished product before they go with it, once its done you cant change your mind lol

 

Your biggest problem is trying to show hunters all the different forms. I have them start with looking the position semi sneak, semi upright, and sneak. I stay away from uprights. Then throw the offset shoulder or head up (if it applys) option into the convorsation. 95% of hunters aren't going to want a specific form by a specific company when they walk through the door. All you need to do is get them on a position then use whatever form you like or can find thats best in that position. If you keep it simple it will save you alot of time, money, and headaches chasin different forms down from different companys. The only time I ever use that meder form is when I get a guy who chops the brisket off short and wants the semi sneak position. Its an easy save. Had to use a it a couple times last year and its not bad. All forms have their issues you just have to recognize them and modify them to what will look best.

 

if you are good setting ears that form rocks and is under used in my opinion. it depicts every deer ive ever seen "caught" by the flas of a trail cam i love the form go for it

 

short haired early season capes look great on the mckenzie pedistals the meder sneak isnt a "detail" form its more of an action form it will work with long or short but there are better forms for short hared early season deer

 

Crit, would you buy a new car if it was still on the assembly line, not painted, no tires and the salesman said, Oh, we're going to put a motor in it later? Heck no, you'd want to see the finished product.
Hoyt ask a good question. I used to think that if a form was from a "reputable" supply co. that it would be top of the line. Not necessarilly so. Anything that will sell, gets sold. Take #1 moulding plaster, add a little dex and a couple styrofoam balls and call it fish filler. "Fast setting" F.F. Acrilic latex caulk? @-3 bucks at lowes, change the tube and name and it's fish fin fixin stuff, 8.95 a tube. I'm not questioning it, everybody's got to make a profit to stay in buss.

One things for damned sure, with the 100's of wt deer forms on the market , even a newcomer shouldn't have to start out with an inferier form. The droop-eye forms, where the mold halves or key-locks were worn and not properly alligned up,should be taken outa the line. Instead, all the "old pros" on here with egos bigger that an elephant's peter, want to come on here with stupid comment's like "If you don't like them you need to go back to the 1800's when me and my grampa wrapped our heads with excelsior and boiled sculls and we never complained" Every body likes to tell how damn old they are and I've mounted more deer than you, and bigger ones and doneim quicker and they looked better and hell I mounted Daniel Boones biggest buck scored 7812 points in pope an young back in 1786, killed with a cherokee tomahawk and homemade bow with flintchipped arrow head at 500 yards in the snowing rain, uphill, I helped him track em with a mile and a half blood trail, had to fight injuns to drag him out till we found a cler path that we could get the 4 wheeler, uh, I mean mule down. And no, I ain't LOL!

This ego trip every body's on, with comments like these, gives the suppliers the greenlite to keep sellin the 9600 droop eyes. One of my ex employers, a self made millionaire used to say, If I don't get any feedback outta the field I don't know whats going on. How bout the pop-up thing, people complained and someone took notice.
My point is, people want to show, I'm such a good taxidermist that I can fix the eye orbit, and you lesser guys can't, if you call yourself a taxidermist you should be able to alter a form, and resculpt that eye. I agree, any idiot could do it, blindfolded, but he shouldn't have to. Were not living in the 70's anymore, 2012, I think.???
I.m old, wraped excelsior manikins, tanned with alum, twenty inch neck going in, comes out looking like a doe with horns. When I die, I don't know if I'm going to Heaven or Hell, but if I run into that lieing JW elwood and what's his name that started the " old nothwestern school of you're on your own figgureit out for your self'adermy," was it "Shaffer?" can't remember his name, but I'm gonna kick him in the nuts with my steel-toed boots for gettin me into this in the first place and ruinning my life. " Fun and proffit," my azz.!

Critter, I'm not sayin YOU are one of the oldtimmers with egos bigger that an elephants weenie, but ther are alot on here.
And Hoyt, I'm not sayin YOU are a newby either, good question. I've got one out in the barn I'd give you but honestly I don't have the time to go send it off ups.

 

Doublebarrel I wish you'd stop posting when you're toked out.

 

OK, lets have it Mr. G., this is one post where I didn't mention your name. Shoot some "word arrows" at me , I 've got skin so thick I'm sure they'll bounce right off. I soak every nite in a bathtub full of formayldehide just to make my skin thick enough to get on t-net in the morning.!

I resemble that toke remark. I do drink a little Coors Lite at breakfast, but I don't smoke nuthin but deer meat and hams. I got two brothers, one gone now, one still verticle, that smoked that chit, stayed in trouble all theit lives, DUI's, jail, outta work, one divorced, no license, and couldn't remember what day it was or what they had for breakfast. Guess who they called when they needed a bail out? No, it wasn't obumma, it was yours trully.
I tried it onetime when they came over to watch me stuff a deer. Got the damn thing half sewn up before I realized I had the antlers on backwards. Then when I started cutting threads to turn em around, got in an argument with them, no, it looks good like it is. LOL!

 

OH, Like mentioning my name was paramount to not implying me? You must be a rocket scientist on your off days.

PERSONALLY, I think all of Meder's forms are POS. The ear butts simply cannot be built in with the antler set the way it is. I have yet to figure out that abomination he has for a brisket. I simply don't use them. I do like his flehming mouth and when I need one, I alter a McKenzie form. But that's not the point. Implying that a mounted specimen on a form will give someone a better idea is the ramblings of a beginner under the idea that it's the FORM that makes the mount. I use the same form that Bill Yox uses but my deer still don't look like his. I ALWAYS do some altering to the form; either from cutting, foaming or simply adding clay that makes my work "different" from the form that came to me in the box. IT'S NOT THE FORM OR THE NAME BRAND THAT MAKES A MOUNT. It's the artist doing the work.

 

The artist can make a mount for sure, but some artists are just better at certain forms then others.

 

I've use a lot of Meder forms over the year and I liked most of them. I used them primarily because the FACE fit the deer I had to do. I did have some issues with the necks being "short" on fit, but I made them work. Last year I used Revolution forms exclusively and I won't be going back to Meder forms anytime soon. The FACES work AND the neck and shoulders FIT better than any form I've ever used. My favorite form has been the Meder head up SS offset, but it takes all of 20 minutes to modify the Revolution form to "head up".

 

You gotta admit, Hoyttrycon really did ask a ridiculous question. He should be banned for life for asking a question like that. Of all the nerve. Just who in the hell does he think he is, getting on a site where people claim to be a family, gathered at the watering hole, willing to help fellow taxidermists, and they post pictures all the time, and have the audacity to ask to see a picture of a mounted , shorthaired deer on a meder form?

Maybe, if he is indeed a newbie, when he's been at it a while and his ego has grown a little, he will realize that the form ain't chit, it's that little dab of clay, about the size of a marble around each eye that makes a mount a work of art.

 

Or maybe he'll realize that you have an alligator mouth and a hummingbird ass.

 

Personally, I think you're being too anal. Are you mounting it? If you are, regardless of the form you select, it's never going to look any better that your own talent will allow it. I killed a 170 back in 1979 and mounted it myself. Then I remounted it myself, and finally in 2005, I remounted it myself. The third time finally got it to the point where I'm satisfied with how it looks. Still, about 5 years ago, I reached a great decision. I decided that if I EVER kill another huge and noteworthy deer, I'm going to call up guys like Rick Carter, Bill Yox, Dennis Harris, or Matt on here and ask THEM to mount it for me. I'm too old and too damned set in my ways to ever get much better than I am, but I'm still capable of recognizing that TALENT plays the most important role in any mount. If that 170 means that much to you, try the same technique.

 

Old . . . guilty as charged if 51 is old. Ego I'm sure all taxidermist have one, over inflated? I try not to be.
My point is the deer forms we have today are so much better than they used to be it's amazing back in the good ole days we could even make it look like a deer. Odds are if you took a form painted it brown with a set of antlers on it put in a Field some idiot would take a shot at it. Times used to be you had to have a good imagination to look at the old forms and see a deer when you where done. Most if not all the catalogs include finished pics of their forms. Important to be happy with the end result . . . Absolutely. Good Luck

 

I got to give it to double barrel, you sure can write while being funny and truthful. I think the truthfulness is what makes it so funny.

 

Daniel, you know you came on here with a few skeletons in your closet as well. One person's "humor and truth" is another mans insult and mockery. Doublebarrel has place himself in bandcamp and promised to be release himself today. He's talked a good show, but none of us have been shown his work to be making statements about others.