Antler mount help

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mmcintyre1220

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Tillsonburg, Ontario
Well Saturday was the last day of the controlled hunt and at around 330pm I shot a nice 8 Pointer. Field dressed weighed around 225lb. ( I will post some pics later). I did not want to do a whole head mount so cut the skull cap off with the antlers. My questions is now what.... lol. Currently the hide and some meat and such it still intact ( no brain matter left) I want to mount it on a wood plaque. What do i need to do with it now ? Should I remove the rest of the hide? how do i get rid of the meat and such so it does not rot and stink up my garage to bad?

Any tips/Suggestions would be great as this is my first time and only my second deer :)


Thanks alot

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Remove all skin and as much meat as possible. To get the remaining cap as clean as possible, you can go the cheap, slow, easy way and put it in a sheltered spot next summer and let the ants do the job. If you are impatient, you could just boil it for awhile. Put a bit of dish soap in the water (cuts grease) and simmer it until everything can be easily scraped off. Try not to immerse the antlers themselves, or they will lose some or all of their colour. If this happens, you can use wood stain to return them to their correct colour.

Do this outside...it stinks.

You can get a nice mounting kit at places like Cabela's, which will give a finished look to the job, and will also conceal the bone cap so that you don't need it to be perfectly trimmed and bleached. Check out the Iron Buck mount...absolutely beautiful, and takes about 2 minutes to assemble. Good luck.

p.s. almost forgot: put a coat or two of clear Varathane on the antlers themselves to protect them.
 
I always boil and scrape, then use 30% peroxide (could be hard to find) to get off the tiny bits left over and turn it white. Don't get any of it on your hands, it burns. Also don't boil it more than maybe 30 mins, it may discolor and go nasty on you.
Good luck
 
First off congrats on the buck!
What you do depends on your personal taste. Use your imagination for the mount. Design your own plaque as simple or fancy as your skills allow.

You can also buy a plaque kit from most hunting stores if you lack imagination or time.

I personally like the look of the hide stretched over the mount even if it is just the skull cap. Challenge is now you hacked the head off before skinning it the hide is going to be too small once it shrinks to cover. You could always get it mounted and wait for another friend to shoot a buck and see if he'll give you that piece of hide.

For deer antlers my favorite is a shield design my Great Uncle used for his Muleys in the 30's. One he left the hide on and the other he had peeled it off but it looked to be done long after it was put on the plaque.
December1932.jpg

I have copied the shield above but using old shiplap barnboard from the farm, came out really good but I like rustic.


If you want to keep the hide on hang it outside, mount the antlers on a plaque or shield and let it dry out there where you wont smell it. Keep it out of the direct sun or the hair will bleach.

Sorry for the pic full of junk, look in the background and there is another very old mount, the antlers were covered in wax and the cup on the bottom is for holding matches. Strange but inventive.
DSC02836.jpg



Try making a different shape for the shield too. This one is from oak boards recovered from a pallet.
DSCN1919_edited.jpg

I know you're not doing a full skull mount but just for the finished product.
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I can take a couple pics of the shields if need be, only have the B&W shot of them.
IMO a plain and simple design is best.
 
mmcintyre1220 said:
4 pointer? Well new to deer hunting, you new to counting ? Lol
Click to expand...
It's an East/West thing......

With that said, clean off the cap and try to cut it so that is symetrical. I mounted mine on an old trophy plaque with some small, white plastic bolts (from Rona) through the skull. You can barely notice them, looks good. Another way is to epoxy them from underneath.

If I had a picture I'd post it but it is at the camp. I'm also in the process of doing this years buck.....
 
Who's scales did you use to weigh that deer?

We got the biggest doe in WMU 45 this year and it weighed 164 lbs gutted, it was way bigger than that buck.

Anyways.....if you know of a taxidermist near you that has a dermestid (sp) beatle box it's the quickest and cleanest way to go.
 
You could do something like I did last year. I painted the bone white and sprayed semigloss clear on the antlers. It is screwed on to the plaque with wood screws

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And whats with this east west thing ? I count 8 points. 3 on each side = 6 and the 2 smaller ones =8 either im missing something or some of you guys need to learn how to count. I have some flash cards my nephew uses i can lend out.
 
If you're using the butchers scale, make sure you weigh all the returned goods.
I smell a rat.
There will be a loss percentage, but I have a sneaky suspicion he's using a
Lee scale.
 
Crooked butcher must be charging you by the pound cause if that deer goes 225 I'll eat my hat.

It's an 8 pt buck, I don't get the east/west thing either.
 
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