tomgobbler

nice buck! congrats

nice buck, how long is it? any side view of the cutter? congrats tommy

very nice, i have been wondering if you killed him yet, so what is the lenght of the horns? sweet goat either way, congrats tommy

very nice! congrats tommy

My brother was archery deer hunting, and sitting and glassing one of his favorite "bowls" for mule deer when he heard a noise and looked up the hill and a bear come off the ridge trotting/running straight towards him from a couple hundred yards off, this year with the moisture we have had the ferns were 3' tall so just hunkered down and waited. The bear kept coming, and coming... and pretty soon slowed to a walk, at about 10' broad side in front of him, he drew, settled his pin and touched the release, and watched the arrow zip right through the bear just behind the front shoudler. 18 yards latter, the bear piled up still in sight. It was all over beofre he knew what had really happened. His First bear, and with a bow! Its better to be lucky then good any day i say these pictures are after he got it back to my house to skin for him, we are going to do a lifesize mount of it. enjoy Tommy

i'de shoot the 2nd over the first, and i'de say mid 70's..... he isnt all that.... he does have nice cutters, but if you look at his ears, the cutters are NOT above the ears, and the horn length, is barely twice the ear length.... so around a 13-14 lenght.... i dont knwo what unit your in but i think you could do better on lenth.... although those cutters are pretty nice.... but its all in the eye, if you like him shoot him and have fun tommy

Nice buck..... but whats up with the ruined cape!

DAle. along with that heat comment, people need to realise that the more they handle and touch the greater the chances fo the velvet slipping, yes we all want great pictures, but try and do it with as little "touching" to the velvet as possible, you dont want to wrapp you fingers arund it for very long, and especially if you are packing it out, i had a guy that had a perfect hand print of the velvet come off, becasue he carried it over his shoulder for quite a ways and had a good hold of the velvet antlers all the way to the truck, also i see quite a bit of wrapping the tag tight around the velvet, we need to avoid this as much as possible as well, it will pull some of the velvet off, those tags are sticky try putting the tag through the hock, i know this isnt the "traditional" way for most of us, but on a velvet animal, give it a try. tommy

i have never met clay, or had any dealings w/ him, but as a taxidermist these kinds of situations are tuff, As well, or as hard as you try to please every customer that comes through your door, you never will. A mount may of been mounted great, but if something isn't just as a customer "remembers" it, or something in there ( the customers) eye just does'nt look quite right there isnt much you can do. That will happen from time to time, So now you have a tuff situation, on clay's side, he spent all that time and effort ( and money) trying to make it look perfect, you pick it up and don't say anything ( although you dont think it looks just quite right) and then after all this time it gets brought to clays attention.... thats a long time to of had a mount and of not said anything. BUt there times that a mount wont look right to you, i did an antelope for a guy and about 6 months latter he brought it back and said the angle of these horns dont look right to me.... according to the picture i have.... well anyone knows that your camera angle can do way funny things to antlers and horns..... and everyone knows that quite a few measurements are taken off of the head before it was skinned so that antler/horn positioning can get as close to the original as posible, so i pulled out my old notes and showed him my measurements and we measured the mount together, every measurement was less then an 1/8 off origanl measurement. , and most under a 1/6 difference..... he said well it just doenst look right to me, and i said ok what would make ya happy, and he said they should tilt forward just a little more, so i rehydrated, took out the stiches and tilted the horns a 1/2" forward, and he was happy as a lark.... Point is, not everyone will be happy all the time, even though it may of been correct in the first place..... 1- 4 years is a long time to bring it to his attention..... 2- CLay, Way to try and make ammends and step up, even though i dont feel you needed too ( althought i probably would of done the same thing) 3- Mark, very nice "voiding" the check, i hope the more you look at the mount the better you will like it, and come to apreciate the work clay put into it. 4- kudos to you both for being professional. good luck tommy

when my grandpa was alive we grew acres and acres of cantelope, and watermellon, and the jackrabbits would play heck with them, we used to stock pile them things, one time me and my brother had a pile of 50-60 of them things at one end of the field, we had antelope come through as well, but we were far from deer, so never them, but they can sure play heck on a place... matt i thought you were just "hand feeding" them for your muzzy hunt, given them extra protien for antler growth tommy

i asked around to the few guys i know that do this and most of them i talked to do a flat $500.00 a day deal, if they get there in the morning and can get back out in the one day, its $500.00 if its late afternoon and they dont get it all done and have to go back the next morning then it $1000.00, i thought that was a little much, so i gind of varied it a little depending on how far i had to go, so price depends on of coure how far you are from my house , how long it takes me to drive there, and how far a ride it is back in, and how long it takes us to get back out. ect..... Unit 1, could take me from an hour, to the north east corner, vernon area, to 4 hours at the southern most part..... BUt a ball park would be say a one dayer, you call me in the morning, i drive up, ride in, we load up and ride out and i'n back home before dark. $400.00 if its latter in the day and we just get there at dark, and only get part out and have to go back in the morning i'de say $650.00.... for the 2 days.... if your real close and i'n only gone 4-5 hours from home, then i'de adjust accordingly, $300.00 or something..... i'de work it out with ya and we could weal and deal a little, i'm not set in stone.... BUt if its on a friday i will probably have to take a day off of work, and so i'de have to make up lost wages, if we had it all planned before hand, or if it was last minute, all of this would come into play..... ect.... if its saturday, then a little different story..... and If the timing was right i'de also bring my dad, 4 horses are a little hard to handle by myself.... so it would all depend on all of the above, but i'de do my best to make right by ya, and save you one heck of a lot of work. Them suckers are big! and they are a pain..... even with horses they are a pain ..... but if timeing was right me and dad would do ya a heck of a good job getting your elk out for ya/ thanks tommy

anyone need there elk (or other big game) hauled out w/ horses? sent me an e-mail and we can get it all set up. more looking at units 1, 27, 3's, 4's, as these are closer to Taylor, but will consider any other units. This service lets you hunt farther from the road, without worring about how your going to get it out once its down. As we all know that is a big chore. Having said that i do have to be able to get my horses to your elk/big game, there ARE places a person on foot can go, that a horse can not. good luck tommy

Bill, that too much thought was ment towards myself, with all of the discription i was giving, on 1 mount vs several ect... that others might think i was putting to much thought into it. NOT that you were, i think its great that you are getting ideas, and thinking about it before doing it, i get so many that come in that dont have a clue as to what they want. WOW, what a nice buck, mounting him as you last saw him is also a request that i get often........ and yes a background/wall color can also bring out the antlers better. On that buck there though i'de have a hard time not turning him to the right with that left side towards the room.... Either way very nice buck! good luck making a decision, that buck will look great no matter which way hes turned tommy

Semi sneak, to me looks the best, and i've done quite a few, and i also agree a TURN is a must, one way or the other does'nt matter, just put a turn on it. to me the 2 deciding factors on which way to turn it is #1, Were is it going to hang on the wall, you want the mount to be facing you when you enter the room, from a door way or hall way what ever, were ever the main enterence is, then you want it facing that way. IMO. Then #2 factor would be antlers, if there happens to be a side that is better/bigger/more unique, then you could have that on the outside, to more "show case", that side...... Haveing said that though, it also depends on # of mounts you have. For some they only have 1 mount, so facing the door way is a must ( to me) but then there are some that have lots of mounts, and so a turn might depend on if you have a big elk in the center and want a deer on each side of it facing it, so one side would be turned in to the left and the other turned in to the right.... So these kinds of factors also come into play.... Way to much thought into it, yea well maybe good luck tommy

i think it looks good. the neck size, is what it is, i mean the hide is measured, and the form ordered accordingly, if the neck size of the form was drastically to small, then porportionally the eye to nose measurement would also be to small, and there would be lots of slack, up on top of the neck, AND in the facial area. because the nose would of been pulled tight to the form, and eyes would of had to of matched the eye sockets on the form, so between eye, and nose there would be extra skin with no place to go, without altering the form and making the muzzle longer..... and from the pictures, it doesnt look like there is extra skinn tucked anywere, everything lookes tucked tight.... so IMO thats the size it was.... a younger deer with nice genetics, Also as others have stated with the short hair it also APPEARS smaller then with a nice thick hide, which would make the neck SEEM and extra inch or 2 around in cir. so that same deer shot in dec and mounted would look totally different, as far as neck size.... just my 2 cents, but i would be happy with it. If the ear position isnt quite like what you wanted ( as other have stated they would of been done different) then that is somthing that should of been clearly stated to the taxidermist when dropped off.... some like forward ears, some like back ears, some like one of each, a forward and a back.... that can all be done IF you clearly state what you want.... so many people just say "do it how YOU think it will look good" and then might not be happy with ear position.... well to some the ears look great and to others they would rather something different. NONE IS RIGHT OR WRONG, just PERSONAL preference...... i think you have a great mount, and a great buck congrats on a fine animal tommy

i've been there, it aint fun, You'll have to watch what ya eat a little from now on, (spicey, Hot, Fatty, Greasy) God bless, and prayers go out for ya! you'll come through just fine! they doing it laproscopic? i hope so, much quicker recovery time. get well soon tommy

thanks Matt, nothing like getting to know new friends, and it has been my pleasure getting to know you and get to do a little hunting with ya! when ya coming back up for goats? i put in for that friday off, so should have another pair of eyes for ya, and we have been getting hammered with rain, the grass is looking great up here, everything is green. so hopefully put a little growth on them. tommy

if thats the pelvis bone, and the spine going up towards the head, then that means the cow was shot right in the BUTT, with a hard quarting away shot, NICE SHOT, ( NOT ) of course the arrow could of been moved by scavangers.... BUT..... cool pic anyway tommy

ernesto, thanks for the comments on the video's, glad you liked them, we had a great time making the predator video, Look for #2 to come out soon! tommy

121 3/8

it says .270.....

My tag finally showed up ! YES

33, nov 5th hunt.... My wifes birthday is nov 6th, and i killed a 185 muley on her birthday a few uears ago, and i killed a 95" coues on her birthday last year, so what will her birthday bring this year?

Jeff, havent you ever heard of S-S-S....... having said that, steal jaw ares really to big for them things.... i've got a "have a heart" trap you could come get and use for awhile, i trap them and then throw the whole trap in a bucket of water and drown them... come get it if you need it, you'll catch quite a few in a short amount of time tommy

i applied and havent heard yet, if not drawn will be filming for matt, and maybe helping him with a little calling