Mounting my Dads best buck

[muddy]

My Dad died in January and it's been a tough road since then, especially since my grandma and grandpa also died just last year. Anyway, Dad shot this buck many years ago and never had it mounted. I found it in the shed and sometime in March a local taxidermist offered to help me mount it up. We were both members on the same Iowa hunting page and and never knew we lived 1 mile from each other. I was skeptical because I am EXTREMELY anal on how I want my mounts. Little did I know just what he knew about taxidermy. He was gifted to begin with but had completed Joe Meders (if you're in the taxidermy world you know who that is) course a few years back and had a good thing going. Anyway... I wont' get too much into the details other than the pics.

 

Reinertson offered to help me get my Dads largest buck mounted up as a memento. He shot the buck years ago and never got around to mounting it, thus it sat on the top of the dog house for a LONG time. Really bleached out. Anyway, not going to get into the specifics of everything, will just post pics. Neat to see, and actually help out with the process. The cape is off Dinkasaurus 2 and Brian is really hot and bothered about the greatness of the cape.

Revolution form pedestal mount. Not sure what I'll do for a finished product but for now it can be put on a pedestal if I choose to. For the record I did the clay work on the RIGHT side (your left) of the mount. It was a good experience

Competition nose and ears, Brian thinks he might use it in a show next year. Not sure if he's serious or pulling my leg

Starting the point of no return.

Getting the eyes level so he "doesn't look fucking retarded"

Tucking the mouth and eyes, centering the briskit.

Sewed that sucker up and smoothed out air and glue pockets and I was really surprised how fast a mount can come together. Any idiot can do this stuff!!

I seriously have a mount on the wall that didn't look this good as a finished product. Very excited to come over and help tweek and finish stuff up. Can't wait to see the end result... hopefully I can get that fence post rub ASAP.

[muddy]

After a few days of drying, minor touch up and tweeking each day

 

Did some back brushing on the cape to get the hair to stand up naturally, put the shoulder folds in the way they need to be, pulled the eye and nose guard hairs up and out to make them look real, and tweeked the eyes.

Bad news is we still have a few weeks before I get to hang it, good news is that I'm really digging this stuff. Already setting up some time to do a few more this winter after Brian gets moved into his new digs.

[muddy]

So it's been a couple weeks and everything is dried up nicely. My buddy is still very sure he wants to use this as his competition piece this year so we're pulling out all the stops and finishing up. Last night we we tucked epoxy into the eye socket gaps to seal them up properly so they look realistic, tucked epoxy into the mouth so it is sealed perfectly with a nice line, and then put epoxy on for the nictating eye membranes. All of this took a ball of epoxy about the size of a gum drop, so it's getting down to the fine detail.

We had to pull a pin out of the eye membrane that was holding everything in place and that was the first thing sealed. It went perfectly on both eyes. Then we made a fine "worm" of epoxy and tucked the bottom lid, moved to the upper lid, then did the eye corner, then the nictating membrane. Same thing other side. Not much really going on, it took about half a hour to do all this. We used a little laquor thinner to smooth it all out and we were really happy that the natural color of the eyes is looking good on the hide in the corner of the eye.

[muddy]

We also started very quick coloring of the antlers but ran out of time so only did the right antler between the sticker mark and the burr. Only one coat, it's hard to see really. It will take 8-10 applications to get back to snuff.

Before

After

[muddy]

Today I took a few pics of everything after it has dried. We need to re-epoxy a little bit then we will hand paint the epoxy around the eyes to match, same around the mouth and nose. Then all that's left is coloring the antlers.

Pics make this mount look pretty darn sweet, but you have to believe me it is WAY better looking in person. Everything about this cape is pretty much perfect.

[muddy]

Well, just a little more work done today and letting it dry again for a few days, or whenever dinglenuts can get back over here.

Eyes coming together nicely.

Nose as well, still more hand painting to be done.

First base layer of antler coloring on. Anticipate doing this 3 more times and then doing some fine hand painting to finish.

Last week.

Today.

[muddy]

Still have more stuff to do finalize and then it's ready for the wall. Will update later this week.

[nighthawk]

Nice play by play. Good work looks great! I like the ears, different and realistic..

[Viper]

Wow, nice WT! Nice job on the mount! .....very cool...your Dad would be very pleased.

[PelaPapas]

Sorry for your loss. This is a great memento for your father. Great work by the both of you!

[willhunt4coues]

WOW those eyes ARE PERFECT..Thanks for the play by play that was cool.

[muddy]

willhunt4cous... they're not even done yet either. We still have a little more touch up work, some clean up work, etc

[ivhunter]

awesome work ... great way to remember dad by... My father passed 11 yrs ago I just started Big Game hunting 2 yrs ago and on a mission to get a buck with his 30-06 he left me.. come nov. i'll be back at it..