artisticwhitetails

Theres no right or wrong answer to this. It totally depends on the indivdual deer. As an across the board average though, I would say MOST deer start out as a dark to med. grey on the bottom of the nose pad and fades into darker shades of black, brown as you go up. Personally, Ive never seen an all grey or all black nose pad. That said, I understand why the taxi made the comment about you not being around live deer. What he means is up close, at arms length for hours at a time. Looking closely at anatomy, hair patterns and skin colors. You need to realize that taxidermist are re-creating details in a mount as the animal was before it expired. They do so by using photo reference of live animals. Once an animal is dead, muscles relax, blood moves and skin color changes. Ive had several arguements with hunters over the color inside of ears. "THAT'S WRONG! ALL DEERS EARS ARE WHITE INSIDE" Yup, they are when their dead!

For wallhangers and throws, anything coyote and smaller I use Krowtann. It's such a simple process it's hard to screw up. You have to use some elbow grease when breaking the hide soft just as you would with any tan. There are some that will say Krowtann isnt a "real" tan, but Ive used ez-100 and lutan in the past, so I have something to compare the Krowtann results to. Now, you wont get a garment quality hide like you would with a commercial tannery, but Ive never been able to get that in shop with lutan or ez 100 either.

If you going to drop a grand, you may as well throw in a couple hundred more bucks and get a Dakota Pro from Van Dykes. There are other good machines such as egar beaver, quebec, ect, but I like the features and craftsmanship of the Dakota Pro.

redkneck, for your future maceration projects may I offer you a tip. I know it won't help you for your current project but there's a much better way. All you will need is a large enough container to submerge your skull and an aquarium heater. I use a 30 gal heavy guage plastic drum which I have cut in half and wrapped the outside with insulation and shrink wrap. I also rigged a top to seal everything up. First, remove the hide from the head and as much meat as you can. All you have to do is fill the water to just above the antler burrs {coat antler bases good with vasoline, wrap with shrink wrap} put your skull in along with aquarium heater, set heater at 80-90 degrees. Close her up and check in 7 days. 90% of the meat and tissue will be gone at this point, even in winter time. Pour out the mess inside, re-fill with clean water and repeat for 5-7 more days and you will be done. Spray it off, let dry and whiten with 40vol peroxide/basic white.

Go to any local beauty supply store and get it there. You want the 40volume (40%) peroxide. It's cheaper there and you wont have to pay the overpriced shipping fees being charged right now.

Big time congrats to yall! We done ours last night as well. We took home 1st place in group and 3rd place for the overall race.

I tend to agree. However, I do know of a guy who uses a commercial tan and is charging $275. I consider myself a regular joe and I love to hunt as much as anyone. Im not into ripping anyone off, but there's now way in Haiti that Im going to work for minimum wage. Sorry. Im only part time and I charge $400.

I agree. If #1 Bama and Florida win out and Bama looses to the Gators in the SEC title game, Florida goes to the big dance. Me being a homer, I hope it's Bama that will go though. Still, I will put on my Gator hat for the NCG if it's Florida who represents the SEC. Good luck to the Gators in their remaining regular season games! Hope yall win out, look forward to these 2 teams meeting in ATL!!

Those bases are SICK! Congrats on such a fine trophy! AW

Im ashamed that you feel like you should be ashamed for a such a great accomplishment. It's really a shame hunting has arrived at such a cross roads. Congrats on your bowkill! Hope there is many more in your future.

Im not one who jumps on the ethics police ship quickly, BUT, if you keep taking shots when "only thing I can shoot is the neck", you are going to wound many more. Not much room for error on neck shots with archery gear. JMHO. Luckily, sounds like it worked out for you this time by hitting the spine. Congrats on the kill!

Bill, check your e-mail, info for you!!!!! AW

"Heavier arrows is the key............Speed can only do so much if you are shooting a light arrow. It's kind of like this..........if you hit a brick wall with a motorcycle and a eighteen wheeler which is more likely gonna make it thru."- hutchies Bingo! Good analogy! GW, No one is saying 63lbs isnt good enough, what they are saying is it's not good enough for short, light arrows tipped with Rage 3 blades. Im shooting short draw, low poundage myself, a 27" Outback maxed out at 60lbs. With 27" GT XT's and Slick Tricks it blows through deer. However, when hunting hogs I want more KE, so I change the WB disk and replace the GT's with 26" XX75 2213's tipped with 125gr Muzzy's or Stingers. This heavier, slower arrow has no problems getting through the thick sheild of hogs when the GT's get stopped well short.

Your arrows are breaking because the fletched side sticking out of the the body cavity is getting caught on trees and brush while the deer is running. Nothing strange about that. As to you not getting pass thrus, not enough ke with your short draw and poundage. Change heads first and see what happens, that would be the cheapest fix. I would lose the rage and go with a good fixed blade head for your set up. A 100gr Slick Trick magnum or Muzzy comes to mind.

No there is not. This "dead zone" above the lungs, below the spine is a myth. If you hit below the spine your in the lungs or guts. Problem is most people don't realize just how low the spine actually sits in a deer. The zone you refer to is actually above the spine.