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.

I assume you ment quartering to rather than quartering away. Quartering away is the most lethal bowhunting shot you can take. Quartering towards shots, unless the angle is very, very, slight should be avoided IMO.

If the entrance hole is BELOW the spine like you say there's not much need to wait as the arrow had to take out both lungs and the deer is dead. If your wrong and the arrow hit just above the spine, he will not find this deer as that is a non fatal hit.

Gator, My comments were not directed at you personally per say, but rather the attitudes some people have towards snakes. If you indeed have a deep fear of them, I suggest you study them and learn all you can about them. If you do, I bet you will come away with a better understanding of the niche they play and why it's important. Replace your fear with respect and everyone wins {and lives}.

Your original post stated you kill every snake you see, didn't say anything about your yard. Removing possible nuisance snakes from populated areas is one thing. Killing every snake you see in the OUTDOORS is quiet another.

You sure lack proper head spacing. Snakes {all snakes} are an important part of the outdoors. To kill one without the sole purpose of eating it, is unsportsmanlike, shows a complete disregard for the outdoors and a general degree of ignorance.

If you try to boil down that skull with those velvet antlers attached it will quickly rot. In order to keep the velvet on a Euro mount, your going to {a} need to remove the whole skull plate and antlers and have it freeze dried. Clean your skull while waiting on your antlers, re-attatch with bondo, use sculp-all or epoxie sculpt to blend plate to skull once antlers get back from freeze dry. Or {b} rot the velvet off, clean whole skull and send out to have artificial velvet re-applied. Or {c} remove skull plate and try to preserve velvet at home using one of several methods. None of which are easy and too long to describe in detail here. Right now you need to get the antlers in a freezer asap till you decide what to do.

Nick, I would only give him 2 months. He owes it to you to put what he's doing now on hold and finish your mount. JMO.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but........... IMO this guy doesnt plan on doing your bird......NEVER! There is no excuse for this, NONE! Ive never even heard of someone taking that long on a mount. You made an error by paying in full up front, now that he has your money there's no motivation to finish the mount. Sounds to me like he's a complete hack. I would call him and demand my bird back {if it's even any good at this point} and a full refund. If he gives you any flack about it, threaten to haul his butt into small claims court. Bet if you do some checking around, you will find you are one of many who has been stiffed by this guy. Il. better business bureau or the Il. DCNR would be a good place to start.

It's a shame we can't use Obama's crap statements as fuel- we'd be good to go for an eternity!