Hardwood_HD

Been working on this ever since I started at the PA Institute of Taxidermy, graduated last Friday and finally got around to finishing up the cornfield scene with my 3 mallards. I mounted the birds in class as projects but the base was done on my own time, took me a while to figure out how to do the flying one on the corn stock but I got it done. I'm kind of excited about it, it's definatly a piece I am keeping for my showroom when I get up and running. I also started to get the hang of painting fish towards the end of the course, I'll post of couple pics of my 2 best fish but they are still far from perfect. I'm no artist, never have been good at drawing or painting thats why I struggled so much with fish. The rainbow is a skin mount and the perch is a reproduction, we made molds and cast from a real fish. Heres some pics I expect some feedback!! Good or bad I can learn for both!

I didn't buy a pa license, non resident is more than I wanted to pay to kill a turkey lol

Thanks for the kind words! I'm enjoying the whole taxidermy thing so far, my favorite thing to do is birds there fun and a lot easier for me. Playing around with some fish now and I'm not liking them at all, guess I'll just have to keep at it

Hope everybody has a good season! Looks like I'll be stuck in PA the whole time, talked to my buddy wednesday afternoon he tagged out already. Shot one monday morning and another wednesday morning

I finally got around to finishing up the buck I took during our muzzle loader season this year. I know he is far from perfect, throat patch is off, his right eye is horrible, and I'm still trying to get the hang of my airbrush so the inside of his mouth isnt the best either. I have a lot of trouble doing clay work, eyes and ear butts mainly but I'm learning. This is my second whitetail mount, the first turned out much better lol anyway heres a few pics

I think it turned out sweet! I would say that gap is from it soaking to long, I had a couple skulls do that in the past.. a little super glue and your good to go!

good deal, save a couple for this weekend! lol what day looks good for you? I'm heading back to PA sunday around noonish but I can push it back a few hours if need be, i'll be in town thursday night. Let me know, i'll make sure Kyle isn't working. I seem to be hijacking your thread lol

See any Chris? Is your cell still 5525?

Sorry got my days mixed up, i meant i'll be home next weekend or the weekend after that. planning on next weekend tho, we'll see what the weather does but it doesnt look like snow. so as of now lets plan on next weekend unless something comes up, i'll be in town late thursday night thru sunday afternoon. I will get a hold of you

I will be home either this weekend or next to do my taxes, i'll be sure to bring my shotgun and rifle when i leave here. Would love to get a few more bunnys to bring out here, they dont cost much to eat lol

That figures lol, i wasnt planning on coming home this weekend i was going to wait till the last weekend of bunny. thought more deer would have shed by then, figures you guys would have snow this weekend tho lol

Just wait till september Chris, you'll be more than ready to get back up in the tree stand. This was by far the most frustrating season i have ever had, i was ready to give it up at one point this year but kept on. It was a weird year for me, but as far as deer numbers.. i saw more deer this year than i ever have before, closing the deal was my problem i should have filled all 6 of my tags but blew 4 oppotunities at mature does. If land is the issue i have a couple awesome properties i could get you in

my guess would have been way off, dont see a 150 class 8pt very often. nice deer!

I have heard from several people around me that PA has some big elk, I would love to see one while I'm here but it sounds like there arent any around my area.. seen a few bears tho. congrats to the hunter!

From the pics i saw it looked like a good time, my cousin was there for the FHFH. Met Ted, Jim Shockey and Troy Landry

thanks guys! I'm happy with, I think I'm going to mount him as one of my mounts in class we just started the mammal course so I timed it perfect. I put the tape on him last night and came up with 135 4/8 gross, pretty close to what I was thinking he would be. He had 11" g2s and 7 1/2 and 8" g3s.. really wanted to hit the BBBC this year but theres always next year!

I get a lot of my stuff from macks, unless cabelas has a sale or something going on. all my deeks are greenhead gear, i love their decoys. I have a few Duck Commander duck calls, pretty cheap and they sound pretty good. But for goose I like the RNT line, they have some really good calls IMO. It may be expensive starting out but i usually buy another dozen decoys every year and before long you build up a pretty good spread.. and i think another really important thing is to go with someone that knows what their doing for the first couple years, i didnt have anyone to go with and had to learn on my own. Good luck! its very addictive!!

We never did figure out what spooked the deer across the field toward me, the same thing happened saturday morning with 4 does in the same place and I never figured out what spooked them.. Only thing I can figure is it was meant to be

This has been the hardest season I have had since I started hunting back in 2000. Going to taxidermy school in PA 4 days a week and being limited to only hunting weekends made it tough on me but I finally got it done on our second morning of muzzle loader season in Ohio. I had been seeing a huge buck at least 24" wide had to be 170s but could never get a shot at him I had 3 real close calls but he out smarted me everytime. I saw several bucks this year and passed on at least a dozen waiting for the big boy but I just couldnt pass this guy up. I was sitting on the edge of a thicket on a corn field with Kyle (gobblerbuster618) saw a doe bedded behind us in the thicket, Kyle walked around behind me to try to push her my way and not 5 minutes after he started to circle behind me I see 3 does in the corn field 200 yards out then this guy steped out so I waved at Kyle and signaled him to stop and that I had deer coming. Ended up being 5 does and this buck, they ran all the way across this big corn field right to me. I thought he was a pretty good deer and decided to take him, he stopped at 50 yards and KABOOOM I let the TC bark he ran about 100 yards along the fence row and piled up. I was pretty pumped, Sunday was my last chance to deer hunt for the rest of the season and I finally got a shot at a decent buck. I have to admit I thought he was bigger when I shot him but hes my biggest to date and it was my last day so I cant complain. The only bad part is Kyle was in the thicket behind me with the video camera and the deer came from the opposite end of the field, if he would have sat for 5 more mins we could have had it all on film. Heres a few pics, ended up being a main frame 8 with a 3" sticker on his left g2.. not a giant but no tag soup for me!!

had a very slow weekend at my place, passed up 2 small bucks saturday and a few does. Sunday was a bust saw 3 deer way out in the morning. I did bow hunt friday evening and saw the monster again, walked up on him bedded 30 yards from my stand but i couldnt get a shot.. hes huge he has to be 170s easy this is the 4th time i have seen him this year.

monday wasnt slow i guess, had class tuesday thru thursday which really killed me but the deer i saw friday thru sunday i sat all day everyday thats what seemed slow lol.. guess i shouldnt complain i had several chances to kill deer i just have been waiting on the monster or another good deer to mess up, now that i see how low we are on meat i will definatly whack a couple does soon

I had a pretty slow week, hunted monday and saw 27 deer wiffed on a doe in the morning and passed a couple small bucks. saw 6 does friday, 4 does and 2 small bucks and passed a really nice 8 saturday, sat all day sunday didnt see a deer until 4:30 and my 170+ monster came across the field the first i have seen him since october, had a shot at 80yds decided not to shoot i didnt have a good rest but at least i know hes still alive

Im having a blast, its only 4 hours from home and only 4 days a week so i can go home on weekends and hunt. Those were my first birds and not perfect but at least i know what i need to work on next time.

you guys had any luck this weekend Tom?

Looks good, I would say it was definatly boiled just by looking at how the nose has a wide gap.. It looks good tho good job with the whitening too!