woolybear

This is by far my favorite and most memmerable from way back. My first bowkill with the bow my father had bought me as an early birthday pressent that year along with all the accesories so I'd be ready. I spent the summer and early fall practicing like it was my job. Double lunged my first shot ever on a whitetail with a complete pass through @ 42 yds with total confidance. I could never have afforded to get into bowhunting on my own back then. Even though my ol' man was not a bowhunter, he realised my passion for the whitetail and made it possable for me to grow into the sport and extend my time outdoors.

Merry Christmas to all!

The more I admire them, I believe you may be on to something there. Having said that.....I'd like to see more bucks around here head "downhill",lol

Tough little bugger!

Those are the kind of antlers that keep us crawling around the woods all season! Nice set- hope you can pick up many more just like them or better. Good luck and have fun with the kiddos this year.

Thanks Ruth, I'll take this over shoveling any day!:soda: Hope to see some of the luck shift your way this year when you can get a day or 2 off.:nurse:

Here we go folks! Got so many pics these are in no particular order. When I went to grab my cam today to move it, I did a little hike around because of all the sign in there. Just about 100 yds from my cam I spotted the first one. I knew a buck this size was gonna kick off the other side close so I looked for the next hour and found nothing. I hung a ribbon to mark the 1'st location so I could find the site again before heading out.Was thinking maybe it got dragged off or chewed to smithereens......but then I found the match 50 yds away from the first in the dense pricker thicket. I've never found anything like these. They are massive!!! A few quick numbers 20" main beam left antler 18" beam right antler 6 1/4" brow tine right antler 9 1/2 " g2 left antler Bases - I know this is not 100% accurate because I don't know where I'm supposed to take that measurement BUT......between 7 1/2" and 8". I'm telling you guys these things belong in a freak show!! They are an old set with very little damage. I can't believe this is what I have to start the season with......everything else is gonna seem so....well.....small,lol. Anyhow- here's a few shots

....migits to become NBA stars.

Was actually just getting used to you being gone. Had a few jokes I wanted to tell, but now that you're back.....:48:

Not yet Scott, I'll give it one last go tomorrow. Wouldn't mind dragging him home the last day. He's been hanging with a group of 6 does in a creekbottom. He seems to still be very interested in my scrapes so my day will be spent in the bottom.

I was to the chiro for 2 years straight 3 x's a week with 2 bulging discs and serious joint deterioration in my hip. Couldn't walk, drive, work or sleep without excruciating pain due to a work injury. Whenever I'd try to avoid the follow up visits the pain would return. After about 6 mo. of cracking he got me fixed up pretty good and I haven't had much problem ever since(knock on wood). I've never been much of a pill popper but figured I'd try his recommendation of herbal treatments of some glucosimine concoction. They worked great for me as well. Heck, I even had a rottweiller with hip displacia that made a pretty good recovery taking them when I was through. The vet couldn't even believe it,lol. You can't beat a good chiropractor unless you like pumping all that pain killer crap through your veins.:nurse:

Last chance tomorrow fellas. Good luck if you get out. I'm hoping to catch up with this guy who has started showing up regular since Sunday. Sure would be nice to blow some smoke in the 11'th hour. He showed me all the angles last night.

Oh no bghunter....not trying to glorify it. Just making a point to their toughness. This fella was feeling a little down about his shot placement. Anyone that's ever seen squirrel vitals will tell ya they are small. With an average diameter size head, most any hit will take them out as long as you hit the squirrel. Now unlike deer and turkey and bears, ....squirrels have that elusive escape ability of climbing trees and crawling down holes you can't fit your hand . They also have just as much will to survive as any other critter out there which compounds the recovery that much more. I'm certain the above mentioned rats are dead and the attempt to kill them was attempted humanely and ethicly.

lol- that's funny! I know what you mean. Sort of a ritual we go through like the shed doesn't count or somethig if you touch it before the ATL photos or have footprints in the pics. I get a little crazy with the photo shoots myself. Gotta get all the angles ya know,lol.

Ohhhh....thhat's gonna leave a mark. Lesson learned.:hammer2:

A few squirrels come to mind for me that got away. I've opened some up to the point that their guts were dragging on the ground behind them only to have them make it to the safety of a hole in a tree. Had one this year that I painted red with a 100gr. Muzzy 3 blade. Little sucka somehow scurried about 30yds and up a hemlock before doing the treetop hop outta site. Another I got this year nearly took off his entire face before coming to rest at the base of a large trunk still very alive. I finished him off with a big stick. Yet another left his tail behind at the shot site.....I'll assume he's alive and well getting picked on by his friends.

Way to kick it off! Nice early find Stones! I've heard of a few guys picking them up already around the states.....just none from my neighborhood yet. Couple more days of ML here before I go into 100% shed mode. Good luck the rest of the season and keep them ATL's coming!

Great job- that's a nice one! WTG

Rivers Edge Antler Mounting Kit I figured this may be of some help to anyone on a budget and limited in taxidermy skills such as myself. To others, it may be a no brainer but there are some usefull pointers in here for the first timer I thought to share.This is the first one I've done myself with this kit and I'm pretty pleased with the results and quality of it. I picked this up online from Gander Mountain for $50. Taxidermist quality without the pricetag. Ok, finally getting rolling on this thing. Here's everything that comes with the kit.....well, minus the rack of course. You supply that! 1)Solid oak plaque 2)skull form 3)rope trim 4)screws and mounting hardware 5)putty 6)leather piece In the above pic you can see I needed to trim off some more of the skull below the antler bases so that's what I did here. There's a goofy ridge in there on the right side I had to wack out as well. Must be deer brains are one size fits all. Sucker fits like a glove after I got it trimmed up right. So you just get it lined up and drill a couple of 3/16 holes through the skull and screw it down into the form. I'm cruizing right along here with no problems so far. Uhhhhg...spoke too soon and the screws popped through the back of the form. A quick check back to the instructions tells me this is normal and this will be filed or cut off later. Pheeeew! Next up the playdough! We use this to smooth the transition between the skull plate and the form. You don't want to build it up.....just make it smoooooooooth! I rolled a few dough worms that worked nicely for this. By wetting your finger you can spread this stuff around like butter in a hot pan. Real easy to work with and good fun making a mess. After this pic was taken I also blended the ridge between the antlers as it made for quite the lump under the leather durring the trial run. And this is where I'm at right now.....waiting the mandatory 24 hr drying period on the putty before applying the leather cover. Probably have enough putty left over to do 5 more of these things. This is much simpler than I expected....knock on wood. With a little luck and spare time after the hunt, she might make it on the wall by tomorrow night. Where was I......? Oh yeah, finally got the leather stretched over it right. For my fabric template (per Seans suggestion) I cut up and tried a few paper towels before cutting the leather. These were almost the exact same size as the piece they gave me. Took about 4 paper towels before I thought I had it cut close enough to attempt the leather. This turned out to be a super tip and the results were better than I expected. The instructions and illustration provided were rather useless and confusing at this point. I wrestled with that long enough and kept getting some pretty noticeable bunching of the leather. That's where my buddy flints advice to staple and cut close to the edge of the form came into play. Next up....the simplest step.....and of course this is where I effed-up. Super-glueing the rope around the antler bases a sudden squirt shot out and spooged him right in the center of his dome. I'll consider this my signature screw up. Rolling right along. Flip the plaque over and drilled a couple pilot holes then just screw the placque to the form and hammer in the supplied hanger. All that's left at this point is to glue the rope around the skull base and clear a spot on the wall. I am really happy with choosing this kit over some less expensive ones I concidered. I hope the pics show it does have a proffesional look to it at a fraction of the cost......as long as you can see past the glue spooge. (it's high enough on the wall it's unoticeable) In case y'all couldn't tell, I really don't have the patience for this kinda stuff so when I finished there was a sence of relief, accomplishment, and satisfaction of doing it myself. I felt that was an appropriate ending that mirrored how I felt when I walked up on this buck piled up in the woods after the shot. He now hangs above my desk as I sit here. Kinda dark and gloomy in here so I snapped these earlier outside at my parents place. Hope this may help someone who's considering a "Do-It-Yourself" antler display for their buck but may be intimidated by the whole process.

I gotta admit John, your title almost made me afraid of what I might see when I opened this thread,lol:o Looks really nice bud! Take the rest of the day off and go huntin'.

That is a pretty impressive growth spurt right there. It would be darn near impossible to match up consecutive years sheds from him and call them a match that's for sure. Would be nice to see him unrecognizeable again in the same way next year. Hope you can keep tabs on him into next season.

Saw 4 antlerless yesterday. Too cold to take my gloves off to fill out the tag so they walked.

Congrats.....sounds like fun.:surrender::whip:

Yep- still got 2 tags left over from early season. Love this arctic weather this time of year. Good luck.

Very cool Anthony- gotta feel pretty special to do your part on a project of that magnitude. Thanks for bringing it to us.