Rivers Edge Antler Mounting Kit- How To(pic heavy)

[woolybear]

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.

[RTF]

Looks good

[toddyboman]

great stuff!

Looks great!

[The_Kat]

Looks great compared to the ones I did myself! Nice job.

[Shaun_300]

Awesome! Looks good Matt. Too bad about the glue, oh well, live and learn eh.