Jekyl and HIDE

[captain backstrap]

Just wondering, but my taxidermist is really good at details, ears , etc. Certainly does the best work I've ever seen with 1 exception:

Almost everytime I take him a buck, it was very mature , shot during the rut, with a LARGE swollen neck. When I get it back, everything looks great but the neck looks like a deer that is barely in rut. I've noticed this same trend with other taxidermists as well in my area. WHY does this happen??? Is there an advantage to the taxidermist if he uses a smaller form?? just curious...

[Tree climber]

ask your taxidermist why he doesn't buy the swollen neck forms,
yes it is a little easier,there is not as muck form to put into the swollen skin.

I would tell him I want the nesc to shoe how swollen it was.JMHO

[rost495]

I would always take about 3-4 neck measurements when I got the head in. Assumingthere was enough neck left. That gives you a place to order the form from. Without those measurements you are mostly blind. Having the hide tanned will allow it to only just barely fit what it was. You cannot give it more like dry preserved hides will stretch.

One other thought -- I've shot a bunch,seen a bunch more shot and measured a bunch. Seems that when the deer is laying on the ground the neck seems lots larger as it goes to an oval shape more than a rounder shape. So the hunter sees an optical illusion. Its wide, but not thick.

FWIW on my deer, as I measure them, I have them always to within an inch in neck circ. of what they were one way or another. Most folks can't tell the difference between 20-21 inch necks. In fact its hard for me too. And I'd rather work on a form that fits as one thats too large or too small is about the same in the problem areas.

Other thought is that you have to have a source of forms that offers the different necks. IE if you try to order strictly off the eye to nose measurement you may only get one neck size. McKenzie offers many differing neck sizes from pre rut, normal, semi swelled and full rut all in the same eye to nose size. You might check with him on that.

In all my years, neck size was the most complained about issue and it was advanced due to the local taxidermists using dry preservative and stretching the crud out of the necks along the way. Never mind about the cracks in the mounts years later due to this.

Many issues here.

Jeff

[Bill Yox]

To answer your question in a way I think youll see...forms come in a standardized size range. 18x22. or 19x23, for example. The eye to nose measurement is how many taxidermists find what size they think they should use. That 18x22 might be a 7 1/2 eye to nose. for example. Well, that means hes staying within a predetermined size range, so to speak.

Some of us go ahead and order forms that resemble the deer and its measurements, then customize them to fit. We may use a 7 3/4 head to go with those 18x22 necks sizes, for instance. We may also make the neck bulge at 19x23 rather than a smooth 19x23, depending on pre rut, post rut, etc. It varies alot. Like the previous posts said, the measurements are one thing, and the deer being dead can also falsify the "look". Our forms are largely wider than they should be, and not as deep the other way. Seems the customers prefer this sometimes, but again, some of us taxidermists change this too.

The difference? Some taxidermists do just nice clean commercial work, and the middle-of-the-road price reflects this. Others offer a customized mounts, which means these changes, but again, these higher prices reflect this extra work too. Hope this helps you!

[ELKINMTCWB]

My tax man is allways yelling that I kill to big of body wize animals. He is very good at geting very close to the size it was at death.He dose a ton of his own forms dew to the size difrants in dif amimals.

As the last tax man said you pay for what you get. My mounts are all one of a kind.There is a very big difrance in my mounts. If he dose not look live he did not do a good job:}