To me..........your freezing a moment in time !! You can either do it like it really was..........or you can do it how you wish it would've been !! Your the one that has to live with that !
CBM - If you shot a big mature Buck in the middle of December. He was rutted out hard and lost 20-30% of his pre-rut weight. Your very good Taxidermist measures the cape at 19" and tells you the skin has "alot of stretch in it". He tells you this buck easily had a 24" or 26" neck during peak rut - and it would be very easy to get that back for the mount.
Would you tell him:
No leave it at 19 because I want to save a moment in time
or
Do you let him show that huge buck the way he was in peak rut?