He has a nasty ring of those fibrous tumors all the way around his right eye, he also had them down the back and side of his neck as well as a 1/2 moon section of summer hair still attached.
He wasn't the sexiest buck in the woods. [:-]

The taxidermist is getting around it by using a look alike cape from a similar sized and colored buck donated by Greg / MO from the nice one he shot the day I recovered this one.I brought it bcak with me from our hunt in IL last Novemeber.It works out great because his cape is beautiful.
I won't have buckzilla on the wall scaring women and children and it will still look the same as my buck "should" have looked.

Who had the nasty stuff around their eyes...You or your buck...[8D]

thats the best way to do it. I know thats what i would want to do if i was mounting it that way i wouldnt have to mess with that ugliness

John,
I have a related question for you since you're a taxidermist........

The cape obviously has that short early fall gray hair and I was concerned about the compatibility of the cape with the form that I chose. Not so much that it will fit, The fit should be fine, but more the "Appropriateness" of the style of the form to the cape.
Meaning did I choose something with a little too much muscle or form defintion for such a short haired early season cape? Is there too much neck swell for an early season mount to make sense? After I thought about it, I want the animal to have a mature look but I also don't want something that looks "full rut" on a cape from Oct 1st.
Here's the form I went with because I loved the pose and this line of forms came highly recommended and it's hard for me to tell if it's going to be a good match. You should have a better eye for that than I do.

http://www.joecoombs.com/cgi-bin/JoeCoombs.storefront/47cebf5e01cf8132273fd0e7646506fb/Product/View/94&2D7222R

Matt,

I really like that pose. the form should be fine for your early season cape as long as you are replacing it with an early season cape. Besides that deer in that pic from coombs looks to be a shorter haired early season cape. so as long as your taxidermist doesnt go and sand the muscle creases to defined and make it look like hercules it should come out just fine. besides the early season cape can only be put on a form that matches the neckmeasurements the cape has. This is the form your talking about right?? also this pic might be showing a deer with say a 20" neck. your cape might only be 17" without as much swell so it wont look quite as "beefy".

No that's not the one?....not sure why the link won't go straight to the form I picked?

Anyway This is the one: It's one of the "full wall pedestal" style. 7.5x20x22 right turn.

if thats the neck size that is a big neck for early oct. it should show some muscle definition but not look like hercules. one thing a lot of people dont realize a lot of the muscle in form is for show to sell forms. just because you see all those muscle striations on the form doesnt mean you will see them on a mount. for example a late season rifle kill with longer hair wont show those strations even though some clients insist on seeing it. here is an example of a 90 degree pedistal i did of a rifle deer with longer hair. before i painted it.

here is a pic of the form i used th PD-79. an early season cape would have showed a little more detail but some people wat to see 3/4" creases in the muscle definition.

So basically just chill out, it will be fine?

Killed my first (a button buck) in '67 with a Shakespeare Sierra at the age of 14, and this one in '07 with a Bear Kodiak Hunter at the age of 54. In between, there's been a bunch fall to an assortment of bows ranging from a Bear Super and Kodiak Magnum to a Jennings Model T to a Mathews MQ1 and back to a Bear Kodiak Magnum and Kodiak Hunter.