WhackEmAndStackEm

I shot my buck in late october and planned on getting it mounted. The taxidermist said to keep it frozen until i brought it in. Well, i waited until the end of the season just in case i shot a bigger one(LOL) and brought it in to him. It was about 2 months later and he let it thaw out. I get a call from him saying that the cape is freezer burnt around the eyes which made it shrink and there is no way to stretch it back out. he said the only thing i can do is find another cape to use.

Does this sound accurate?

Western MA Hunter

That sucks... what did you have the cape wrapped inside of in the freezer?
Seems like it should have lasted longer than that.

you can always find whitetail capes on ebay & taxidermy.net... did you get measurements on it? Eye to nose & neck?

WhackEmAndStackEm

It was in a trash bag. How much do they sell for on taxidermy.net? or ebay? Usually?

I even thought about waiting for one to get hit by a car around here. That shouldnt be too long.

M.Magis

You need a better taxidermist. There is no reason that cape can't be used.

fastetti

I agree with M. Magis, I think that cape should still be usuable. I'd do some research and see if anyone has had this happen before. Even ask a question or two on Taxidermy.net. I did that for me European skull mount and they were very helpful. I did a search on ebay for capes. They are anywhere from $40 to $120, depending on size and quality. If you don't want to spend the money, Id personally be on the lookout for roadkills and get the word out to your buddies to look for them as well. Heck, after looking on ebay, if I knew how to cape out a deer completely, I'd pickup some of these buck roadkills around Chicago! There is some good money in them!

M.Magis

I'm a taxidermist and I can assure you that cape is still good. Go get your cape and antlers back and take them to someone who knows what they're doing.

Once you learn how to properly cape, you'd realize why. We have to charge for time, and large sizes are hard to come by and demand a bigger price. Also worth mentioning thatno one will pay for road kill, and if it has problems tanning (because of being roadkill)it's on the seller. Just warning anyone who thinks it may ba easy money.

teedub31

The guy I use has a steady supply of capes that come in from guys just for this purpose. He doesn't even charge you extra if you have to use one of "his" extras.

WhackEmAndStackEm

[quote]ORIGINAL: M.Magis

I'm a taxidermist and I can assure you that cape is still good. Go get your cape and antlers back and take them to someone who knows what they're doing.

Thats what I wanted to think too, but I'm no taxidermist. He's been doing this for 30 years so i felt like i had to believe him.

greeny04

Taxidermist and Tanner,cape will be perfectly fine.maybe he is trying to get more money out of you.freezer burnt around the eyes usually isnt the norm,i would say the headache is more likely turning the ears freezer burnt.still no big deal.

Jasonlester

I think he just doesn't want to mess with it. I saw some stuff to rehydrate the freezer burnt areas but I also saw it can be done with water but take a bit longer if I remember right.

I have a doe in thefreezer from 2 years ago and a buddy said he would have no problem with mounting it even if it had freezer burn.

Do what you want to do but I would want to keep my original cape. After all it is your deer that wore that cape not some other cape....