Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

I got my mount back of the deer I got back in Nov of 08 with a muzzle loader.
How do you guys think it looks? Honestly I'm very happy with it but to be honest I've not been around a ton of mounted deer. I know someone on here a while back posted a deer mount and you guys thought it was horrible quality although I couldn't tell until he posted pictures of how it look compared to when he shot it. What do you guys think about this? Ok quality or bad?

One other question. Is there anything I should do long term to preserve this?

Here are the pictures.
After I shot it.




The Mount






What do you guys think?

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

First off NICE BUCK!!! I'm glad you're happy with it, it's a deer to be proud of. I am by far no expert, only having a half-dozen of my own mounted, but my honest opinion is it's a bit funky looking. If you look at the pics in the truck, the tops of the ears, where they leave the skull, are about flush with the bases of the antlers. In the mount, there's a significant gap there. Also the face looks narrow, and I think the eyes are bulging a bit. I am by no means trying to belittle your deer, like I said, it's a hell of a buck, and one to be proud of. And, as long as YOU are happy with it, that's all that matters.

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

At first I was going to say the snout looked too dark to me but then looking at the photos right after the kill it has a real unusually dark face so your taxi did a good job of preserving it. Overall, looks pretty good and looks like a damn good deer and quite unique. One to be proud of. Congrats.

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

I think it looks great!

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

Yeah after checking with other pictures as I wasn't sure about the ears either. It appears that they are about right just that they are angled up slightly more than they were. They may not be 100% where they were but they look close just are angled up more instead of straight out. That doesn't bother me too much.

Any more opinions though?

He isn't huge but he isn't tiny either. Not bad imo for a first deer.

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

nice buck,poor work on the mount.ear are funky,burrs on antler bases seem covered with hide. nose ,lip area alittle weird. one thing that doesn't help is that upright straight facing mount,to me it give a deer that "deer in the headlights look" i think its the worst choice on any deer. turned forms just look more natural.

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

That buck has a cool looking hide with the slight double throat patch and dark face. Congrats he is a fine deer. I was just curious what type and brand form did you choose?

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

thats a nice buck and the mount is pretty good but it isnt the greatest. but as long as your happy with it, thats all that matters

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

Nice buck, I'm no expert and don't nit-pick over others mount. It's one to be proud of.
Congrats!!

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

I think so too ,now anyway.I picked the straight foward look and when i got my mount back it was turned. The taxi said it did not look good straight.So he changed it.

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

Congrats on a very nice buck. As far as preserving goes my taxidermist told me to wipe it off gently with a damp rag to get the dust off and then wipe it down with olive oil.

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

Nice deer! congrats!

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

I like the dark face. Nice deer.

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

to preserve your mounts get some taxidermy magic.check the link below. this stuff is amazing. use it a few times a year on any mount.



http://www.mckenziesp.com/taxid_store/catalog_product.asp?ProductFamilyID=%7B6D3F803E%2D 7C2F%2D4492%2DBAA0%2DEBF42EA120AA%7D&mscssid=E 66XD3QC0PC38JGFQRLBA0HW0EAUE1SC

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

Do these ears look really weird or normal. Not the actual ears but the skin part going out before the ears? Seems like the ears should start almost right at the head but maybe not. They are looking weird to me for some reason. However, a few of the pictures I have of the deer before it was mounted sort of look like this a little but it's hard to tell as I never got pictures of it that were good of the ears and they also weren't pointed up like this. Here are more pictures. Do these look normal?

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

congrats on a great buck! mount looks awesome

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

hometheaterman, that's a beautiful buck no matter how you slice it. I'd be tickled with one like that, too.

Regarding the mount, that's often a ticklish subject for guys who are proud of their deer but don't necessarily have the experience to judge quality of work. You seem to be really willing to learn as much as you can by your questions, so I'll weigh in a bit.

Incorrect positioning of ears seems to be one of the most frequent errors taxidermists make, and I'm not sure why. When you're in the business, this is one of the easiest things to know about. On a live deer, which will be actively controlling its ear position (and similarly a life-like mount), there may be enough space between the base of the antler and ear for one finger to fit in between - but not more. The cape on yours seems to be set in the wrong position - perhaps incorrect form size - and the ears are too low.

There should also be significant muscling on the ear butt, which allows the amazing ear movement on a live deer. Your mount appears to have this, but perhaps not enough; hard to tell from the pictures. A taxidermist will either use plastic ear liners that include this feature, or build muscling internally in the cape with sculpting clay.

When a deer has expired, of course, there is no active muscle control and the ears will flop down. Under this circumstance, the one-finger rule won't apply, although the muscling is still obvious.

Here's a pictureof a mule deer I took a couple years ago which demonstrates the points mentioned.


I hope this information is helpful; it's not meant in any way to be nasty. The first deer I ever had mounted is one I still have from 25 years ago and it's a terrible job in many ways.At the time, I had no ideaand was thrilled with it. I was always going to redo it myself once I started doing my own but it hasn't happened yet.[&:]

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

well congrats again on the getting the buck. and yes it looks very good!

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

congrats on the buck and nice mount:)

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

Looks good to me!

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

Nice buck....but poor mount. I hope you didn't pay much for it. I'm only going to point this out because you asked for it. If you didn't ask, I would have ignored it.

The ears are part of the biggest problem with this mount. The ears themselves are very unnatural looking. Everything from the shape of the ear to the position. When a deers ears are in this position, the top actually rotates a bit forward. An easy way to tell is picture the deer standing in the rain....in this position, he will end up with an ear full of rain....and that shouldn't happen. The ear shape it's self is off as well. Instead of using a quality product that replicates the shape of the ear, he more-than-likely put bondo or autobody putty in the ear resulting to an unnatural looking ear. The ears are located too far down the neck, they needto be pushed up almost tight to the antler burrs. The ear butts (the muscle at the base of the ear) are lacking form. And the junction from the ears to the ear butts look kinked.

The eyes shape is off, and the deer does look like he is ready to get hit by a car. His eye lashes are WAY out of wack. This mixed with a poor quality glass eye results to a poor mount.

The nose.....boy, I don't even know where to start.First off, it is crooked, too black, and cracking. The nose pad has many many little nodules on them....the taxidermist looks like he only recreated about 1/4 of them. When these nodules are recreated...the taxidermist should use the original nodules as a guide, this guy looks like he put the nodules where ever he feels. The paint job is absolutely terrible. A deers nose pad is a light fleshy color toward the bottom, but this guy looks like he flat out painted it white. It should be fleshy fading into the dark nose pad. There is not fading/blending colors here, there is a dominant line between the white and black color. The lip line looks absolutely terrible.

I hope you didn't pay much for this mount. If so, I would definately do your homework before you shoot another nice buck. This is really a shame too because this deer has an awesome cape....dark face and a light double throat patch. Finding a replacement cape for this buck would be very hard...and expensive. Also, it is taxidermist like this that ruin it for the rest of us. This is almost a disrespect to the animal. A taxidermist should take his work seriously and try everything he can to deliver a like-like mount. In doing so, he should use reference photos from live deer to compare reference his work to. I'm not saying I'm a master taxidermist by any means, but I truely think my 2nd or 3rd mount turned out better than this. Below is a link to my website if you would like to compare. PM me with any questions you may have.

PS - nice buck.

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

Not the best mount I have ever seen but congrats on the great buck.

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

I agree with zubba about many things but mostly the nose. Looks to me as though the taxidermist only did 1/4 of the nose bumps as well so it's pretty noticeable...
Not a very good mount to someone who notices those types of things, but it is by all means a great buck.

When you ask people to analyze a mount, even if its great, the camera angles and the fact that you have people looking for errors creates problems. If it was a great mount, someone would find a problem with it.

Next buck, go to a different taxidermist, but don't read too much into all the negativity here, you shot a fantastic buck and should by no means belittle it because of an imperfect mount.

Congrats again!

RE: Got my mount back. How does it look?
 

Very nice mount besides the ears... Looks kinda weird but nice buck!!!