Questions for the taxidermists out there...

[deerstalker.308]

I've got a muntjac buck caped and sat in the freezer he's reasonably big, but not the most handsome, so I don't think he's worth the £300 odd quid getting him mounted, but I was thinking of having a play at it myself.....
ok, so I've stuffed the odd birds in the past, and I've used tanning chemicals to good effect in the past with skins etc
obviously I'm not going to win any awards for my efforts, but a couple of basic questions if I may.....:

when skinning out the head, what do you do when you get to the pedicles? Do you cut up the rear side of the pedicle and sew it up at the end? Just from experience of boiling out munties, I know how tough that bit of skin can be.....

Presumably you then cut the skull to fit the manikin and boil as you would for skull mount...?

if I buy a form and eyes etc, presumably I need modelling clay or similar to build up around the eyes etc?

forgive me trying to make your art into a simplistic step by step guide, that is not my intention but just a few pointers would be handy so I can go play!

Cheers

 

[Andyd]

Cut up to the back of the head then up the back of each Pedicle so the cut looks like the the letter Y take a screw driver or chisel and start to prise the skin away from the bone in the cut you made up the back of the Pedical. this is stitched up when mounting.

Cut the skull short as you will not need half of it and boil until clean, this will have to be cut to fit the manikin later, I generally put the skull at the side of the minikin and mark the gap where the skull is to fit onto the skull with a pencil or marker, then cut to correct shape, this will have to be modeled with Clay before the skin is put on, along with the eyes and ear butts. You could have picked an easier Deer to mount, as Muntjack heads are like skinning frogs not so easy unless you know how

Hope this helps