DIY Antler Mounting

[tunrevir]

Hey Elwood, nice bucks! Those metal tags are still used in Wisc after you register your deer. I think they are kind of cool momentoes of the hunt.

Tunrevir~

[jwhawkridge]

Hey DonBo - got my first buck this year and followed your treatment (except used batting rather than plaster) and I think I turned out pretty darn good. I know it's a small set but I was my first set

so I had to mount them. Also tried mounting a pheasant tail (I know, I know this isn't' the pheasant forum). Got another tail I'm planning on mounting soon. This is my first venture into amateur taxidermy. Whaddya think folks?

[JimmyJames]

Very nice, good work!

[deets22]

i recently did 3 bucks that i had laying aroung from many years ago. to put the form around my skull plates i used crayola modeling clay. it isn't runny, it's easy to mold, and if you get some where it doesn't belong all you have to use is water to wash it away. it's very cheap and is available pretty much anywhere. i picked mine up from the school supply section area in wal-mart.

[DonBo]

jw, congrats on that first deer. No nead to appologize for the size. That first one will be remembered with pride for a lifetime. Every buck taken deserves that same respect and an antler mount is a great way to show them off.

I love the fact you added the shell. I'm working on one right now that's a young man's first deer also. That will also have the shotgun shell AND the slug that his Dad found along with a photo. I'll be sure to add pics when it's done.

You've done a fine job, congrats and thanks for sharing.

[jwhawkridge]

DonBo - Thanks man! I wouldn't have been able to do without your post!

Here's the 2nd pheasant tail I did and their final spot in the house:

[Cicada]

The first is my first bigger buck,an eight point, shot 11-09-08. I used twine to wrap the antler base, a cabinet door for the backboard, and found a clock that I could disassemble and mount to the cabinet. The second, a nine point, was taken the next year, to the day, on 11-09-09. I used the twine again and found a weather station to mount. The boards came from my deer stand, which was destroyed by someone a day or two before the season began. The third one belongs to my cousin's father-in-law. He asked me to come up with something. I liked the rustic look of the twine and found a oak slab in my uncle's wood pile. I made the frame so he could add the picture of the deer on the day he got it.

[DonBo]

Nice job Cicada, very creative backings!

[BRULEDRIFTER]

Here are the small bucks my Pop's and I got last season (09) The one on the left was my first and first with a bow. Dad got his during the tail end of the rifle season.

Best part of these is the leather I used was from a deer hide my Grandpa tanned himself years ago.(He died when I was very young and my mother had it stashed away).

Here's my first attempt at a Euro mount on the nice buck my dad got during the 07 season. Turned out nice, I think.

[DonBo]

Love the euro mount. Did you bleach the skull yourself?

Here's my latest.

The photo was glued to the plaque, then bar-top varnish was poured over the whole thing. The slug/shell was set into the varnish while still wet, then the antler mount was screwed into place later. Nice trophy for this young man's first deer huh?

[sticknstring]

Turned out great Don - the young man's going to love it! Pretty cool he was able to recover the slug.

[BRULEDRIFTER]

Yup, did the whole thing myself. I used the heavy duty peroxide from hair salons to bleach it.

[DonBo]

Yup, did the whole thing myself. I used the heavy duty peroxide from hair salons to bleach it.

Nice job. Maybe you could let us all know exactly how you did it?

[BRULEDRIFTER]

Well, it was a learning experience to say the least. It was also done a few years ago, so my memory is a little fuzzy on some parts, so bear with me. I also google searched it and stole a lot of ideas from the internets.

After skinning, picking and pulling off as much as I could it went into a big pot with boiling water. I wrapped the base of the antlers in tinfoil to keep the water off of them (not too good of an idea because it really darkened them up, which caused me to brush away some of the natural antler color when it was done).

I probably spread this effort over a few days, a few hours a day. Boiled for an hour, pick for an hour, and on and on until it was close to being done. Then I let it sit and dry in the garage for quite a while (king procrastinator here) then I picked and picked some more.... (total pain in the arse and disgusting! I'll never do it again, I'll pay the money and let the beetles have at it). I used every tool imaginable and the ones that did me best were a dental pick, wire coat hanger and a butter knife.

Once it was picked clean, I got some 4% peroxide from my sister who works at a hair salon and poured a bottle or 2 worth into a plastic tub about the size of a shoe box. I filled it up to the eyes and took an old white t-shirt and saturated it with the stuff and laid it on the top portions I couldn't get covered by the solution. (kept the antler bases covered in plastic wrap). I let it soak for a few days, occasionally re-soaking the cloth to keep it wet. I think I pulled it out one time and let it dry and took a wire brush to it to scour it, rinsed it off and put it in for a while longer.

After it was all bleached and looking good, I colored up the bases a little with some wood polish to somewhat bring back some natural color to them. It looked pretty close, but not perfect). I then sprayed on some Krylon Satin spray on the skull and applied a light coat of lacquer onto the antlers to keep their color indefinitely and give them some shine.

I really did a half-arsed job applying it to the plaque that I cut, sanded and lacquered during the whole process. All I did was jimmy some wire through the back of the skull and made a loop and hung it off a screw and cranked it down tight. As long as it doesn't get knocked around it's not coming off and it's in a safe spot so I'm not to worried.

There's my quick run down on the how to's. If there are any specific questions, I'll gladly do my best to answer.

If I do it again, I'm cutting the back of the skull off and then making a plaster mold to fill in the space so I can screw it directly to the plaque.

Also would love to hear how others have done the boil and how they protected the antlers cause wrapping them up was not a good idea. It caused them to turn almost black.

Thanks for the compliments, DonBo!

[DonBo]

Thanks for the info. Sounds like lots of work, but then again anything worthwhile usually is. I believe the bug lady gets about $75 to clean all the flesh, then it still needs to be bleached.

[hockeybc69]

The european is one thing I wont deal with.

My taxidermist does it for $65.

All the muss and fuss, its not worth it to me to even attempt it.

[BRULEDRIFTER]

Definitely not worth the muss or fuss! I probably dumped close to $50 into supplies, and only a few of them are reusable.

Bleaching and everything once the skull is clean is no problem and even fun, I'd have no problem doing that. It's the cleaning that's just a huge pain in the bum and I would rather pay someone the money and save myself a lot of my free time I could have used to do many other things.

I guess I get a feeling of pride and accomplishment when I visit my folks and see it hanging on the wall, but not enough to do it again!

[Shoot2Kill]

Boiling = No thanks!

There is a beetle guy in St Cloud that does phenomenal work….skulls are beetled and bleached for $75…definitely worth it but his turn around time is pretty lengthy because of all the skulls he has to do plus he works a full time job as well….but if you’re in no hurry, definitely the way to go if you’re close enough.

Best way to clean a skull if you don’t have beetles and don’t want to boil them is to hit the skull with a pressure washer. The only downside is it blows out the nasal bones but depending on how a Euro is displayed you might not see those anyway. I can pressure wash a skull and have it be completely clean in under 20 minutes. Let it sit in the sun for a day or two then whiten and you are done.

[DonBo]

Another season has come and gone. Bumped this to the top again for those of you lucky hunters with a new set of antlers and wondering what to do with them.

[Meat-Run]

good info on this subject I might give the pressure washer a try.

mr

[DonBo]

Yet another season is nearing the end. I'm sure many of you still have those antlers from your successful hunt in a box in the garage, maybe even last years... Shame on you. Break 'em out and let's get-r-done.

My projects this year include a small 8 pt I shot in MN with my bow, and a nice 8 pt shot in WS by a man from Atlanta on his very first northern deer hunt. I'll try to add some photos as I get to work on these.

Let's see what you're all working on.

[fr0sty]

My father in law is boiling the skull from the deer I got this year.

In case you are wondering why the skull looks weird, it's because I used photoshop to lighten the freshly skinned meat look. Co workers wouldn't like to see the bloody red skull as my desktop wallpaper

[DonBo]

Nice buck Frosty. Be sure to show us what it looks like when it's done.

[DonBo]

Here's one I just finished for a buddy:

And a few more still in progress:

[paceman]

A coworker's buck.