Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Europe Request for a favor

Matt,

I've heard of that technique but never seen it done...For Roe, I have a "clamp and saw guide" the skull fits into and lets me cut it correctly every time, while for large skulls I tend cut them free hand using a fine toothed wood saw..When it comes to DIY, I'm not the most co-ordinated person in the world, and I find the large flat surface of the wood saw doesn't tend to want to "wonder" like a hack or bone saw...

Also, if you leave a little extra bone all around when you make the cut, minor mistakes can be straighted, "lost" or evened up by holding the cut surface onto a belt sander...

Regards,

Peter

Peter,

I agree that using the wood saw is sometimes the best technique. You are most certainly correct in suggesting that one should leave a little extra material on the skull to adjust for mistakes. I've always had a lot of fun making my own European mounts. It allows me to nicely display my hard-earned trophies without breaking the bank.

Take care!
Matt
Jackson, Wyoming

I have made up 2 x roe deer and also numberous fallow deer skull mounts and I agree that a fine toothed wood saw is a good idea. A trick I learnt was to put a little flour in the 2 holes in the roe skull so that it leaves 2 white spots on the mounting board. That helps locate the screw of the mounting clamp so the skull sits right on the small wooden sheild.

But what no one has touched on yet is how to write "Knadenwald Tirol" or whatever on the bone of the skull. I'm sure this would require a particular ink, for instance.

The German made sheilds come with a stick-on label for the rear of the mount for this information to be included. Also many of them come with an optional small recess for one of the pieces of the cut-of jaw with teeth attached, so that the animal can be approximately aged. There's also a swiveling piece of tin to keep it from falling out once it's stashed away.

I helped a taxidermist measure and old set of moose antlers once, and he told me that old antlers can dry out and crumble and the points lose length. So I now use Ballistol to keep them clean and protected. I used to use Dunc's Antler Creme, but I'm not sure if it's still available.

I've seen a few skulls that have been written on in that manner here in the UK, but it doesn't seem to be as popular as on mainland Europe.

As far as a suitable pen, I would try a fine tipped permanent marker of the type designed for writing on CD's/DVD's....Obviously try it on a "scrap" skull first...

Regards,

Peter

Hi Kiwi,
Here's the "Gnadenwald" Chamois mount .
My (soon to be ex-, unfortunately) son-in-law wrote the caption in Gothic script (he's German), using a sort of Indian ink and special drawing pens (a felt marker can be used but it will bleach with time).

Good advise, thanks. I just might give it a try on a doe skull.

What Ingwe said.

Cut the fugger, bleach it, hang it. I just don't care what you all think of it!

All very interesting and informative .a german fellow whose house i worked on in victoria BC had about 100 mounts most of them non typical ..he managed a part of the black forest in germany. to pete there are also fallow deer on southern vancouver island and off shore islands introduced many many years ago

Peter
Thinking you mean "Sika" not Sitka deer?
art

Art,

Well spotted and quite correct; while we have a have a couple of subspecies of Sika, I don't think we have any feral populations of any of the North American deer, mores the pity!

Regards,

Peter

All my fault, I wrote Sitka in my question to Pete, I thought it was the correct English word for Sika.

Pete E - The attached link takes you to a site that gives the best step-by-step instructions I've seen on preparing a skull. FYI - don't use bleach to whiten the skull, use hydrogen peroxide!

http://www.javelinahunter.com/preparing_a_skull.htm