Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Well That Turned Out Nice

postoak;
This is a supposition on my part sir and nothing more, but taxidermists up here use similar beetles to these to clean up skulls.

http://www.skulltaxidermy.com/kits.html

While the European mount is seen up here a bit, from what I've seen the beetles are used more for bear, cougar and wolf skulls.

Hopefully I'm not too far off in my guess and that was some use to someone out there this cold January morning.

All the best to you in 2013 postoak.

Regards,
Dwayne

That sure did turn out looking great. The buck is a dandy and that mount likes really nice.

Congrats!

That is just a great mount. A couple questions: Isn't it tough to keep beetles in that cold climate, and did you guy the pedestal from a taxidermy supply place? I have a few beetle'd skulls that need finishing.

Very nice work. Artistic, almost ...

That is a heck of a nice buck, and nice mount. I really like the European mounts as well. How wide is that buck by the way?

Troy, that looks really cool. Do yo do beetle work for anyone?

Talus in Arizona. First, yes it is a somewhat difficult to keep beetles in this cold climate as they have to stay at around 80 degrees year' round. As for the wood mount I have them made locally by a friend of mine.

CHell, he is 26" inside.

CLD, yes I do, but only non-antlered/horned animals ie...coyotes, bobcats, bears, mt. lions and such. The only deer I do are for locals. Too much of a hassle to try and ship antlered game in the mail. I do have a website if you want to see some of my other work. http://www.bestskullcleaning.com/

That's a nice website Troy! Those skulls look great, if I wasn't such a cheap azz that would be the only way to go. Really, when I think about the time I have to put into boiling and cleaning a skull, it's not that expensive to just send it off and have a better finished product.

Nate,
I used to boil skulls. In fact I did about 50 deer, a dozen or so antelope, and a couple bears. I finally decided there had to be a better way. That and I hate the smell of boiled meat. Anyway, boiling skulls is what motivated me to use beetles. No regrets and it is less time consuming. The really cool part is while they are working I can be off doing something else...like coyote hunting.

There's a guy in the west valley that runs a beetle shop called Western Skulls. He does great work. My boiled ones suck in comparison. I paid $125 for my last Coue's skull. The owner, who also guides in Alaska, actually delivered it to me. Great service for all those Phoenix area folks. Hope to get him a pig skull this Feb ...

I asked him once how hard it was to keep beetles. His challenge comes in the summer when he's got to keep them cool. And I guess right now, when it's headed for the 4th night of mid twenties temps in a row.

Nice buck and mount. I like the blue pine... looks great!!

Eric