How To Skin A Deer For A Shoulder Mount

If y'all're looking for stride-by-step instructions on how to cape a deer for a shoulder mount, look no further than this page and, especially, the accompanying video here. Caping a whitetail buck for a shoulder mount is piece of cake if you follow these instructions and take your time. With some practice, you will be able to cape your deer only like Blake Godwin of Outwest Hunting well-nigh Venus, Florida (he is the skilled knife man in the video).

No thing how adept your taxidermist is, he needs your help to do the all-time job possible. That's because the process of creating an excellent trophy whitetail mount begins as soon as the fauna is on the ground. What you do from that moment until y'all go your deer to the taxidermy shop will touch on the quality of the finished work.

deer mount Watching Wade Sehman cape out trophy whitetails in his St. Charles, Iowa, store, you lot become enlightened of just how much extra work is required for a taxidermist when a deer isn't properly cared for in the field.

"Correct here — huge problem," Sehman said, while pointing to the head of a 140-inch buck with precious little hide left beneath the cervix. "People get likewise aggressive when they cut off the head and they don't leave plenty hide behind the shoulders. Similar I ever tell hunters, 'I can trim abroad extra hibernate, merely I can't add any.'

"I might exist able to salvage this cape, but if not, I'm going to take to detect one from another deer. That means extra time and hassle. Everyone wants their deer dorsum speedily, but if I have to spend time looking for another cape, that particular mount is probably going to become to the end of the line."

"Don't slit the throat," Sehman said. "In fact, don't make any cuts except the ones you need to make during field-dressing. Also, when you lot open up the deer up, don't cut anything to a higher place the sternum. That's all usable cape.

Knives That Stay Sharp!

"So, when yous're getting your cadet out of the woods, don't wrap a rope around the neck. If you lot must apply a rope, tie it around the antlers. And if yous have to elevate him for any slap-up distance, put a jacket under the shoulders. The point is to keep the hide from rubbing on the basis."

Hunters can practise the initial caping. There are only a few bones cuts you lot demand to perform before delivering the head to the taxidermist. Exit the detail work of skinning around the oral fissure, nose and eyes to the professional person.

Caping a buck Get-go, use a sharp knife. The cape should start by making a cutting through the hide behind the front legs at the midpoint of the ribs, encircling the torso.

Next, slit the skin around the legs just higher up the knees, so make a cut on the back side of the legs that meets upwardly with the initial trunk cut.

Carefully peel the cape up toward the caput until you achieve the ears and jaw. At present the junction of the head and neck is exposed. About three inches beneath this point, encircle the neck muscles (No more hibernate cuts!) with a cutting all the manner down to the spinal column. Grab the antler bases and twist, separating the head (with the attached hibernate) from the cervix.

"At this point you merely take two more than responsibilities," Sehman said. "Get-go, keep the hide clean, within and out. There'southward nothing worse than having to pick clay and gravel out of a hibernate that someone tossed on the basis.

"2d, get information technology to your taxidermist right abroad if you can. But if non, simply roll up the hibernate and put the whole works in the freezer."

When you become your finished trophy back from the studio, you'll be glad you did your part to help your taxidermist do the best job possible.