'05' buck back from Taxi! photos

smokepoler63 · Mar 17, 2007

Well, after a 14 1/2 month wait I got my '05' buck back from the taxidermist this week. They actually called several weeks ago, but my 9 year old daughter and 7 year old son failed to give me the measage. I'm happy with the work and feel it was worth the wait. What do you think? I'll include several field photos and some finished mount photos.

Thanks for looking, Smokepoler63

PleaseDear · Mar 17, 2007

Very Nice.

Robb

HunterHarry · Mar 17, 2007

Very nice buck.
One little comment on the mount.
See the whites of the eyes?
He looks like he is trying to look behind himself with each eye.
When a buck or anything else for that matter, looks left the whites will be in the inside of the left eye and the outside of the right eye.
When he looks right it is just the oposite the white band will be in the inside of the right eye and the outside of the left eye.
To prove this, look at yourself in the mirror and look hard right or hard left....see?
Better yet, get your dog or cat to do it.

Your taxidermist could probably re-soak the face and fix this problem if he is fairly skilled and bring it to his attention.

I hope you don't take my criticism the wrong way, it's just that I've been around taxi a long time.
Not all my mounts are perfect either, but I do shop for top quality now...
HH
Hope you can get it fixed.

TFinalshot · Mar 18, 2007

LAST EDITED ON Mar-18-07 AT 06:43AM (MST)[p]Nice buck.

I agree with HH. I'm no taxi expert, but I do spend a LOT of time examining and studying mule deer and their behaviour. I've also seen a lot of live bucks in the sneek position, and I dont recall ever seing one where the whites of his eyes show up that prominant from the frontal view. Usually, in the sneek postion, the eyes are looking forward therefore there tends to be less white. . .

Deer are pray, their eyes are on the sides of their heads so that they can see behined them and to the sides - watching for predators - unlike a cat or a predator who's eyes are face forward and when we look forward you can see white, not so much with deer.

I would recomend less white all together, in most cases, unless a buck is really straining to see something, this goes for elk too - you should not see a whole lot of white in the eye - ever . . .

Here are a few examples. . . Never mind the picture quality, or the crops, these are deep crops into lager shots and are compressed files to make them small.

I have taxi's call me any buy pages of shots of mule deer heads in different positions, just so they have them for reference.

I hope you dont take offence to my post. You asked for our opininons. . .

I'll give you permision to down load those shots, print them, and take them with you when you talk to him.

Piece.

HunterHarry · Mar 18, 2007

Excellent examples T!
I agree, the only time you should see that much white is on hard turns.
PS...Great pics as usual!
HH

Devlin · Mar 18, 2007

Hey great Buck and congrats to you and give us the story when you get a chance.As far as those white banded eyes I don't use them myself there just to much trouble.I mount my own animals and butcher my own meat most of the time and I'm not cheap I just injoy doing it.

boneaddict · Mar 18, 2007

Thank you for sharing your pictures. I would have to agree with the eye comment. I mount my own and the new eyes are a big push right now, so if folks aren't used to using them....They used to come with no whites on them at all and are still readily available. I experimented with them a bit with moose, and with elk, but as for deer, you normally just don't see much white. You especially won't see it back and forward of the eye at the same time. If you are happy with the mount then just enjoy it! Most folks won't have a clue. You are talking to a bunch of guys who have ALOT of experience and time in the field. A majority of folks would never notice.

AspenAdventures · Mar 18, 2007

Beautiful buck and awesome mount!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Muleyslyr · Mar 18, 2007

14 1/2 months......I'd be happy with that turn around.

Check out my thread in the General Hunting forum.... "Taxidermy...What Would U Do?" Shows ya what the heck I'm dealing with.

Anyways....that's a great buck. Love the character on him. Mount looks great also. I'm sure he's a great addition to the room. Thanks for the pics.

smokepolejohnson · Mar 18, 2007

Nice lookin buck. congrats

30buck · Mar 18, 2007

Very nice buck. I liked the examples left by the user of this post. Thanks, for the info

smokepoler63 · Mar 18, 2007

I totally agree with you on the eyes. I felt they showed way too much white. It's good to have my original thoughts confirmed by the experts of MM. I have seen mounts that show a little white and like mentioned, it is usually with a severe turn, and they still don't show as much white as this mount. I touched up my photos in Photoshop to see what the mount would look like if fixed. I think it looks a lot better. I'm going to see what the taxi can do for me. Here are the re-touched photos.

Thanks for the input and the suggestions, Smokepoler63

supersider34 · Mar 18, 2007

Excellent buck. I have to agree with the white of the eyes. I archery hunt deer and have been close to deer in every angle you can be except under or over them. But I on my stalks watch there eyes. In certain angles you can see where they are looking. There eyes are not perfectly round and have a slight curve to them. But anyways at certain angles you can get glints of light off them when they look certain ways. Well I have been under 20 yds on many bucks or doe's and have never seen whites of there eyes. Maybe if they have there head scratching there back and starining to scratch then it will be there. But have yet to see it.
I had my buck from 2 yrs ago mounted with solid eyes with no whites and it is th ebest mount I have seen done in this area. I requested this from the taxidermist as he uses the white eyes. He stated that is how most people want them as that is the way they do competition mounts is with those eyes. I was going more of a realistic look than for competition.

2_Point · Mar 18, 2007

I doubt he will be able to fix it by re-forming the eye. If it was done right the clay used will be too hard to rehydrate and adjust the skin. But he could throw a little paint over the whites and it will look ok from 3 feet. There are some other problems that people who know deer and taxidermy can point out, but we don't need to be critics to that extent. As long as you are happy, that is all that matters. One thing I would do is tuck or trim the wild hairs pushed out by the wall. It will make the mount appear more crisp.

ASUCoues · Mar 18, 2007

heck of a nice buck. I personally am not a big fan of sneak poses. One really good thing is you can not even tell he was shot in the neck. I think the sneak pose skinnied his neck out. In the field photos, he has a big ole fat neck but not so in the mount. must be from the pose. congrats!

BuckSnort · Mar 18, 2007

LAST EDITED ON Mar-18-07 AT 09:43PM (MST)[p]Congrat's on a nice buck. I do agree on the eyes,the taxi needs to fix them.If that means taking the cape off and fixing then so be it.There SHOULD be white in the eyes but he has them in the wrong areas.He should know how to set eyes as it is the bigest detail to big game taxidermy.

It may be me but the field photo's just look weird.Were they severely re-worked in photoshop? Again congrat's on a great buck.

Ant · Mar 21, 2007

Nice Buck!!! Congrats. He is a brute. Very nice.

canhunter · Mar 21, 2007

Nice Buck..The eyes don't look right like already mentioned, and the neck really thinned out on the mount compared to the photos. The pose has nothing to do with the neck size it is the form size used. I would make sure the Taxi can modify what you want before you do it. I've seen more really messed up then if they had just left them alone.

bowhuntnnut · Mar 22, 2007

It could be the lighting but the cape don't appear to be the same? Nice buck!

smokepoler63 · Mar 23, 2007

I must be the lighting. The buck had a reddish hue and distinct markings, so I know it is the same cape. He did have a larger neck when harvested. I don't know if the sneak position thinned out the neck or if the mannequin used was smaller in the neck than needed to be. The bucks we harvested from this area and time of year, November, have all been from 23 to 26 inches behind the ears, so they have huge necks by mule deer standards. I know it is difficult to find many forms, with varying positions, of these neck sizes. This buck's cape was 25" unstreched, measured right behind the ears.

Smokepoler63

sagehnter · Mar 23, 2007

LAST EDITED ON Mar-23-07 AT 09:04PM (MST)[p]the eye problem is an easy fix. They can either build up the corner of the eye slightly with apoxy and repaint or just painover top of the white band with an air brush. The ground shrink with your neck is probably from the choice of form for this deer. Full sneak forms do not display a big promonent swell in the neck as well as others and even when you order a form that is the correct size you'd swear that the deer just looks small when it's finished. Or the taxi did not thin down the hide enough and it shrunk during the tanning process. Great deer either way but get those eyes looked at. I would leave the white in the back corner of the eyes and get rid of the band in the front. Eyes come with a white band, even though most deer don't even show white, because the tend to look more alive.

NMuzzy · Mar 24, 2007

The worse case scenario with the small looking neck could be that the taxi ordered the biggest form available and it was still too small. Hmmm what do I do with the excess hide? I hate to say it but some taxi's would rather "shrink" the cape down a few inches than go through the trouble of ordering a different form or altering the existing one to make it fit. IE, cutting and adding to the form to enlarge it. I hope this did not happen to your cape. Very nice buck by the way.

JO