Well, first off, I am not a taxidermist. I don't claim to know what there is to know about doing taxidermy. I am a wildlife artist and this is, what I consider, a life size sculpture. What I want to do here is a kind of 'work in progress' of mounting my 2010 bull. I will post major steps of the project from somewhere around start, hopefully to finish.
So lets get started shall we??!!!!
Elk hunting 2010 started off pretty slow, archery season I saw one (1) spike bull on the run, and was not carrying my bow, opening day #1, I went to a new exploratory place and was pleasantly surprised with the elk that I saw, but still did not kill. So, opening day #2, weekend with the family, the weather was very warm and there were no elk anywhere in the area that we chose to hunt. So throughout that weekend, we ended up seeing a total of 2 'huntable' elk, but they were a long ways away, and there were several guys that we could see on the hillside below these elk. So the end of the season is getting close, and the last trip was a quick 2 1/2 day trip in the middle of the week. The mountains got a lot of snow the weekend and the day before, so I felt pretty good about going out. The trip turned out to be a success, camping in 0* weather and trudging through 10-12" of snow, seeing over 25 elk, and taking a 265" 5x6 bull, not huge but I was very happy to take it, and it turned out to be a great tip, and made the whole year.
4 years ago was the last elk that I shot, and wanted but could not afford, nor did I have the time to get it mounted, so I did an antler mount on that bull and it hangs beautifully in my house, so I thought I would get this one mounted. Well, I caped the elk and put it in the freezer until all of hunting season and the holidays were over. In the meantime, I did a European mount on it and, it too, hangs beautifully in my house and don't want to use it for the mount.
2007 Bull
Now, I still have the cape so I just needed to get a set of antlers, no problem. I am a shed hunter and I found a nice deadhead a few years ago that I would be happy with, so I started the taxidermy process.
So lets get started shall we??!!!!
Elk hunting 2010 started off pretty slow, archery season I saw one (1) spike bull on the run, and was not carrying my bow, opening day #1, I went to a new exploratory place and was pleasantly surprised with the elk that I saw, but still did not kill. So, opening day #2, weekend with the family, the weather was very warm and there were no elk anywhere in the area that we chose to hunt. So throughout that weekend, we ended up seeing a total of 2 'huntable' elk, but they were a long ways away, and there were several guys that we could see on the hillside below these elk. So the end of the season is getting close, and the last trip was a quick 2 1/2 day trip in the middle of the week. The mountains got a lot of snow the weekend and the day before, so I felt pretty good about going out. The trip turned out to be a success, camping in 0* weather and trudging through 10-12" of snow, seeing over 25 elk, and taking a 265" 5x6 bull, not huge but I was very happy to take it, and it turned out to be a great tip, and made the whole year.
4 years ago was the last elk that I shot, and wanted but could not afford, nor did I have the time to get it mounted, so I did an antler mount on that bull and it hangs beautifully in my house, so I thought I would get this one mounted. Well, I caped the elk and put it in the freezer until all of hunting season and the holidays were over. In the meantime, I did a European mount on it and, it too, hangs beautifully in my house and don't want to use it for the mount.
2007 Bull
Now, I still have the cape so I just needed to get a set of antlers, no problem. I am a shed hunter and I found a nice deadhead a few years ago that I would be happy with, so I started the taxidermy process.
