Common Mistakes

[Michelle_Nelson]

I was working in the shop today and got an idea for a new thread.  Basically I thought it a good idea for the taxidermists on here to post some of the common mistakes that we see hunters make in skinning/caring for their animals before bringing them to us.

I do not have a list already pre thought out but a few come to mind right off the top of my head.

[whacker1]

cape too short
wait too long to get it to the taxidermist. hide starts to slip

[Skyvalhunter]

Maybe along the same lines is spoilage and lips start to rot.

[HornHoarder]

I always avoid getting excessive blood on the cape. Wipe off with a wet rag before it dries up. I imagine getting bloodstains out is tough, right?

[grundy53]

just marking this for reference 

[Michelle_Nelson]

I get several of these every year.  Hunters salting there own hides and capes.  Don't get me wrong I have no problems with hunters doing this as long as the hide is properly split, turned, and fleshed.

The problem is when they cape or skin out the animal and leave the head and paws in the skin for that taxidermist to remove.  Than they salt the hide/cape with out fleshing the hide.  Sometimes putting it in the freeer afterwards.  

I have to ask "WHY?" and what good do you think you just did?  What did you do for the paws and the face?  You were not able to salt them because you left the head and paws in.  I guess because the hide is salted that makes the face and paws alright too.   

Why did you put it in the freezer?  Salt doesn't freeze and neither did you cape/hide.

[Skyvalhunter]

Michelle having done very little fleshing myself but knowing it can take alot of time do you charge extra if the fleshing is not done? I know thread jack.

[Michelle_Nelson]

Shooting a large Bear and rolling the head up and burrying it inside the hide and putting it in the freezer.  It can take 3 DAY's for a hide like that to freeze.  I am talking Black Bear.  Not griz.  They can take longer.

[Michelle_Nelson]

Michelle having done very little fleshing myself but knowing it can take alot of time do you charge extra if the fleshing is not done? I know thread jack.

No I don't charge extra to Cape off skull, flesh, split, and turn a cape/hide.

[Skyvalhunter]

Wow cudos to you as it took my guide and his assistant the better part of 8 hours to flesh, do the paws,and prepare the head on my grizzly. Your under paid!!

[Michelle_Nelson]

Slicing the throat.

If the animal is dead slicing the throat does no good.  It DOES NOT bleed the animal out.  Once the heart stops pumping the blood stops flowing.  The animal has already bled out through the enterance and exit wound and internally.  The veins in an animal do not run in a streigh line from it's head to its ass.  They have all kinds of bends, turns, and curves.  



    

[Michelle_Nelson]

Wow cudos to you as it took my guide and his assistant the better part of 8 hours to flesh, do the paws,and prepare the head on my grizzly. Your under paid!!

Hunting with a guide is differnt.  Especially if you are an out of state hunter.  How far away from a freezer were you hunting?  How long did you remain in camp after your Bear was shot?  Did they ship the hide to you later or did you take it home with you?  How cold was it outside?

[Skyvalhunter]

What I was trying to get at it took a long time to do it and even if I shot it within a short trip to the taxidermist I would think that additional charge would be warrented. ok bake to the main topic of the thread.

[bucklucky]

Lifesize bobcats that are already skinned out. I want the carcass for exact measurements for lifesize.
 

Another thing is piss poor cape jobs like where the corners of the eyes are completely cut out , no lip line to tuck, holes where there shouldnt be 

[MtnMuley]

How about those who drag their deer through rocks or stalbs of downfall and wonder why the taxi put "prerut" battle scars on the cape.  Then, bring in the harvest pictures showing none of those markings......

[MtnMuley]

Lifesize bobcats that are already skinned out. I want the carcass for exact measurements for lifesize.
 

Another thing is piss poor cape jobs like where the corners of the eyes are completely cut out , no lip line to tuck, holes where there shouldnt be 

Another "Common Mistake" that comes to mind, is when a guy fronts the money for a lifesize then never gets the taxi the pelt........

[bucklucky]

Lifesize bobcats that are already skinned out. I want the carcass for exact measurements for lifesize.
 

Another thing is piss poor cape jobs like where the corners of the eyes are completely cut out , no lip line to tuck, holes where there shouldnt be 

Another "Common Mistake" that comes to mind, is when a guy fronts the money for a lifesize then never gets the taxi the pelt........

That too 

[Skyvalhunter]

Is this talking from the voice of experience?

[muleyhunter]

Another good one is where they gut the animal and continue all the way up to the bottom lip. You ask them where did they come up with that idea they just give you the dumb deer in the head light look. Another good one is they don't cape it out right away they go back to camp get all s*&*&t faced and then decide that they need to cape the animal out. I had one I swear the guy had it hanging up and started spinning the animal while he worked his knife up.

[jackelope]

How much more work is it for you taxi's to cape the skull yourself?
In other words...Cape your buck out all the way up to the antler bases then stop and give the taxi the skull and cape and let the taxi(he/she who knows WTF they're doing) deal with it. That's what I did. I didn't know what the hell I was doing so I quit while I was ahead.
Just thinking of this as maybe a recommendation or some advice you guys could give to prevent an irreversible mistake.

[bucklucky]

If I get to cape the animal myself, I know it will be perfect. I have not seen very many customer caped animals that were really that great. Always something wrong with them that I have to fix. Its not that I dont want them not caped , I mean there are certain instances where it is unavoidable which is perfectly fine. I just prefer to cape myself. A perfect mount starts with a perfect cape.

[turkey slayer]

One of my pet peeves is with skulls. People bring me deer skulls in February or march and they just been sitting on the wood pile or hanging in a tree when they could of brought them strait in. Then the hide is hard as a rock on the head.

[gasman]

From personal experiance of losing two capes at the Taxi.

The last two capes I cut to far forward of the arm pits 

I was recomended to tube out the front legs. This will make sure there is enough hide left.

[Skyvalhunter]

Turning the ears seem to be very difficult and seems to be better done by the professionals.

[daydreamn]

What really gets me is all the premium capes that go to waste because hunters dont realize their value.  Always have hunters bring me cut off heads to do europeans or horn mounts.  If they only knew the cape they just wasted could of cut a big price out of their mount.   Of course this always happens with what would of been the best capes.

[throttlejocky20]

just marking this for reference 

[muleyhunter]

In other words...Cape your buck out all the way up to the antler bases then stop and give the taxi the skull and cape and let the taxi(he/she who knows WTF they're doing) deal with it.
To me this is the best thing to do. Jackelope you did the right thing. Gasman, Another right thing to do.
The last two capes I cut to far forward of the arm pits  Bash

I was recomended to tube out the front legs. This will make sure there is enough hide left

[jackelope]

Mine was a learning experience.  I watched a buddy do mine. Very straight forward once I saw someone who knows how to do it. I won't be caping any skulls though, too much room for error. I will never cut a cape off at the head again.

When in doubt cut more.  Tubing the legs has got to help.

[elksnout]

OK. It's Saturday am on a 3 day hunt. I just took a nice buck but I'm 3 days away from coming home. I want to have a shoulder mount done perhaps. How do I keep the cape in good enough shape until I can get it to one of you? Or a out of state hunt? I think I've learned enough to leave more hide than I think and to cut up to the base of the antlers, etc. But I do not think I'd trust myself to flesh out the lips and turn the ears decent enough not to ruin it.

[Skyvalhunter]

Do you have access to salt or a freezer or are you wilderness hunting?

[Michelle_Nelson]

What time of the year is it and where are you hunting?  It is bellow freezing?

[bucklucky]

OK. It's Saturday am on a 3 day hunt. I just took a nice buck but I'm 3 days away from coming home. I want to have a shoulder mount done perhaps. How do I keep the cape in good enough shape until I can get it to one of you? Or a out of state hunt? I think I've learned enough to leave more hide than I think and to cut up to the base of the antlers, etc. But I do not think I'd trust myself to flesh out the lips and turn the ears decent enough not to ruin it.

Way too many variables on this question. You'll have to be more specific on the scenario with time of year, weather, whether your in 10 miles or hunting from the truck. Is there a town close with a cooler. Did you bring a small chest freezer to plug into a generator to keep it frozen  Is it snowing, is it 90 degrees. Do you have a nice cold stream near by. Are you in the middle of the nevada desert .

[elksnout]

Just throwing some scenerios out. Situations we all could face. I would hate to get that buck of a lifetime and want to do a shoulder mount only to ruin it by not being well informed beforehand you know. But beings you ask last fall my son took a damn fine Oregon muley opening morning in a wilderness area we backpacked into. { We go approx every third year}. I tried to talk him into doing a mount but he just wanted a euro done. It was hot so we decided to get the meat to a cooler we know of. Five hours of packing meat we were at the trailhead and headed for the cooler. But they do not want heads in with the meat so we kept it in the truck for a few days. So if we would have wanted to do a mount it's best to learn how to at least try and prepare it.

[Black Ghost]

Use the knife sparingly and fist the hide off.  Hold skin on hair side with one hand, and push other fist seperating skin from flesh.   You would be surprised how fast the skin pulls off and there is no risk of knifing a hole thru the hide.