This is going to be a fun project, the biggest project I have had a chance to do for a Elk. This was a bull that was featured in Eastmans Archery Magazine a few months back. Grossed 340 , netted 330. Heck of a nice bull out of Washington.
There is actually quite a storie behind this bull and how I eventually got to be the second Taxidermist to get a shot to mount it. If by chance some of you remember that Muley that had the ears screwed to the antlers??? Well this bull came from there , and I must add, in sad , sad shape. My customer took great care of cutting the cape extra long and getting it taken care of ASAP. The other "Taxi" , "took care" of the cape and salted it down and dried it. This is where I about 5hit my pants when I saw the salted cape....... nothing was even fleshed, eyes and lips were somewhat turned. The "Taxidermist" salted right over the top of 1/2 inch thick meat and all the membrane that is supposed to be fleshed odd. Pretty sure he just dumped a ton of salt on it and called it good. Came to me Moldy , and just flat nasty. Truthfully , I did not think it would make it through the tan but we had to try, so off to the tannery it went. It ended up costing double as they had a ton of extra work to get it to rehydrate, but the tannery was able to pull off a save . It should not have made it though the tanning process.
So now everything is moving along at my shop. Cape is tanned and in the freezer. Base is built, and progress is happening. Here are some pictures to show what I have done so far with much , much more work to happen. This is going to be a closed mouth mount so a change out head will be swapped in, bull will be sitting on a Rock base with some aspen branches coming up and behind the bull.
Anyway , enjoy the pictures and I will be adding more as I get things done on the bull. This is the type of stuff I like doing, 1 off custom mounts!!
This is the main support that the rock will be built around and the driftwood is attached too.
Driftwood attached.
Next is the bracket I welded together to go into the form, I like to have plenty of area for the foam to grab onto so I screw on a few chunks of wood. It sucks when pedestal brackets break loose, especially on big mounts like this. Better safe than sorry.
Now I have to hog out the back of the form, this is messy but fun!!
First I mark where I need to start hogging !
The fun Starts here!!
Test fit and adjustments are made to get the right angle and make plum !
What came out of the form !
Next I them crewed the bracket into place and foamed it in. I also made sure to replace the small backboard so I can crew it to my mounting stand for mounting purposes. That will be cut off after it is mounted.
The horns were somewhat set so I can see what we have. Now I can cut the head off and put the closed mouth head on. I waited to do this till after the form was on the base so I can be sure to make it straight and level. Here are some pictures of how it is mocked up. I'm done for now!
Oh and check out the flow of the wood to the pedestal back on the form, don't get much better than that!!
