Bear face measurements prior to skinning?

[Rufous]

I had my last bear mounted as a shoulder mount and it ended up looking quite a bit smaller than the actual bear was. I have a spring bear tag and if I get a big boar I might try to get a shoulder mount done on it with the hope that it would actually look like the big bear it was. So I wonder how to ensure that happens. Can you taxidermists please show exactly where you would take measurements prior to skinning so that I can provide the taxidermist with those figures so that they could use that info to get the proper sized form etc? Sure appreciate any help that you can offer.

My bear was a 17 year old boar with a 18 10/16" skull and it looks smaller than my buddies 6 year old sow. My bear is on the left. Disregard that my bear is shorter, I screwed up the caping and did not leave enough cape below the arm pits. Still the head itself should appear bigger on a mature boar than on an immature sow wouldn't you think?

It seems that the taxidermist just took the shrunken tanned hide and put it on a small form, rather than soaking and stretching it back up before putting it on the proper sized form. Thanks, Rufous.

[Rufous]

Here is a link to the story of the bear with photos of the bear just after I killed it.

http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php?topic=33667.0

[Michelle_Nelson]

So are you skinning the head out before you take it to the taxidermist?  If so. . . Why?  If not than the Taxidermist should be getting there own measurments off the head.  Thats there job.  Are you taking it back to the same taxidermist?  If yes, and you did take the measurments whats to say the taxidermist is going to use them? 

[fish_hunter]

Michelle,
Sometimes you don't have the option to bring the unskinned skull to the taxidermist.  I hunt in Alaska for black bear, and you have to have the skinned skull sealed by fish and game within 10 days.   Or if your doing a remote hunt and cant freeze it right away it should be skinned. 
I had the same kind of issue with my taxi, however he dished the face of my black bear instead of a straight profile.  I should have given him the photos and taken some measurements.  I think it would have made a difference.  What would the correct measurement locations be?

[cedarriver]

  Take tip of nose to front corner of eye. Big boar should be in the 5 3/4"-7/8" range. Very few get much bigger than that. Mature sow will generally be around 5" give or take a 1/4". I'm refering to black bears.

[Michelle_Nelson]

Fish-hunter,

I am fully aware of that.  I bring in several Bear a year in from Alaska.  Along with Bears that are taken on pack in hunts.  That is why I asked him "If so. . .Why?". 

Me personally if I am trying to get an accurate head size I get an eye to nose measurement, length, width and circumfrance measurement of the skull.   

[Rufous]

Length, width and circumference of head I am sure you must mean. From where to where exactly are these measurements taken?
I was unemployed when I shot this bear and also had not decided who I would have do the mount. On top of that the skull was quite a trophy and I wanted to get it cleaned by beetles sooner than later. The taxidermist knew it was a big, mature boar and I had sent photos of it to him. I mentioned upon picking it up that it sure looked small to me but when I compared it to my friend's young sow mount I was particularly disappointed. It never occured to me that I should have had to ask the taxidermist to soak and stretch the shrunken tanned hide before putting it on the mount. I assumed it to be standard procedure. Who would want to shoot a mature boar and then have the mount look dinky?

[fish_hunter]

Michelle,
Sorry, Didn't mean to offend or insult your knowledge. 
My taxi told me the same thing when I told him I was going bear hunting in Alaska "just throw it in the freezer and I'll do the head when you drop it off."

I was fine with that until I got a bear down.  "what do you mean I have to skin the head, I don't know how to do that.". I learned quick.

[BLKBEARKLR]

Not to sound like an A$$, but he probably did you a favor, if you cut the cape wrong and it was not long enough, if he would have stretched it to meet the size of the bears head you would have had that, a bears head, he might have put it on a smaller form for you to get some of the shoulder back for you. You can't have both width and length if you are lacking one of them in the first place.


As for stretching and soaking a cape, he has to do that, there is no way to mount a hide other than doing that, that is not a step that can be left out. Did you address this with your taxidermist when you picked it up?

But to answer your question corner of the eye to the corner of the eye, to get width between the eyes, the tip of nose to corner of the eye to get the length of the snout. Other than that there is not a lot of other measurements to take. There are only a certain range of forms out there, you can build one of them up. But not going to be exact.