A quality mount starts the moment you harvest your trophy. The following tips will help insure a trophy you will be proud to display for a lifetime.
Once the animal is harvested, follow the tips below.
Always use rubber or latex gloves to handle your trophy due to rabies and other diseases that can be transmitted to humans.
LARGE GAME: Dragging can tear hair out and scar your animals cape. Hold the shoulder and neck area up as high as possible while dragging or use a deer sled or cart. Do not tie a rope around the neck of your deer to drag or hang as this can permanently damage the cape. Do not slice or cut through the ears for tag attachment. Never cut the animals neck.
SMALL GAME: Bag and freeze as soon as possible after the carcass has cooled or bring it to us. Do not cut or gut!
BIRDS: Handle by the legs only. Do not gut. Wrap paper towel around the head area to keep any blood from seeping on the plumage. (Feathers can be permanently damaged by blood.) If you are unable to bring it in, let the body cool, put it head first into a plastic bag carefully so you do not bend or break the feathers, and lay flat in freezer.
FISH: Don not gut. Wrap in a wet towel or cloth, place in a plastic bag, and lat flat in the freezer asap. Flatten fins so they do not break.
SKINNING INSTRUCTIONS:
DEER: When gutting a deer do not cut the chest open past the sternum of chest bone that is located approximately 12" behind the front legs (See Figure A). At this point , you can cut around the deer as shown in the diagram. With the deer lying on it's back or hanging by it's hind legs, take a sharp knife and cut around the knee joint of the front leg (See Figure B). From this point, cut down the back of the front leg following the hairline of the long brown hair next to the short white hair. Upon reaching the elbow area of the leg, proceed to cut toward the sternum or chest bone area as shown in figure B. Proceed turning the hide inside out as it is skinned toward the head. Do not make any other cuts in the hide. Once you reach approximately 6 to 8 inches from the back of the head stop and saw through the meat and bone separating the head from the body. After this, place the hide in a cool area and transport to us as soon as possible. If you cannot bring it in right away, DO NOT put it in a plastic bag and seal it until the head and hide cools to air temperature. Placing a warm hide inside a plastic bag can cause it to spoil. Place the bag in a freezer. If a freezer is not available cover with several bags of ice. Keep the hide cold and dry. You can keep it on ice for up to 48 hours.
BEAR: Standing bear mounts only: Dorsal skin only. Do no attempt. Call for info.
For all other life size bear mounts or rugs, follow figure C. When skinning the bear leg stop at the wrist joint. DO NOT attempt to skin out the footpads. Do not skin out the head. Stop at the neck and separate the head from the body.
* BEARS - We will skin at no additional charge if we mount it
SALTING: Do not salt any hide. If a hide is not properly fleshed, salting can cause you to loose your trophy. Keep the hide cold if you are bringing it in soon after being harvested or bag and freeze it until you can bring it in.
NOTES: Always remember to bring the proper license and required tags along with your trophy.
Due to Federal Law, we are unable to mount hawks, songbirds, eagles, owls, flying squirrels and timber rattlers for our regular customers. They can only be mounted for the State and Federal Government.
