Hello everyone, this is my first article contribution to the site.  As the title suggests I will be explaining how to remove animal horns from the bone cores and why this is important.  The following are some items that you will need for this task.

• A large pot
• Propane Burner and Propane
• Drill with no larger than a ¼” drill bit
• Water
• Arm and Hammer Liquid Laundry detergent
• Rubber Mallet
• Knife or Scalpel
• Something to mix the water and detergent with ( a paint stir stick works well)
• Metal Tongs
• Good Quality Gloves that are waterproof and chemical resistant
• Eye protection
• Waterproof Apron

This first thing you will have to do is to fill the pot about ¾ of the way full with water. Next you will get the propane and burner set up.  Once the pot is on the burner and the burner is going add about half of a cap full of the detergent to the water and stir it up.  Depending on how large your pot is you may need less than a half of a cap full of detergent or you may need more. I wouldn’t put more than one (1) full cap in though.  Let the water start to boil and submerge half of the set of horns in the pot.  Leave the horn in there for about 15-20 minutes. Then carefully remove horns and try to wiggle them.  When doing this grab the horn about 4 inches up from the base.  If it doesn’t start to move or wiggle take you knife or scalpel and carefully work it around the base of the horn.  You want to make sure not to cut the actual horn because it will become very soft during this process.  You will work the knife between the horn and the meat/tissue that holds the horn to the core. Then place the same horn back into the pot of boiling water.  Repeat this process until the horn comes off of the core.  If after several tries the core still isn’t starting to loosen try to hit the base of the horn with a rubber mallet. You can hit it fairly firm but be careful not to crack the horn because that will just create more work for you later.  If the horn still is not loosening you can drill three (3) or four (4) small holes in the back of the horn.  Start slightly above the bottom of the horn and drill a hole. Then move directly up from that and drill another hole and continue this until you get no more than four (4) holes.  Put the horn and core back into the boiling water and it should come off fairly easy.  This is the process that I use to remove all of my horns.

Another option is to bag the horns up (preferably in a black garbage bag) after you have caped and capped the animal.  Poke a decent amount of holes in the bag and hang it up in a tree or off the side of a building where it gets sunlight for a large portion of the day.  After hanging there for 3-4 weeks if it’s during the summer and maybe 6-8 weeks if it’s during the winter take the horns out of the bag and pull the horns off the cores.  A note about this is that you want it to be outside because as the tissue starts to break down it will start to smell pretty bad.  This process is less labor intensive but it doesn’t seem to work as well; at least not in my experience. Sometimes though after using this process you still need to do the first process that I outlined to get the horns off.

If you have any questions please feel free to email me or message me on here.  In next month’s article I will cover how to re-attach the horns for mounting them.

Tim Patton

President

Patton’s Taxidermy Shop LLC

First, I cut a piece of rigid foam or use a piece of an old mannikin.

Next, I sand or scrape it to the shape I want, making sure to sand off all of the slick areas where mold release was used.

Next, I mix 50/50 Durabond powdered drywall plaster and Vermiculite ( I get it at plant stores or nurseries)

Next, I cover the entire foam piece with it, except the bottom, and let it set up for a few minutes.

Once it has set and firmed up a little, I use a damp paper towel and smooth down some of the pointy looking areas.

After this has set up ( about 20 minutes ), I mix about 5 parts water to 1 part powdered Tempra paint.

Very simple and saves a lot of money if you need to add some rocks to your habitat base! I attach them with hot glue.

Skin showing bad wing off and were it was cut from the skin

Body set up and pre drilled for the wing wires. Note that they are exiting close together.
1 1/8 hole were the wires come out and with the skin on with the one wing into body.

Showing were wing will go back into the skin and new wing wired up and ready to go into the skin.

Hole in skin lining up with pre drilled hole and wing into the body and wires crossing at the exit hole.

Wires twisted back into body and make sure skin isn’t pinched and humerus bone is pulled up and tight.

Next we will bondo the hole were are wings exited the body. I like to add some fiberglass resin to my bondo to make it so you can pour it into the hole. Note the cotton ball as a dam for the bondo. You can also place a couple of cotton balls into the hole if you are a little short on the bondo pour. This will make for a solid wing set that wont wable out of the hole.

Bird mounted and groomed for the first day. Note the feather lost on the breast we will replace that area once the skin is dry.
I set my bodies up a little different than Aaron Stehling’s method outlined in his Taxidermy Insider® video series,and I’m using Bad Boy Bodies with the breast inserts. I will cut off the neck and replace it with the one from the head as every freeze dry form is different and I will cut the insert into so the head will come off. I will show this in another lesson.
If you have any questions on this let me know.

Fishing

As I sit in this boat and look at the sky

I watch all the animals as they go by

The birds soar freely through the evening air

Manatees watching their young with delicate care

At times the alligators watch from a far

This is true nature, not some stuffy bar

A sunset that’s incredible what an awesome sight

It won’t be long now, here comes the night

The fish bite sporadically, a few at a time

Bright stars and the moon, look at how they shine

Mosquitoes starting to buzz, and sometime they sting

Listen to the frogs as they begin to sing

An occasional bat will fly around our poles

Can you hear the distant thunder as it rolls?

When I’m here I leave all my troubles far behind

Such a peaceful place for someone to unwind

What a beautiful world God has given for all to see

When I go fishing my soul is cleansed and feels so free!

Can Cause a Taxidermist Nightmares

Recently, I was working through my work order backlog and I came across a Whitetail that I remember very well from when my client dropped it off right in the midst of the rut. It was covered in battle scars as well as fresh wounds. I asked the guy if he had hit it with his truck. Laughing he said no, that this buck had been in some hardcore battles with two other deer, one about the same size and another much larger brute. He had open wounds, his nose was ripped to shreds and he had a couple of lower front teeth missing. I could not believe there weren’t any breaks or chips in the antlers.

The client wanted to know if I could save the cape because he wanted to mount it, but only if we could use the original cape. I promptly said sure, no problem. WHAT WAS I THINKING? So we filled out the work order, he paid the necessary deposit and he went on his way. Now, eight months later his work order comes up and the wet tanned cape is thawing. I am now faced with pulling my foot out of my mouth and saving this man’s cape as I said I would do.

So in this article I am going to show you what I did to pull this off. Then when you are faced with a cape like this you can say “Sure, No Problem” just like I did. Remember, repairs are a part of taxidermy, and if done properly, you are the only one who knows where they are. Okay, time to stop talking and get to work.

Let’s do this thing!

We will be starting out with a wet tanned cape and it will be mounted on a W03-7119R from Head Quarters Supply. We have already test fit the cape on the form and installed a medium Gene Smith Quick Nose. Final prep has been done to the cape ie. ear cartilage removed, final splitting and thinning ect. So this is where we will pick up with this article.

As you can see there are many repairs to be made, from the nose to eyes and on down the neck. To start you need to go ahead and repair any holes in the hair line around the nose pad and lips. If it is in the fleshy part just leave as is, no need to sew these, they will be repaired later.

Using 4lb Berkley Fire Line, the Smoke colored in the dark haired areas and the Crystal color in the lighter or white haired areas. Make small stitches making sure to catch the very edge of the skin and bring the needle through at an angle. This will help to hide the stitches from the hair side. This particular Whitetail had many superficial wounds to the face and neck. Only once it was shaved did they start opening up and leaving small puncture like holes in the face and neck area.

You will need to sew these up as well. There is a lot of sewing to do on this cape. But to get the best mount possible it needs to be done and done correctly so you will have limited finish work to do once the deer is mounted and dry. You will most likely have bleeding or at the least very sore fingers when done.

On the back of the neck behind the right ear there is a fairly nasty looking scabbed over wound, for best results you need to cut this area out and sew it up.

Your client will never remember it was there. To do this, just part the hair and with a sharp scalpel cut the area out following along the edge of the good hair. If you take your time cutting, it should go right back together like a zipper.

Now once you have your form prepped you can mount as normal and let dry. Do not worry about holes in the nose pad. Line up your hair patterns using references. With a project like this you can really see how much shrinkage you have from mounting to dry. Notice how the wounds opened up as the nose pad dried out.

After the deer has had adequate time to dry you can move forward with your finish work as normal. The only difference is rebuilding the nose pad. First make sure there are no parts of the skin that has curled up and not stuck to the form. You can do this by clipping off any loose skin with a pair of small scissors. Next mix just enough Aves Fit-it Sculpt to fill in the open areas in the nose pad and with a small modeling tool apply it.

You should actually do this step first. This way the Fix-It Sculpt can begin to set up while you do your other filler work and painting. Once the filler on the nose pad has kicked, lightly sand the surface of the pad just enough to blend the filler and skin together. Be careful not to get into the hair line and damage the small hairs around the nose.

Okay, now you need to finish this nose up. Mix you some more Fix-It Sculpt, this time add a little black powdered Tempera paint. This will give you a medium grey color, which will provide a good base color for the nose pad. Next apply a thin layer over the nose being extremely careful not to get it in the hair.

Now, with a mold of a freshly harvested deer nose, with a liberal coat of Apoxie Safety Solvent firmly but carefully press it into the nose pad.

This will give you a bit of texture to the nose instead of a slick surface to work with. Next go ahead and paint the nose using your normal schedule. Then finish retexturing the nose pad using an applicator bottle with Liquitex. Apply a little gloss, and your repaired nose is complete.

With a little know how, time and patience you can pull off repairs such as this. Here you can see where the scabbed over wound was removed and stitched up. It looks much better than having that nasty scar showing on your client’s wall.

Now the battle scars around the eyes and down the muzzle are hidden. This gives you a much better final product and you were able to use the original cape.

I hoped I was able to share some repair tips in this article that will help you to save a special trophy for a client one day. For tips and other techniques click here.

DP