Prepping Elk Pedestal for base attachment|Taxidermy Videos and Tutorials|Forum|Taxidermy Talk

I thought this may be helpful down the road to someone that preps a Elk pedestal form for mounting. I got the general idea from Charlie Smith and hope it will be helpful to someone else.

This little project started with a Aaron Connelly ACER34R and a Aaron Connelly Change out head. The first thing I did was change out the head. Very important to level your form and mark it before you begin cutting anything. I leveled the form and marked the back and sides so I can get the form back to its original position after cutting off the head.

You will see the 2 small marks on the back of the form where it was marked level

You will also see the 2 marks on the side where it was marked level.
I did not take pictures of the head being cut off and the new head foamed on but here are a couple pictures of the new head attached. In the second picture you will see where I placed 2 threaded rods through the head and deep into the body for added support. The main reference point of attachment is the spinal cord. When attaching the head do not be concern with the neck circumference fitting, this you can take care of after the head is attached. After lining the head up where it needed to go I placed drywall screws in the back of the head attaching it to the neck of the form. I then used a piece of foam to shim the head at the position I wanted it to be. Then I placed one of the threaded rods through the head and deep into the body of the form so it could not move. I then poured foam to secure the head to the form. Now you can rasp everything down to fit and work your anatomy back where it needs to be.

Go to part 2