Skip to main content

Step 2: Skin it!

If you have read my blog, you know I am trying to figure out how to mount my deer antlers by myself (and with Dad). Step 1 was the easy part. I had to figure out how to get the hair and fat off of the scalp. At the Sportsman's Show last weekend, I talked to a guy who runs a taxidermy company and asked him what the best way to do this was; just skin it.
So, Dad doesn't know this yet, but on Easter, we are skinning my deer head. What Mom doesn't know yet, is if it is frozen or too hard to just take a knife to, the thing is coming into the house and into some warm water to loosen stuff up. Then, I can mount the antlers, hopefully.

And, in a serendipitous turn of events, as I was looking for a picture of antlers, I found this video! I don't know how Mom is going to like this ;)

Happy Easter!

Comments

  1. Bonnie KApril 06, 2012

    Don't bring it in the house! If you have a grill with a burner on the side use that. I can't remember if you were trying to do a European or just a skull cap. Either way it isn't the most enjoyable smell. I do European mounts on my deer. It takes about 6-8 hours of boiling in a big pot outside. Nothing about it is pretty. It also works to put some oxy-clean in the water, but don't submerge the antlers in that because it will bleach them. Good luck.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ErinApril 07, 2012

    Thank you, thank you, thank you! I never thought about just doing it on the grill. Im sure my neighbors will give me some classic looks when they see antlers sticking out of a pot of water on my grill. I will take pictures. Thank you again very much!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

So much to celebrate - let's give away stuff!

As you know from my last post, this month I am celebrating the one year anniversary of this blog, 10 years of hunting with my Dad and a milestone birthday. In honor of all three, I want to give away some great Maine stuff to all of you! Rules: 1. Leave a comment 2. On Oct 28 (my big bday), Dad will pick a number and the corresponding post will win. What will you win? A big basket of great Maine and outdoor things! Such as: fly fishing flies, blueberry something, Maine maple syrup, apple butter (to be made by me on Tuesday), something related to deer hunting and a couple of great books signed by local authors. (Pictures will be posted when I am back at a computer). So thank you for your support and for helping my celebrate such a great month!!
17 comments
Read more

Where are the women?

This week, my interview with Steve at The Maine Outdoorsman went live. Steve said yesterday 200 people hit his site viewing over 500 pages. That is a lot of people reading about little ole me and hunting. Why? When I think of women who are in the general public's eye and hunt, I can think of 2 - Country singer Miranda Lambert and Sarah Palin. Why only two? Why is the female hunter such a fascinating thing? (I should probably note that I do not have cable so any and all female hunters on the hunting stations are lost to me. I'll keep it to the general public because that's what I am familiar with.) People/media were fascinated by the fact that they could get footage of Palin and her gun, shooting (and gutting) animals but I feel like the nostalgia would be lost if they had the same footage of McCain. Lambert and her hubby Blake Shelton tweet photos of their kills, and comment on what/where they are hunting. I only know this because I follow both. That's it....
15 comments
Read more

Wanted: Mr. Sportsman

A friend of mine sent me this link and asked what I thought about it.  I had seen it before and was honest when I told him how degrading I felt it was.  Not only was the title of the "Miss Maine Sportsman" application in pink* but the questions were incredibly insulting to those of us that are fighting to be taken seriously among our male counterparts. Questions like, "Do you clean your own kills/catches?" would never be asked if it were Mr. Maine Sportsman.  It would be assumed that yes, of course men clean what they kill.  Why is that assumption not made of us outdoor women?  Another question, "Do cook [ sic ] what you catch/kill? If so, what’s your favorite recipe?" would never be asked of men.   My friend asked me what sort of questions I would ask if it were a Mr. Maine Sportsman pageant.  I came up with a bunch of snarky questions (Do you bait your own hook?) but then I thought about the questions that could have the most impact on the men t...
12 comments
Read more