My Wyoming Antelope

[bigtex]

Finished my Antelope mount today and put him on the wall. This is the first Antelope mount i've ever attempted, challenging to say the least!! I did everything possible to keep the hair on this critter, had him field dressed and in a cooler within two hours after the shot, fully caped and in the freezer within 24 hrs. Still had some hair slippage problems. But overall i'm ok with the way he came out. Not a competition mount for sure, but hopefully i'll do better on the next one. Comments and criticism appreciated, i'm still learning.

 

[rolltide22]

Mount looks good from my view. Can you give me some pointers in regards to fleshing and preserving the hide. I have watched a few "how to" dvd's on caping & fleshing. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[AllOutdoors]

Looks good to me. I have always wanted to hunt pronghorn. Jealous. Congrats.

 

[AT Hiker]

Good stuff and even better that you killed it.


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[bigtex]

Mount looks good from my view. Can you give me some pointers in regards to fleshing and preserving the hide. I have watched a few "how to" dvd's on caping & fleshing. Any advice is appreciated.

Not much to it, you just need some very sharp knives or a fleshing machine. I took the middle of the road and use a "mini flesher" you still need to flesh around the face by hand though.
To me it's a little easier to flesh after the hide has been salted for 24 hrs or so. The salt draws a lot of the moisture out and kills some of the bacteria that can cause hair slippage.
After I preliminary flesh I turn the ears and lips then put it into a pickle solution for a few days, rinse and go over it again making sure I have every bit of flesh removed. Then back in the pickle for 12 hrs or so then tan it.
Caping an Antelope is pretty much the same as a deer except you have to cut the skin around the horns versus prying the skin free on a Whitetail. You also have to cut down the entire back [unless you alter the form] versus the short Y incision on a Deer. I found it was a little tricky freeing the skin around the eyes because the eyes are so close to base of the horns, but unlike a deer there are no tear ducts.
I did Taxidermy for many years but retired more or less several years ago, I still do a few deer for friends and family each year to keep in practice though. This was my first Antelope and personally I only want to do one more and that will be for my Grandson if he kills one in a couple of years.
AThiker can give you much more advice as he's probably done more than I.

 

[rolltide22]

I'll try salting the hide before fleshing. Have you tried Kroww Tan for the hides?

 

[bigtex]

Have you tried Kroww Tan for the hides?

No, I've never used it. I've heard it is good stuff.
I used liquitan for many years, had good results with it but not much stretch to it. Started using Mckenzie tan when they came out with it several years ago. I really like it, it's good stuff and gives the hide a lot of stretch, plus it's pretty easy to use.
About any of the tanning products now are pretty good. I even used dry preservative when I first started, but it's not a true tan, it "preserves" the skin. I get better results with the Mckenzie products.

 

[AT Hiker]

Mount looks good from my view. Can you give me some pointers in regards to fleshing and preserving the hide. I have watched a few "how to" dvd's on caping & fleshing. Any advice is appreciated.

Are you speaking specifically for antelope?

If so, bigtex gave some good advice. Splitting the lips, nose and eyes, getting all the big chunks of meat off and turning ears. Put in pickle then pull out for a nice shaving. I use a eager beaver fleshing machine and a skife around face. On pronghorn I also split and flesh out the cheek gland.

I have used krowtann, actually Im back to using it now. It does a great job on whitetail but for some reason it leaves a pronghorn slimy and hard to shave. I actually just send my pronghorn off to get tanned, I just hate dealing with them. I havent done many antelope, maybe a dozen tops.


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[rolltide22]

I'm speaking of only Whitetail deer. Good info indeed.

 

[AT Hiker]

I'm speaking of only Whitetail deer. Good info indeed.

Honestly, just send it off and have it commercially tanned. That way you can focus on taxidermy, then when your comfortable with that proceed to the tanning phase.


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[ROVERBOY]

Looks good to me. I have always wanted to hunt pronghorn. Jealous. Congrats.

I'd love to hunt them too. Wyoming is supposed to have the highest population.

 

[bigtex]

Looks good to me. I have always wanted to hunt pronghorn. Jealous. Congrats.

I'd love to hunt them too. Wyoming is supposed to have the highest population.

ROVERBOY and AllOutdoors, a Pronghorn hunt is probably the easiest and less expensive hunt you can do out west.
And yes I think Wyoming does have the highest population of Antelope.
It's a bit confusing trying to figure out which unit to hunt, some units it might take several years to draw a tag others you can draw the first year and some even have leftover tags available. The problem I found is that the units where you can draw easily have limited public land.
This was my first Pronghorn hunt and AThiker and Buzzardbreath helped me tremendously.
I aint no spring chicken and didn't want to wait several years to hunt so I took the easy road and found a ranch that takes a limited number of hunters per year, you basically pay a trespass fee. The ranch I hunted even had some old oil rig trailers set up for the hunters to sleep in along with a walk in cooler etc. It wasn't a guided hunt but the rancher takes you out the day before your hunt and shows you where you can and cannot hunt. Each hunter has his own section to his self. I had a blast!! Probably shot too soon [killed the first day] and saw larger ones over the next couple of days while out just seeing the sights.
I'm hooked and have already booked a hunt for my Grandson and myself for the 2017 season.
Don't do as I did and keep putting it off, life's to short. I wish I had taken the plunge years ago.

 

[AllOutdoors]

Thanks for the info bigtex.