Question on a mount

Smoke

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Sep 25, 2006
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Kingsport, Tn
My sister went to pick up her deer and disappointed is an understatement. The first thing was a bunch of hair missing off the back of the ears. Didn't like it but could get past that since it would be hid. My worry is where he sewed the back of the head up. There is a gap where it wasn't pulled together. I'm afraid it's going to pull further apart. He tried to tell me sometimes they look like that because they're thin skinned and when I showed him the gap in it and told him I couldn't believe he would let it out of his shop he offered to remount it with a different cape. I tried to take some pics buts it's hard to do with my phone. My question is do you think it's going to pull further apart or will it be OK
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AT Hiker

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Its possible it will pull (shrink) more but its hard to tell. Is it a tanned skin or dry preserved?

Your pictures look like your moving the hair aside on purpose to show the stitch line. I see no gaps between the skin but its hard to see and you say its there. Maybe a far off pic would be better to look at.

As for hair on back of the ears, between ticks and the deer rubbing their antlers its common for hair to be missing, especially on early season deer.


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Smoke

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He said it was tanned. The gap is hard to see in the pics but the width of the stitch is how wide the gap is. The first thing I noticed was the hair sticking up from the stitch line. That was how I found that there was a gap. Looks like it's got a mini mohawk where the stitch line is
 

AT Hiker

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If its tanned correctly and shaved thin it should not shrink too much more, but it could get worse.
The hair is sticking up because they are caught up in the stitches. That is the taxidermist fault for sure, some deer do have "mohawks" aka maines but they are pretty distinguishable.
I find it odd he offered to remount it on a different cape, unless he was speaking directly about the ears. A tanned cape can easily be rehydrated and remounted.




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bigtex

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Jun 6, 2004
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Brush Creek
Not the best sewing job for sure, but on any mount the stitches will be visible if you look hard enough i.e parting the hair.
When I was doing taxidermy my biggest gripe was from customers who wanted me to put an 18 inch caped deer on a 22 inch form. It can be done with enough stretching but the seam will most always open up as the cape dries and shrinks. Luckily the hair running down the middle of a deers back is relatively long [as AT hiker stated a ""mane"] and can be combed over hiding the stitches and seam. This taxidermist also didn't pick the hair out of the stitches very well.
It's actually pretty normal for the seam to open up a little as it dries and shrinks, how much it shrinks depends on the method the cape was tanned or preserved. A commercially tanned and thin shaved cape will typically shrink less than a shop tanned cape that hasn't been shaved thin. Even worse in my experience is a cape that has been "preserved" with a dry preservative.
Hair slippage on the back of the ears is often caused by improper field care. Or not getting the head frozen or caped out and salted down where refrigeration is not available. It could also be from rough treatment by the taxidermist.
I've had deer come into my shop that actually stunk after being thawed out. Evidently they had been left unrefrigerated for far too long and were literally beginning to decompose. Not much can be done with a cape in that condition except to saw the antlers off or make a Euro mount out of it.
If your happy with the rest of the mount, [ear pose, eye expression, etc] then a slightly open seam that can't be seen when it's hanging on the wall shouldn't be too big of a concern. I'm not saying that it's ok for a taxidermist to hide unprofessional work but sometimes he only has an "iffy" cape to work with and he can't perform miracles.
 

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