European Mount Desktop Pedestal

After making the turkey fan display plaque last week I thought of another item to make using my wood router. I have a nice whitetail skull I want to put on display so I decided to build a desktop piece that the skull could sit on.

I started out by tracing the skull and making some cardboard patterns to use for transferring the shape I want on to the piece of wood I would be cutting out. I then cut out the three pieces of wood that would be used in the pedestal: an oval base, an upright piece, and the skull panel.

After cutting and sanding I used the wood router to create the decorative edge on the base and the panel.

Next, I took the three pieces and drilled pilot holes for all the screws and test-fitted them together to make sure they would fit properly and be the desired angle for the skull to sit on.

Then I stained the wood using a red mahogany stain and darkened it up a little bit with some dark walnut stain.

After the stain had dried I applied a couple coats of polyurethane to give the piece a glossier furniture look. I allowed it to dry for about a day and then attached the skull. I really like the way it turned out and think it has a pretty classy look. Here are some pictures of the finished desktop pedestal.

Turkey Fan/Beard Display

I recently finished up another project I've been wanting to complete for some time now. Several years back I was fortunate enough to call in and harvest my first turkey, an old tom with a 10 1/2" beard. I decided to make my own display panel for the bird's tail and beard. I took a really nice piece of red oak, cut out the pattern I wanted, routed the edge to give it a fancier look, stained the wood, put a few coats of polyurethane on the plaque, and attached the tail and beard. I think this will make a nice addition to my ever-growing trophy room. What do you think?

First Waterfowl Mount

I've had an interest in taxidermy since I was a kid. I've tinkered with some skull mounts and hide tanning here and there, but I've never actually done a taxidermy mount of a whole animal. Until now.

A couple years ago I was able to attend a one-day waterfowl taxidermy seminar where I watched a professional taxidermist mount a teal from start to finish. There are quite a few steps involved in the process, and I got some valuable experience and learned some helpful tips from watching the taxidermist at the seminar. So I decided I wanted to give this a try for myself.

One of the tools I saw the taxidermist use was a bird flesher, which he had built himself using a low horsepower motor and a wire wheel, to remove all the fat and grease from the bird skin prior to mounting. I decided to build my own bird flesher a few weeks ago after seeing a few different designs on the internet. Here is my homemade bird flesher:

I used a clear rubbermaid container to serve as the containment area to catch all of the fat from the bird when it is removed from the skin by the wire wheel. An attic fan motor powers the wheel and is wired to an on/off switch.

The first duck I chose to mount is a nice American Wigeon drake that I shot during last year's duck season. I should have taken more pictures of the entire process, but unfortunately I didn't, so here is one I took of the skin while I was sewing up some of the holes in the bird in preparation for putting the skin on the mannikin. As you can tell it doesn't look like much at this point...

And here is the final product. I'm happy with the way it turned out for my first one. There are some things I will do differently on the next one as I hope to improve on my second mount. It was a fun project but some very tedious work.

First Fresh Shed Antler of the Year

I've been out shed hunting a few times already this year and have found a number of old antlers from previous years that were faded and chalky. But last week I managed to find a really nice fresh one that had just recently dropped.

This antler was a 5-point left side with really good mass. I put the tape measure to it and it scored 55 4/8" by itself. So it would be safe to say that if the other side looked the same it would be approximately a 125" - 130" buck. Not too shabby!

But what did the other side look like? I've had trail cameras running on this property for several months and have never gotten a picture of this particular buck so I have no real way of knowing for sure what that right-side antler looks like. But earlier that same day, my friend Cliff found an antler within just a couple hundred yards of where I located this one that I think could be the match.

Take a look at that drop-tine! This picture makes them look a little different, but it is because of the way the drop tine makes the antler sit when it is rested on the floor, so the angle is a little off. But holding them together the mass, main beams, brow tines, and overall tine length match up very closely. Regardless of whether it is a match or not, we each both found a nice trophy. I'm really getting hooked on shed hunting and seem to enjoy it as much or more than hunting itself. Hopefully there will be more fresh ones discovered in the next couple of weeks before the vegetation gets too thick.

Predator Hunting

A few weeks back we had some winter weather arrive here in North Texas. We had some icy road conditions topped off with several inches of snow. To some of you that might not mean much, as you may live in an area that recieves lots of winter weather and your local road departments are prepared to clear the roads. That doesn't happen here!

When we get some substantial winter weather it pretty much shuts things down. That means my office closes as well. During this recent 4-day winter storm my friend David and I decided to go predator hunting one morning since we didn't have to work. David lives within just a mile or so from my house and he had secured permission for us to hunt on a farmer's property right next door.

David had seen the property before and informed me that there was a nice vantage point from a fairly open hillside that faces down toward a low-lying wooded area. We made the short 5-minute walk to the area and found a good place to set up at the corner of a fenceline. Once we got settled into shooting position we sat quietly for a few minutes to allow any disturbance we had made on our way in to fade away. Then I began calling with the hand-held mouth call, trying my best to imitate a rabbit in distress.

David was to my right scanning the western horizon armed with a shotgun loaded with buckshot while I was looking in a southern direction with my Remington .22-250 rifle. I had been calling approximately 30 seconds when I spotted a coyote trotting in straight for us at about 70 yards. I whispered to David, "Here comes one" and I don't think he believed me at first because it was such a quick response to the call.

The coyote closed the distance to about 35 yards and stopped. I waited for David to shoot, but the shot angle would have been a little dangerous as he would have had to shoot across the front of my body, so he opted to wait for the coyote to move. It began to move and angled off to our right and got just out of shotgun range so I hit the mouth call once again. Curiosity must have got the best of him as he stopped once again broadside looking in our direction. This time I eased the gun up, settled the crosshairs just behind the front shoulder, and squeezed off a round.

The shot was true and the coyote didn't go 30 yards. And just like that our predator hunt had been a quick success. I've always enjoyed hunting with snow on the ground and this time was no different. Seems like the animals are much easier to see with that backdrop of white on the ground. And it sure does make a blood trail easy to follow as well!

Here I am with the coyote, a pretty good-sized male with a decent coat. I ended up skinning it and plan to get the hide tanned one of these days.