Taxidermy

So, it has been over two years since I made a post on this blog, but I have a good excuse. A couple years ago I started a small business doing taxidermy work and it has really required lots of my time. I wanted to share some of my work on here and show you what I've been up to. My business is called Wildlife Creations Unlimited, LLC and I primarily do whitetail shoulder mounts, antler repairs and antler replicas. For more information on my business check out my website at www.wildlifecreationsunlimited.com or go give me a "like" on Facebook by viewing my page here. Here are a few mounts to show you some samples of my work.

Antler Makeover

A couple friends of mine recently found a nice matched set of shed antlers - but one was found fresh in February and still had all its color while the other one wasn't found until it had been laying on the ground for about 9 months and had suffered the effects of being out in the elements. I was asked to try to paint the faded antler to make it match the fresh one. Here are a couple before pictures...

And here are the after pictures...

They aren't an exact match, but to the casual observer they look close enough. And my friends that found them like the way they turned out.

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.