First time SA taxidermy advice?

[wildfowler.250]

Right folks, because I have 10 months to wait until my first trip, (time to save but painful waiting) I’m trying to iron out as much of the details as I can in advance.


So..


I’m planning a few scalloped shoulder mounts with a bit more of the shoulder than just the neck forward,(possibly kudu, nyala, impala, springbok, zebra). I’m going to have the work done in the uk to 1) spread out any costs 2) actually have them in the country - potential legislation considered and 3) to have some dialogue with the taxidermist.


Previously caping red deer, the taxidermist has said to skin from the p3nis forwards. “You might as well take plenty”.


I assume I can ask the skinners to do this as they’ll probably cut just behind the shoulder otherwise? Do you tend to have much dialogue with the skinners directly? I’ll be keen to see some of it as they’ll be better than me! Or is it mostly through the PH?


Is it worth taking the skin from the hips back? I’m certainly inclined to do this for the zebra as the strips look great on a pedestal. This is probably the only one worth doing this on?


Am I likely to get hit with extra from dip and pack by taking slightly extra cape off the animal for the shoulder mount? (Ignoring skinning backwards for thighs etc).


Euromounts: if I take a black wildebeest, common reedbuck or warty, I’ll have them euro mounted. Now while I’m happy to do euromounts myself, my understanding is that they’re pretty well cooked coming through dip and pack. Am I easier to have them to just do the euromounts themselves? It may save on vet fees at import as well?
The problem is I really don’t want them painted white, varnished or broken bones. All of which I can regulate if I do them myself,(shipping damage aside) but it depends what state they arrive in.


Any previous experiences would be great! As I say, there’s a lot that becomes out of my control from the salting process right through to arrival in the uk but I can try and be as organised as I can.


Cheers!


A photo of a fallow buck I did in the past, bit gleaming on a rare sunny day here but makes the post more interesting.

 

[buck wild]

Tell your PH you want "pedestal style capes" and they will relay the message to the skinners. They do this for a living and understand they need to cut further back. As for the smaller remainder of the "backhide", some animals are worth keeping ie zebra, bushbuck, things with stripes, spots, patterns etc but I personally don't recommend keeping gemsbok, warthog, eland etc .

You have no choice but to receive the skulls already boiled and almost whitened anyway. I usually recommend going ahead and order them "euro" bc the longer they sit after boiling, and it might be 12-18 months before they reach you, my experience it is harder to get them white later especially warthogs !!

 

[Firebird]

Buck Wild nailed it. I’ve never heard of”from the penis forward” and since you pay by the pound, I wouldn’t save that much. But it’s your creative vision so. . .
Monster fallow by the way, congrats!

 

[wildfowler.250]

Tell your PH you want "pedestal style capes" and they will relay the message to the skinners. They do this for a living and understand they need to cut further back. As for the smaller remainder of the "backhide", some animals are worth keeping ie zebra, bushbuck, things with stripes, spots, patterns etc but I personally don't recommend keeping gemsbok, warthog, eland etc .

You have no choice but to receive the skulls already boiled and almost whitened anyway. I usually recommend going ahead and order them "euro" bc the longer they sit after boiling, and it might be 12-18 months before they reach you, my experience it is harder to get them white later especially warthogs !!

Fair point. If they have to boil the life out of it anyway, it’s basically a euro mount at that stage anyway.
Mind you, that’s all I’m really after is a boiled skull and not them doing anything else to it so maybe dip and packed head is safer
Completely agree about the white side of things, I did a roe a week after skinning it and it made life much harder..

Buck Wild nailed it. I’ve never heard of”from the penis forward” and since you pay by the pound, I wouldn’t save that much. But it’s your creative vision so. . .
Monster fallow by the way, congrats!

I think he was just making a very fair point that you can’t have too much skin but you can have not enough.
I didn’t realise it was pay by the pound so that’s helpful. I wondered if it was charged at dip and pack by the ‘type of cut’ but weight does make sense.
Thanks! Very lucky with that fallow. My first and won’t get a better one. It’ll be does only going forwards I think!

 

[Ridge Runner]

I can only give you my experiences and observations of what and how the various skinners skinned and prepared my hides for shoulder mounts.

My PH asked would as me what kind/type, how I wanted the animal mounted. Before the animal was skinned. My answer, shoulder straight, right, or left, depending on animal. Then my PH would ask if I wanted the back skin. My response, yes and the front legs on the first safaris.

The PH would tell the skinners. The skinners then went to work. The various skinners all seem to start the skinning process the same way; by cutting the circumference of the hide just forward of center of the ribs, around the front knees slicing from the inside center of the front legs toward the chest then down the center of the rib cage to the initial circumference cut. Then the same cut to the back legs cut inside center of the hind legs to the center of the pelvis, then slice the hide to the initial circumference cut. From then on they would work cutting the hide from the body.

At the lodge skinning shed the skinners would, remove the skull, scrap any large chucks of meat from the hide, tag them, then send the skull and hide to the lodge taxidermy shop where the skull would be cleaned and prepped; the hide would be finished scraped, fleshed and salted down for later mounting.

Only full hides for rug mounts were split from knee to knee of front and back legs, then down the center from tail to back of lower jaw.

Don't know, never observed, how the skinners skinned an animal for full body mount.

Ask your outfitter or African taxidermist how they prep hides for dip and ship. If time permits, ask to observe a minute or 2 of each of the various stages of their dip and ship, and skull cleaning processes.

Hope this helps.