Saturday project was to mount both dead heads I found a few weeks back. Cleaned both up, soaked the skulls in peroxide to whiten and used golden oak wood stain to darken up the antlers. The eight point turned out great, but the nine was so dirty the peroxide soak didn't get it nearly white enough, but it still looks OK. I bought a wood slab and pallet thingy from hobby lobby and stained the slab golden oak, and the pallet one in chestnut. Other than the dark skull on the nine, I'm happy.
Warthog.... A pick up Fallow head that is now a pond ornament... I will finish the "shield" for this years Fallow Buck over the holidays now....
That's a nice find! I've found matching sheds before, but never a whole skull with antlers still intact!
Yeah... this seems unusual, at least for NEPA. I'll have to get the details tomorrow when I talk to her. I'm wondering if other parts of the skeleton were nearby. Could possibly be from our early archery season, a deer that was shot, ran off, and couldn't be located... who knows?
That one has got to be a heart-breaking loss after sticking it with an arrow. I've shot a few with my bow and never recovered them, but never a buck that big! Never lost one shot with a rifle or a shotgun though!
Holy smokes, @Strigidae... This is awesome! When the day comes where I finally bag something I'll have to do this.
@Strigidae you will have to do a demo of this on the next possum/raccoon we get at the farm. We can use sticks as antlers.
Just oiling the "shield" I am going to put last year's fallow buck on. The skull covers the cracked area.
Only just got to getting the Cape Buffalo and Kudu up on the wall....we are having a bit of a "spring clean" so also did some rearranging to make space... ....I got told I have to point out that the kitchen and dining room is still "mid spring clean" in that last pic....
Still working to find the right custom furniture maker to do the coffee table I want for the Croc Skull.
Looks great Andy. Did you make the antler chandelier yourself? I've wanted to try that with sheds but never got the gumption to just go for it.
..... no a guy who lives in my local area made it up, I bought one of the first two he ever offered for sale (though a boutique ladies shop here in our village shops no less). I met him a year or so after and got talking about it and he remembered it selling as it was on consignment and he didn't know if it was over/under priced. He has his own business now and the same thing lists as 5x what I paid for it and he only just keeps up with the sales !! http://rapideffects.com.au/natural-antler-lighting/triangle-down-2/
That's a good score. They do go for a pretty penny. One of these days I'm just gonna get started. They look great.
That buffalo is awesome! IMHO, number one on big game animals! To quote Col. Cooper, “Don't call it a Cape buffalo. Hasn't been one within a thousand kilometers of the Cape in one hundred years. This is a gaucherie. Syncerus caffer is no Bison bison.”
There is a saying about them...."they look at you like you owe them money", never were truer words spoken. I hunted a forest area (as opposed to a delta where the majority are taken) and it is exponentially harder as there are far less buff (herds of 10-15 as opposed to 100+) and more alert. You find yourself stalking in and then, 20m in front there is something big and black moving...you don't know if it is a bull/cow/calf so you never get the chance to "glass" lots of animals. We did crawl out onto a small herd on a clearing (maybe six animals, all cows and a very young bull) a cow first spotted us and I was watching her from about 40yds through binos....she look straight in with that "f - you" face they pull... then took the heard into the trees and other rubbish growth. I would go back to hunting Cape Buff and Nile Croc (it's NOTHING like and episode of "Swamp People" ) in a heart beat !!!! I would need to sell the balance of my functioning organs to do so however....it is NOT a cheap weekend out...