Taxidermy question for anyone with experience.

[hoythitman]

A few years ago I shot my biggest deer in 2011, the last year I was in Arkansas. I was flat broke at that point in my life so I did not have money to get a shoulder mount done. I hunted public land and was lucky enough to find a very good spot that produced a few 130+ inch deer for me. Anyway. I have it euro mounted right now. At some point soon I want to have a good taxidermist do a shoulder mount for me. The deer are much larger bodied than the majority of south Texas deer so finding an appropriate cape will probably be a pain in the butt. So to get to my question. Do they use the actual scull or do they just use the antler. If they only use antlers and not scull the cape wont matter will it? The deer will just look smaller bodied than he did in the photos.

Here are a few pics, and hunt info. Bow hunt, public land, NW Arkansas just a few miles from Missouri. Early season kill. October 8th I believe. He ran into the cattle tank after I shot him so he was soaked in the pictures. Shot him at just under 40 yards. His official dry score was 143 1/8. My only drop tine buck, granted its a small drop, he has a very cool rack. My only non typical kill to date.
The tank pic is later in the year just shows the spot I hunted.

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[PondPopper]

Nice buck...Yes we use the real skull and finding a BIG cape is not a problem. Big capes will cost more than a small one though.

[bone]

A taxidermist should be able to find you a cape close to of not the same size as the original and yes only the skull cap goes in the mount.

[hoythitman]

Thanks for the quick response.
Do you have a ballpark idea of cost to do a shoulder and purchase a cape?

[PondPopper]

Mount+cape=$700 but can vary depending on the quality your looking for.

[hoythitman]

Ok, thats pretty close to what I expected.

[sportsman]

Yes we use the real skull

Meaning you just cut the small portion of the top of the skull off with the horns attached like we do to just put the horns on a plaque? Then you fill in the rest with a puddy like stuff on the manican right?


I got the impression from the OP that he was thinking you used the whole skull.

[PondPopper]

Just the skull cap. I then use a Fiberglass/bondo mixture and screws.

[buck_wild]

skull cap and you could probably find a cape from an Arkansas taxidermy near area where you killed your deer to be a better representative cape.
I'd say $600-$800 would be ballpark