This project's taken a couple of directions, but there's some things I did that I want to share if it helps somebody or gives them an idea.
I shot this small fork horn on the last weekend of my general season. The 3x3s and the 1 4x4 eluded me for over 2 months, and this deer decided to bed in the shade of a big poison oak bush as I got within 40 yards and took the longest shot I've ever taken on an animal. I'd been practicing out to 50 yards and had the bow tuned well, so it was a quick kill.
When I cut the skull plate, I cut down through the eye sockets and didn't leave myself a who bunch of bone to work with. So what to do? A can of Bondo in the garage left over from a car body repair years ago.
I built up the bottom of the skull to the shape I wanted. As I was doing it, and wondering how I'd sand it smooth and then what leather I could dig up from one of my wife's old purses to cover it, I said let me try to make the Bondo really rough and textured and see what it looks like. After painting it satin black, it looked pretty neat.
I finished it without a plaque and hunt it on the wall, and it was just too small. Putting a plaque on it would have made it look bigger. I like to try to tell a story with the mounts- the black european skull on the wall was a shed I found, and I mounted it on a piece of rough wood and put some of the old, rusty barbed wire from where I hunt- looks like where the deer lived.
So...... the next time I went there hunting I looked around for interesting rocks with a slanted front for the antlers, and a flat surface for the bottom. I glued the antlers to the rock with construction adhesive (a had tubes laying around the garage) and put black engine rtv dots on the bottom, which I sliced with a razor to make the 3 pads it sits on.
I used the black engine rtv to glue on a pair of dull Thunderhead blades to create an arrow design on the front.
I'll post a bunch of the work in process pictures and the finished antlers.
Enjoy- I did making it.
The line was about where the end of the bone was
Outside picture
On my desk
I shot this small fork horn on the last weekend of my general season. The 3x3s and the 1 4x4 eluded me for over 2 months, and this deer decided to bed in the shade of a big poison oak bush as I got within 40 yards and took the longest shot I've ever taken on an animal. I'd been practicing out to 50 yards and had the bow tuned well, so it was a quick kill.
When I cut the skull plate, I cut down through the eye sockets and didn't leave myself a who bunch of bone to work with. So what to do? A can of Bondo in the garage left over from a car body repair years ago.
I built up the bottom of the skull to the shape I wanted. As I was doing it, and wondering how I'd sand it smooth and then what leather I could dig up from one of my wife's old purses to cover it, I said let me try to make the Bondo really rough and textured and see what it looks like. After painting it satin black, it looked pretty neat.
I finished it without a plaque and hunt it on the wall, and it was just too small. Putting a plaque on it would have made it look bigger. I like to try to tell a story with the mounts- the black european skull on the wall was a shed I found, and I mounted it on a piece of rough wood and put some of the old, rusty barbed wire from where I hunt- looks like where the deer lived.
So...... the next time I went there hunting I looked around for interesting rocks with a slanted front for the antlers, and a flat surface for the bottom. I glued the antlers to the rock with construction adhesive (a had tubes laying around the garage) and put black engine rtv dots on the bottom, which I sliced with a razor to make the 3 pads it sits on.
I used the black engine rtv to glue on a pair of dull Thunderhead blades to create an arrow design on the front.
I'll post a bunch of the work in process pictures and the finished antlers.
Enjoy- I did making it.
The line was about where the end of the bone was
Outside picture
On my desk
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