Roe bucks

[ratkilla 35]

ok lads need some advice here i have a head off a nice roe buck and he still has velvet on his antlers, how would i go about mounting this head can you remove the velvet or would i need to take the head to a taxidermis and get it stuffed ? what would you fellas do ?

Chrees

[ratkilla 35]

can you remove the velvet off the antlers thow when you do it at home ? ?

[Guest EWOK]

Why do you want to remove the velvet?

 

I stopped mounting heads a while back, took up too much space, cost too much. Now I simply skull mount them and it's real easy. Remove most of the skin and meat from the head. Bury the head up to the base of the antlers. I also cover the antlers with a bucket to keep the sun from bleaching them out and keep animals from trying to eat the antlers. Just leave for 3-4 months, remove and clean with water hose. Put skull in peroxside for a day or so, leave antler out, allow to dry. Mount on wood or other materal.

[ratkilla 35]

EWOK it's not that i want to remove the velvet i just wanted to know that it didnt effect the mounting of the head. cheers any way il get a mate to boil it up and show me how to mount it

[Squirrel_Basher 17,101]

No offence mik but the velvet is living tissue and will rot,unless like you said ,it has started to drop off.The antler underneath a freshly shed set of antlers never looks as good as one that has thrashed a few trees and become stained IMO.

[Guest Tyke]

Shot a Roebuck recently with partly cleaned off antlers, cleaned the rest off myself and stained them. u can buy antler stain from Snowdonia Taxidermy Supplies. They do some quality stuff.

[Rabbithunter 456]

removing velvet is possible if you are doing it at home, but personally i'd leave it in velvet.

 

(I do this to get all the hair off from around the base of the antlers)

 

How i do it (i only keep antlers, not full head) put the antlers into pan of boiling water, let them sit for 10 minutes or so, then start picking all the hair off with a knife.

 

When you have a nice thick set of antlers, the base of each side will be quite close together and you'll have a nice hole going between them, i use a big needle to pick the hair out, from underneath.

 

I also use a brass brush to clean the antlers off a bit, and the brush also pulls out hair quite well

[Squirrel_Basher 17,101]

Personally I dont see the point of shooting them in velvet if a trophy is required.Yearling bucks are the only thing I would shoot in velvet and there is no trophy to take.

Mik- You missed my point mate -velvet is living tissue .It cannot be left on antlers without it rotting to some extent.Who wants to look at a set of velvet antlers anyway.Leave them on the beast til its shed .

[Kane 2]

the head ratkilla has is a bit special as its the 1st buck his dog had, any tips from mik will be greatly apreciated.

[Guest chilli]

Good post mate , youve some nice trophys up there !! all dogged ?

[Guest mucker]

nice post mik a post worth pinning

[Rabbithunter 456]

Nice 1

 

personally i would cut the skull first, then i dont need to skin the full head, or am i just lazy

[Guest foxkiller]

you got a great set of heads there mate

[Guest grubygrafter]

for staining antlers the stuff to use is pottasium permanginate add the cristal to water and it will turn brown dip the antlers in for a short time then take them out. repeat until you get the reqiured colour. then rub off the areas that should look lighter the points and tines :ph34r:

[Guest grubygrafter]

great thread mik another thing that might help is you can freeze the head and cut through it with a saw. then skin and boil it same as has been shown it shortens the boiling time and not as much work thats the way i do it . just another option mik can you show some close ups of some of them i'm a trophy anorak when it comes to roe heads. everyone is a thing of beauty never two the same