BigGameHoundsmen.com

My 13 yr old son shot his first deer this year and he decided that he wanted it mounted on a plaque european style.When we picked it up it appeared as if they must have boiled about 8 inches up both sides of the rack and then used stain that was too dark to recolor it.In my opinion it does not look good.Does this sound like standard procedure or should they have taken more care not to boil the rack ?

When the rack is boiled the horns should NOT be in the pot. I place wire on top to hold them.

ya thats just shitty work if i was you never take anything back there again and take to an experieneced taxidermist and they will be able to get them back to normal for ya. But that is a super nice mule deer.

First of all you should NEVER boil any skull for any reason. Boiling is what we did 25 years ago to clean skulls. Boiling is very hard on skulls, it will crack teeth, you'll loose all the nice delicate nasal cavity bones (cartlidge) and you just can't get all the flesh, etc. from inside the small cavities. You should only leave you skulls with someone that has beetles to do the cleaning. You will be very surprised how much better your skulls turn out.
Click on the link below and look at some of the skulls I've done with beetles. They turn out perfect. No damage, and all the nasal cavity bones intact. Find someone with beetles and you don't have to worry about any damage or discoloration because of boiling.
To answer your question, Yes, that would have been standard practice 25 years ago. Today it's just bad work.

http://community.webshots.com/user/FullCryHounds