I hunted northwestern Quebec late last September and took a good caribou. I wanted a "get your attention" mount and decided on this one. I just finished the habitat scene this afternoon and thought I'd post a photo here.

I constructed the base out of oak, made my own rocks, and used a standard mannikin for the mount that needed no alterations.

Now if I could just get motivated to get my African trophies done!

Thanks for looking!

JDS

Jerry,
I think it looks great. When in Dallas, Wendell told me that aside from all else you have done, that your a great taxidermist. How bout photos of your other work and your actual trophy room?

I'm still modifying the plans you sent me. Hope to build this spring. Thanks again.

That's a great pedestal job

Nice caribou

Thanks for the kind words!!

SBT, I was wondering how the house was coming . . I'd like to see photos when it's done. Don't believe everything Wendell tells you - he's a smooth talker!!!!

Some of the photos are of older mounts but here goes . . . and I don't have the rest of my trophy room ready to take pictures yet. The links are below.

Enjoy!

JDS

http://www.jerrystringer.net/buff.jpg
http://www.jerrystringer.net/bullelk.jpg
http://www.jerrystringer.net/kansasking.jpg
http://www.jerrystringer.net/kuduped.jpg
http://www.jerrystringer.net/tbtfish.jpg
http://www.jerrystringer.net/casefish.jpg
http://www.jerrystringer.net/striper.jpg

Jerry,

Based on those photos, Wendell was understating your talent!

quote:

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Originally posted by SBT:
Jerry,

Based on those photos, Wendell was understating your talent!

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Thanks, Sir!

I've got some more photos of unique mounts but I have to find them.

C Ya!

JDS

Crikey Jerry, you produce some very nice mounts! I especially like what you did morphing the bull elk into the rock base. As well as the fish mounts.

Compliments are due.

Nice. always did think caribou make an eye-catching mount!!

The mounts are just great! WOW! One question. How long time does it take to complete a mount like the caribou..?
Best regard Anders

quote:

Originally posted by Anders:
The mounts are just great! WOW! One question. How long time does it take to complete a mount like the caribou..?
Best regard Anders

I'm sorry! I forgot that I needed to answer this question . . .

I took the bull in northwestern Quebec during the last week of Sept 2004.

The actual working time is not as long as one might think. What often takes a lot of time is waiting for stuff to dry or waiting on someone else . . . i.e. the tannery.

After the cape is off the bull, it takes about 2 1/2 hours for me to split and clean the lips, nose, eyelids, and ears, plus clean all the meat and tissue from the hide. Then it's salted and allowed to drain for a couple of days. That salt is then discarded and the hide is re-salted and hung up to dry. In north Texas where I am the hide is ready to send to the tannery after another 4-5 drying days.

The tannery may keep the hide from 6 weeks to 6 months - depending on their workload, which is usually determined by the time of year. I got this one in before they got busy as it was returned pretty quick.

After the hide returned from the tannery, I ordered the mannikin for the mount and when it came in, the actual mounting process began. Putting the antlers and hide together took a full day during the Christmas vacation. Once it was mounted, I set it aside to dry for a couple of weeks and started on building the furniture base.

I spent a couple of weeks building the furniture base because I could only work in the evenings after work and on the weekends. I could have done this while the hide was at the tannery but I didn't. Actually it took longer to decide how I wanted it done than to build it because I wanted something special.

About the time the base was built, the mount was dry. It took a couple of hours to do the finishing work on it (epoxy filler where the eyelids had shrunk away from the eyes, sculpting the nostrils, airbrushing some color back into the repaired areas, etc.).

Then I positioned the mount where I wanted it on the base - the mount slides down onto a 3/4" galvanized pipe that goes up into the brisket about 24". With that system, it's easily removable if I need to move the display. Rock making was next. That was a 4 day process. First the rocks had to be roughed out with scrap wood covered with chicken wire. Then burlap is dipped into a mixture of plaster and dextrine and layed over the wire similar to the way paper mache is done. This makes the rocks hollow.

After that dries, plaster is mixed with dextrine, vermiculite, paper pulp, and black tempera paint into a consistency where it can be smeared on the rocks about 1/2" thick. As it hardens I put texture into the rocks with sea sponges and a wire brush. You may notice in the photo that the brisket of the caribou is inset into the top rock. To do that I wrap the bottom of the brisket in plastic such as Saran wrap and push the caribou down into the mixture. It hardens in the exact shape of the brisket but the plastic wrap lets me remove the mount.

After that dries, the lichen is painted on by hand. That took about 2 hours. Finally, the habitat went on . . . about $65.00 worth from the local hobby store. That was another 4 hours.

That's it! It's done! Nothing to it! I've done a lot of "knock your eyes out" mounts for many clients over the years but this was the first time I did something special for myself.

Thanks for looking!

JDs

Beautiful mount, one of the nicer caribou i've seen...P

They are all outstanding! Those are the best fish mounts I have ever seen. Good job.

Wow, beautiful work!

jds

You have a real talent, congratulations.

CFA

I thank you for the kind words! As much fun as it was getting paid for my mounts, I really liked the fact that my clients appreciated the work.

I've mounted three of my African critters but the tan that was done on them in Africa is horrible!!!!! Each mount is a battle to get everything to work like I want it to. The skull mounts are looking better every day!

Thanks!

JDS

quote:

Originally posted by jds:

I'm sorry! I forgot that I needed to answer this question . . .

No problem. Forgot about all of it myself for a while. I was looking over most of the forum today, and suddenly saw your answer. Thats the reason for my late answer.
Thanks for introducing me to the process! It sure is time-consuming, at least all the waiting.. And much of the work seems to need a great deal of patience. I really think you taxidermist should do some work for your self as well. My local taxidermist seems to have all of his trophies halfdone in a big box.. Never gets to them I guess..

WOW That is totally amazing work

Good stuff

Beefa

Good looking trophy room!

Thanks, Gang,

The kind words are appreciated!

If you're ever coming through the south side of Fort Worth, Texas, let me know!


JDS