One of the things that struck me on my recent antelope hunt was the slippage of the hair.

As I walked up to my downed goat, I was more stuck by the beautiful markings than the horns. I think only a African springbok has struck me as having a more beautiful coat. Although I am not much for taxidermy, I was thinking a rug may be a possibility.

As I was propping the antelope up for some photos, I grabbed the ham on the side and got a fist full of pulled hair (that then blew in my face ). I grabbed hair from all over the back and the side between my forefinger and thumb for a little test and it all seemed to pull out as easily too. This was within 10 min of the kill. Scrapped my plans.

Is this unusual? Do they shed as they grow a winter coat? Could the animal have had a problem? Didn't find much on a internet search except comments that antelope hair slips much easier than deer.

Also, the hair seems to be almost bonded to the horns at the base. I am cleaning the skull, but can't seem to get that one layer of hair at the base removed without removing some of the horn. Is it usually left or is the bottom of the horn scraped?

Definitely normal. Freaked me out a little too when I shot my first antelope. If you want the cape you need to treat it carefully.

Mark

The hair thing is normal...you have to be very careful when dealing with an antelope if you want to get it mounted. I see a lot of guys drag their goats back to their trucks, only to find that the side touching the ground is devoid of hair!

If you are cleaning the skull, you can boil that little "ring" of hair and hide below the horn right off. Antelope don't have true horns, they actually have a bony core with a deciduous sheath that they shed off and regrow each year. If you boil the head, don't be afraid to have the water line 1/2 way up the horn, but keep an eye on things and occasionally pull the head out of the pot and try to pull the sheaths off. If you boil the horns too long, the bottoms get soft and you may disfigure the bottom of the sheath.

I have boiled out dozens of antelope, if you need a little more indepth procedure for cleaning the skull give me a PM.

Good luck!

MG

Lucky for me, I was warned last year about the fragile hair on antelope.

I informed my brother and Les about it on our trip too that we just returned from. I was just watching the video of our kills at home during lunch. I was showing them exactly how fragile it is and how it pulled from the neck of my kill.

The Golden RULE: We drug our antelope where only the last third of bodies were on the ground. The entire cape never touches the ground.

Still makes me wonder how these capes survive a tannery.