After waiting a VERY long time for my Nyala to get mounted, I visited my taxidermist yesterday and he has it drying on the wall. He said he would have it finished next week.

Everything looks great, except he mounted the horns too close together. As seen in this photo, the space between the upper curl of the horns is about 10". The horns on my mounted Nyala have this space about 4 to 5". How difficult is it to change this dimension now?

No Problem, but you need to tell him today.

nice Nyala , hope you get it fixed

Nice trophy!

Only guessing here, but it seems like the horns would have been intact on a skull plate, as is usually the case. But for thorough cleaning, the sheaths are often removed from the cores.

Sooo....if the spacing is incorrect, it sounds as if it was done when putting the horn sheaths back on the cores. Apparently they were twisted a bit. Most likely, they were glued in place -- hopefully not too well if the positioning needs to be changed.

Good luck. -TONY

P.S. for those who aren't taxidimists:

This is why it's always a good idea to provide a photo to a taxidermist. It will not only help with this sort of problem but also in regards to the final painting touches.

Jerry, thanks for your quick reply. I took your advice and I printed an 8"x10" picture of my Nyala and took it in to my taxidermist this afternoon. He told me the horn sheaths fit tightly over the bone cores, and he couldn't understand why the curls were 3" apart in the mount and 10" apart in the picture. We were able to identify several ridges and marks on the horns in the picture that were also on the mounted horns, so we know they are the same horns.

He told me he would open the skin between the horns and see what he could do to get the spacing as shown in the picture. I told him that even if he had to cut the base of the boney core or split the skull it would be OK with me.

And Tony, thanks for your usual good advice. On my last trip to South Africa I recorded the tip to tip measurements of my Cape Kudu, Gemsbok, and 25" wide Red Lechwe. I will give these measurements and 5"x7" photos of each of these animals to my taxidermist.

quote:

This is why it's always a good idea to provide a photo to a taxidermist. It will not only help with this sort of problem but also in regards to the final painting touches.

I'm going to remember that - good idea!

Since you have identified the horns as yours from the photos and the horns fit tight on the cores but the spread is off. I would say the only answer to the problem is that the core/skull is most likely the wrong one.

JP, that's EXACTLY the same thing I was thinking. The outfitter got the skulls mixed up. Horns were probably tagged and the skull wasn't.

And if that is what occurred then maybe a tip of appreciation is in order. While it is simple, kind of, to make the change to the correct placement, it will still take the man 3 hours or so to do it right.

That is what is the problem--wrong skull. Happens alot. Its the taxidermist fault in Africa, not the USA taxidermist so now the skull cap has to be worked on. Good thing you took measurements. I tell all clients to take measurements and take photo's of the critters-reference pic's of the bosses,horns,scar,etc but most don't . Good job


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