As many of you know, I've been keeping trail cameras out from April to mid November for about 13 years now. I've always enjoyed keeping track of the animals that sometimes come and go on the property. I've gotten pics of a lot of animals that are easily identifiable. One of which, was back in 2011.
It was a buck that we knicknamed halo, due to the shape of his rack. It curved around in front and literally touched, making a angel halo shape. We only caught a few pictures of him, mostly leading up to and during the rut. Then he disappeared back to parts unknown, as they often do.
About 2 weeks ago, a friend of mine called me up and we got to talking and he mentioned that a guy he knew not far from there had recently given him a skull cap with a rack on it, that he said he thought looked a lot like the one we called halo.
Upon looking at it, and judging that the guy had killed it about 3 years later, probably was that deer.
My buddy sent a picture of it and asked me if I'd be interested in having it. He said he thought since I was the first person that had laid eyes on that deer, he said he wanted to ask if I'd want it.
Those of you that know me, know that I'm a meat eater. I'm not a head hunter. But my son has been very interested in hunting and has decorated his room in hunting theme stuff (like most teenage boys do), so I asked him if he'd want it to hang in his room.
He remembered Halo. It was one of the first deer that he could recognize on his own and we've talked about him a lot through the years wondering where he ever got off to. And seeing a few deer that have similar racks that are probably some of his offspring.
So, he said he'd want it, but in seeing how the skull cap was basically just screwed to the plaque hanger, he asked what it would take to make one of those european skull mounts? I've never done one but they look pretty straight forward so I told him if he'd help make it, we could do it. As they say, the rest is history.
He found a cheap skull mount at a local online yard sale for $5. He bought it, and yesterday evening, and this morning, we were able to cut the antlers off. Drill out for the mount. JB welded them and made a makeshift jig to hold everything as it dried through the night as the epoxy cured.
He used sculpting clay to fill in the odd gaps. He also helped make the plaque backer out of a piece of scrap walnut too. He said he wanted it to look like old barn wood to go with the rest of his decorations so he didn't want really straight cuts either. So, after some time this morning, was able to hang it on his wall.
Overall, he's happy with it and learned a few things in the process. Which has opened his eyes up to some of what taxidermy is and I think he enjoyed it.
We're going to print out a photo of the deer that we got on the trail camera, but instead of trying to glue it to the plaque, we're going to get a piece of rusty barbed wire and suspend it from the bottom of the wood and hang the photo from it. Having the old barbed wire should add a personal touch since it's going to be from the old family farm where the pics were taken in the first place. And let's face it, will give him extra cool factor for his man card when he shows it to his buddies.
Anyway, I just wanted to share that story with you guys. It's just odd how things work out sometimes. It's like the ghost of halo has came back home now.
It was a buck that we knicknamed halo, due to the shape of his rack. It curved around in front and literally touched, making a angel halo shape. We only caught a few pictures of him, mostly leading up to and during the rut. Then he disappeared back to parts unknown, as they often do.
About 2 weeks ago, a friend of mine called me up and we got to talking and he mentioned that a guy he knew not far from there had recently given him a skull cap with a rack on it, that he said he thought looked a lot like the one we called halo.
Upon looking at it, and judging that the guy had killed it about 3 years later, probably was that deer.
My buddy sent a picture of it and asked me if I'd be interested in having it. He said he thought since I was the first person that had laid eyes on that deer, he said he wanted to ask if I'd want it.
Those of you that know me, know that I'm a meat eater. I'm not a head hunter. But my son has been very interested in hunting and has decorated his room in hunting theme stuff (like most teenage boys do), so I asked him if he'd want it to hang in his room.
He remembered Halo. It was one of the first deer that he could recognize on his own and we've talked about him a lot through the years wondering where he ever got off to. And seeing a few deer that have similar racks that are probably some of his offspring.
So, he said he'd want it, but in seeing how the skull cap was basically just screwed to the plaque hanger, he asked what it would take to make one of those european skull mounts? I've never done one but they look pretty straight forward so I told him if he'd help make it, we could do it. As they say, the rest is history.
He found a cheap skull mount at a local online yard sale for $5. He bought it, and yesterday evening, and this morning, we were able to cut the antlers off. Drill out for the mount. JB welded them and made a makeshift jig to hold everything as it dried through the night as the epoxy cured.
He used sculpting clay to fill in the odd gaps. He also helped make the plaque backer out of a piece of scrap walnut too. He said he wanted it to look like old barn wood to go with the rest of his decorations so he didn't want really straight cuts either. So, after some time this morning, was able to hang it on his wall.
Overall, he's happy with it and learned a few things in the process. Which has opened his eyes up to some of what taxidermy is and I think he enjoyed it.
We're going to print out a photo of the deer that we got on the trail camera, but instead of trying to glue it to the plaque, we're going to get a piece of rusty barbed wire and suspend it from the bottom of the wood and hang the photo from it. Having the old barbed wire should add a personal touch since it's going to be from the old family farm where the pics were taken in the first place. And let's face it, will give him extra cool factor for his man card when he shows it to his buddies.
Anyway, I just wanted to share that story with you guys. It's just odd how things work out sometimes. It's like the ghost of halo has came back home now.
