# can you swap antlers on headmounts?



## 62backwoodsboy

I got a pretty decent buck this year with my shotgun. I was wondering if a guy can take a head mount from a few years back and have those antlers taken out and the bigger ones I got this year put in? If thats possible,would that be something that would be just about as expensive as having the head I got this year mounted? Kind of tight on money this year and just checking my options.
Thanks


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## Jamesh76

Yes they can be switched out. It is not real easy though.

When they are put onto the manequin they are screwed into the foam and then the edges are filled in with clay or putty to give it a good smooth surface for the head to mount on. 

2nd, they are also attached with a hide paste which is like glue. Depending on the paste that was used you may be able to loosen up the glue with some warm water. 

There is a stitching incision behind the skill plate of the antlers that is sewn up to complete the mounting. 


I would not suggest doing it unless you are experianced, and have a extra cape incase the one that you are looseing up is destroyed. There is also a chance that you gold break the contact point of the ears and clay in the earbutts. 


I simply would not do it. Either way best of luck 

James


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## jms375

My taxidermist uses bondo after he screw the skull plate to the form. It could possibly be done but I doubt you would save much money. If you have a place to store it in the freezer you can keep it quite awhile without hurting it as long as you store it properly. That might be a better option for you in the long run.


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## 62backwoodsboy

oh, I wasn't going to do it myself.i'd take it to a taxidermist.
It's probably not something that is much cheaper than just having the head mounted.


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## KenL

*same sort of question*

My grand father got a monster buck back in the sixties and gave me the rack. How about this rack on an inferior buck.

I know it would be helpful to have a large cape, but it will probably be smaller...can they hide the area behind the antlers of the smaller buck.....detailed info would be great.... thx


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## Jamesh76

Backwoods, 

if you still have the head and want to do a european mount I could give you instruction and or links on how to do so. I think that a european on a nice stained plaque looks just as nice as a full mount sometimes. It can be done with regular easy to get household items and would cost about 10$ in supplies.


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## 62backwoodsboy

Jamesh76 said:


> Backwoods,
> 
> if you still have the head and want to do a european mount I could give you instruction and or links on how to do so. I think that a european on a nice stained plaque looks just as nice as a full mount sometimes. It can be done with regular easy to get household items and would cost about 10$ in supplies.


 That would be great and much appreciated. You can either PM me,put them on here,or email me [email protected] 

By the way, here's a picture of the deer.








Thanks!


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## pencil5757

*It can be done fairly cheap!!*

You can find special pins in Taxidermy supply catalogues made for mounting sheds and alter them or the one's I like are for mounting elk horns because there so large its hard to get them in some houses there male-female pins you insert and you can take the horns off and put them on whenever you like. 
You would just cut the old horns off at the hair line drill a hole in the bases and epoxy them in and the same on the new horns.
Hope this helps, if you need any more info just ask I've been doing taxidermy for more years than I like to tell.:thumbs_up


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## smesk403

probably but as others have said it would not be easy and by the time you did it would cost nearly as much as another shoulder mount.


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## TSLLC

I'm a taxidermist and have only done two antler switches, however I have repaired broken skull plates many times for customers and the process is essentially that same in reguards to the effort. I would estimate those types of jobs at three hours of labor pluss the cost of materials used. I just did a skull plate repair job that cost a customer $120. I charge $440 for a deer head mount, so the cost is a lot less. Reguardless of the route you take, get the thing caped out by a taxidermist ASAP to prevent the cape from being ruined. I sometimes get calls from people that want a mount done but are broke. I will cape it out and put it in my freezer and store the antlers as well with no down payment. If the customer later decides he does not want it mounted, then I will keep the cape to cover my labor cost for caping it or I'll charge him for my labor and he can take the cape. When the customer pays the deposit, I will order supplies and mount it up. I think most taxidermists handle it the same way.


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## buckncm

62backwoodsboy said:


> oh, I wasn't going to do it myself.i'd take it to a taxidermist.
> It's probably not something that is much cheaper than just having the head mounted.


It's funny that you guys bring this up cuz I never thought of it until about 2 days ago. My taxidermist called in a official "Buckeye Big Buck" scorer to his shop to score a couple of big bucks including mine here in Ohio. Anyway I ended up meeting the scorer at his house to sign my score sheet so it could be entered into the book officially 147 5/8" net. While I was there he was showing me all of his mounts, and he as alot of them including a 186" net typical and a 198" net typical 10 others ranging from 130 to 170. There were 3 that he had that he bought the head off of ebay for $25 and had the original racks removed and his 130ish racks remounted on them. They looked awsome. He had them mounted for around $50, so he had a total of about $75 in each of them vurses $350 to $450. Pretty smart if you ask me and until now I never would have even thought of doing that. In the future if I get a P&Y below my biggest of 147 that will be what I do with it.


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## TSLLC

buckncm said:


> It's funny that you guys bring this up cuz I never thought of it until about 2 days ago. My taxidermist called in a official "Buckeye Big Buck" scorer to his shop to score a couple of big bucks including mine here in Ohio. Anyway I ended up meeting the scorer at his house to sign my score sheet so it could be entered into the book officially 147 5/8" net. While I was there he was showing me all of his mounts, and he as alot of them including a 186" net typical and a 198" net typical 10 others ranging from 130 to 170. There were 3 that he had that he bought the head off of ebay for $25 and had the original racks removed and his 130ish racks remounted on them. They looked awsome. He had them mounted for around $50, so he had a total of about $75 in each of them vurses $350 to $450. Pretty smart if you ask me and until now I never would have even thought of doing that. In the future if I get a P&Y below my biggest of 147 that will be what I do with it.


Remember, that you often get what you pay for. The typical $25 mounts on Ebay are usually of extremly poor quality and often have lots of damage that may or may not be repairable. Also, better talk to your taxidermist to find out what the charge would be for a rack changout as I think most would charge more than $50.


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## buckncm

TSLLC said:


> Remember, that you often get what you pay for. The typical $25 mounts on Ebay are usually of extremly poor quality and often have lots of damage that may or may not be repairable. Also, better talk to your taxidermist to find out what the charge would be for a rack changout as I think most would charge more than $50.


I saw the mounts. I wouldn't have replied if they were poor quality. The finished product looked like a mount you would have paid $450 for, and all he did was have the rack swapped out. As for paying $50 they guy had 10 heads that I saw and more upstairs he may have given his taxidermist enough business that he got a cut rate on the rack swap I didn't ask him that. He just offered up what he had in them. The bottom line is that it is very possible to swap a rack and it does cost considerably less than a shoulder mount.


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## TSLLC

buckncm said:


> The bottom line is that it is very possible to swap a rack and it does cost considerably less than a shoulder mount.


You would surely save money. Even if the mount had to be repaired and refinished it would still come out way cheaper than paying for a shoulder mount from scratch. Also, quality capes have value to taxidrmists so if you have a good cape to offer into the deal, it would save you even more money.


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