Wild Game:

Field care and tips:

Do not wet/wash the skin. Moisture and heat creates a haven for the already present bacteria. Blot up excess blood with a towel or paper. Don't rub.
Don't cart your animal around for hours before skinning, especially on the hood of your vehicle. Skin it as soon as possible. Skins can be opened up to cool in shade first.
Foxes, dingoes and cats are prone to hair-slip. Immediate cooling and skinning and/or freezing are a must.
Animals frozen whole to be used for Life-sized mounts must be laid out flat in the freezer, NOT curled up into a ball.
Boar capes that are being frozen should also have the shoulder skin laid out behind the lead, NOT bunched up under or rolled around the head. Shields must be removed or a fee additional to caping applies. ($150)
Always work with your knife blade facing up and skin down the neck/back to the shoulder/tail, not up.
You can leave the head, feet and tail in a skin being frozen for a life-size mount. A fee of $200 to finish skinning these out, applies.
Don't make unnecessary skinning cuts this will add to your total fee.
If you are caping the whole head remember to split the lips and turn the ears. Otherwise freeze as is.
DO NOT APPLY SALT TO ANY SKIN THAT HAS NOT HAD THE LIPS, NOSTRILS OR EARS TURNED.
You can use any fine grained salt. Do not use pool or rock salt. Iodized or not? It won't make any difference.
Rub the salt in well with the palm of your hands. Get it into every crease, you can't use too much. Change the salt every 24 hours until the skin no longer drains.
Skins should not be transported inside plastic bags. They will sweat and rot.
Capes like deer & goats being frozen should be folded like a towel, not rolled up and with the head outer most.
If the skin was salted prior to freezing, it must have finished draining and all remaining salt removed before freezing.
Salted skins need not be frozen; they can be kept in a Hessian bag in a cool dark place away from moisture & rodents.
Fully skun, turned & salted skins can be posted after draining has ceased. (wrapped in butchers paper & placed into a cardboard box or cylinder)
Call your taxidermist if you are going to arrive late with an item, if its a public holiday or a Sunday or you have posted an item.
Accept that poor field care or short cut capes will result in a refusal to work on your trophy. Neck mounts are not accepted at this business.
Caping from skull $180 Turning of lips, ears and nostrils only $120. Salting only $25
Birds - please place head to one side of the bird and place into a plastic zip lock bag or tightly wrapped in glad wrap with the air removed. No stocking , vacuum sealed bags or newspaper, please .

(More below)

Removal of horns, antlers & jaws:

For antlered animals: Cut the skullcap from the head using a hacksaw or similar. Use the eye socket as a point to aim for when cutting the cap. Make the first cut from top of skull down to the center of the eye socket and the second cut from the back of the skull to the center of the eye socket. Simmer the skullcap for ½ hour being careful not to immerse the actual antlers in the water or burn them if simmering over a campfire. Remove all meat still clinging.

*Also see download page for removal of antlers without caping head instructions.

Antlers in velvet: Velvet is skin. If soft and spongy on the tips there will be shrinkage to some degree. The antlers must be frozen ASAP or delivered to your taxidermist ASAP. Do not touch the velvet with your hands. Velvet does slip just as hair/epidermis does and needs to be treated as quickly as possible. You can spray/inject with formaldehyde, following all safety requirements or prick all over and soak in metho for 10 days minimum. Skulls being mounted as a taxidermy head can be split in 2. (wire/repair fee $65).

Horned animals: Simmer skull cap and up to 2 inches of horn for 30 minutes then tap the simmered skullcap where it meets the horn lightly with a stick or simply twist and pull from cores. (Inserting a knife under the horn can help). Clean all membranes from within the horn and on the bony 'cores' and rinse with a little Pine-o-clean, Metho or Dettol. Replace horns on the cores to dry, as they will shrink if left off after heating.
*Also see download page for removal of antlers without caping head instructions.

Removal of the jaws (pig, fox, deer, cat or dingo): To begin, cut from the top of the skull down past the last molar, thru both top and bottom jaws. The jaws are then simmered for 20 minutes to 45 minutes and any meat clinging to the bones removed. Don't simmer longer than is necessary as the tusks will be even harder to remove or may crack. Pull the tusks out while hot using a towel to hold. You will notice you have to push the top of the tusk back towards the imaginary ear while pulling up at the same time. When removing tusks and whets be careful not to damage them and clean them of inner nerve tissue. Do not clean the outside of the tusks.

Competition quality jaw sets are available.

Please check the download page for various helpful instructions on caping, skinning, skull preservation, skull cap removal that you can save on your computer, print out and share. Various new topics will be available from time to time.