Last year, I went deer hunting for the first time ever. My first morning out, I shot a nice buck.
Not that I'm all about bragging or things like that, but I figured I might as well at least try to preserve the antlers. To do so, I decided just to do a "skull mount." Basically, this is the probably the cheapest and easiest way to do it.
I thought that just by hanging the head up in a tree, I would be able to get the desired effect. Once everything dried or rotted, I planned on removing the rest and just having the skull with the antlers on it, but there was one thing that I did not account for...
This is the culprit... well, not the exact one, but I know that squirrels are behind it. Since they are rodents, they need to gnaw to keep their teeth trimmed. Also, antlers and bones contain Calcium, which they need. Often, they will dispose of the bones after the scavengers eat the flesh and the bugs remove the rest when an animal dies in the forest. Mice, rabbits, and other rodents join in as well, but since mine was up in a tree, I'm not going to blame the wild rabbits.
Thankfully, none of the antlers were chewed all the through. They are nibbled up to be sure, but still basically "intact." In the end, maybe it just adds more character to the skull mount.
Sure, some of it's "former glory" has been removed, but now there is even more of a story to tell, and a lesson to be learned as well. I think that one day it'll hang on a wall of our house, we will just have to build it first. The mount should look similar to the cover image, which is of a skull I found in the wild, but the rack will be bigger and more gnawed up! Lesson learned guys, learn from my mistakes.!
@papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-of-gnawed-antlers
@orelmely