Doing A Little Taxidermy!

[CaptnC]

My wife has been complaining about a Striper I caught in 2018, it's taking up too much room in the freezer...her suggestion was to toss it.

Well, it happens to be a water body record! The tail race below the lake we like to fish was running hard because the lake was way over pool.

Any way it's common to catch Hybrid Stripped Bass, some big ones at that! I had caught a 26"er the week before.

Then I catch a nearly 27" fish that looks exactly like a pure Striper. So I contact the Texas Parks and Wildlife department, they do DNA tests, twice. Both times it comes back as a pure Striper.

Finally I have my name in the record book! Tried for years to catch something offshore and came close a few times, but no cigar until now!

Needs to dry for a couple weeks before I can put some paint on it...

So to make the wife even happier I told her I would thaw out her Aoudad ewe from the 4th of July hunt...put it in the wrong Forum, but is the link to the story...

Free Range Aoudad Hunt Leakey Texas

Part 1 Long version...photo heavy! With bonus hogs! Wrangled an invite through my youngest daughter's husband. He is the ranch manager for several properties owned by his Boss. One of which is in Leakey Texas. My Son-In-Law (SIL) has told me about the place and that is had Aoudad. The owner...

www.longrangehunting.com

Took a few hours but I got it done. The mannequin I bought didn't have the front legs on it so I had to create some...picture of that tomorrow...

Dont worry I got the eyes looking better.

Aoudad mounts are all about getting the eyes correct! Makes or breaks the mount...

Anyway I will get picture of it with the knee length front legs in the morning.

 

[CaptnC]

Here is a picture where you can see the knee length front legs. It's still on my stand and needs its chaps done.

 

[CaptnC]

Wife and I drew Alligator permits last September, as you can see she got one!

I got the head cleaned out and brined. Gave it a couple coats of Reptile Tan, put a cool looking set of eyes in. Now ready to dry!

 

[Tidus56]

I need to do auodad hunt one of these years, did you take those in NM?

 

[26Reload]

Sweet....always nice not to have a taxidermist to blame,for bad work....hope your wife is satisfied....
Toughest skin mount I have done is an albacore tuna....about 20#....unlike ordinary fish that have all their scales on the outside of the exterior skin...the tuna has a very thin layer of skin from mouth down about a third of its body...and then a really skinny tail to debone with lots,of heavy tendons....way i look at the tuna...its an evolutionary fish....covered scales in the front should promote an extremely fast swimmer...and sure enough...they can fly...literally...swim so fast they can leap several feet out of the water and travel quite a ways horizontally........other tough part is getting all the oils out of the skins.....
Scales easily come out of a stripers skin...secret is to super glue them back in place......the correct scale.....jigsaw puzzle...

 

[CaptnC]

I need to do auodad hunt one of these years, did you take those in NM?

No sir, the big ram on the wall I killed on a drawing hunt in west Texas, they are free range. My wife and grandson shot their sheep on a private ranch in central Texas. They are free range there too.

This is my grandsons I finished mounting it today too!

Grandson with his sheep.

In the distance you can see a valley floor. We are in some steep semi mountainous terrain. Best hunts I've ever been on!