ruggedruger
Single-Sixer
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2009
- Messages
- 462
You may recall a thread of mine (http://www.rugerforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=168571) with pictures of my 2012 buck, my biggest buck to date, and not shabby for eastern North Carolina, although I was hunting a farm far enough west to be considered a management deer. 
I let the cape sit in the freezer b/c a friend was encouraging me to get a mount done, but I didn't think he was big enough. I was also trying to finish my Ph.D. Now that I've done so, I cut out the skull plate and did my own antler mount.
I had some walnut lying around, a few ideas, and thought I'd share the process with you all. Scroll to the bottom if you want to just see the finished project!
A refresher: Here's the buck upon being shot.
He was wedged between a split trunk, not 25 yards from where he was shot. He smacked the tree head-on, and must have lunged through in his dying breath. There was bark in the antlers and marks on the tree. The lack of blood spilled where he lay indicates to me that his last heart beat was when he leaped through the tree.
So, I lopped the skull plate out, boiled it for a bit, and didn't bother to clean it up with H2O2. The rack looks pretty big with my 5-yr old holding it, eh?
I worked on an arrowhead template for a while, and then cut out the plaque from some walnut I had laying around. This was the only way I could fit the shape in, and avoid some defect in the wood. I did not like how the grain makes i look like it's off-balance.
I "scalloped" the edges with a shaper and a quarter-round bit, and then finished it off with who know how many coats of TruOil. I did not rub it down afterwords, although i kind of wish I had.
With some iced tea on hand, (tall glass for me, Angry Birds cup for my son), and some Durham's putty, I went to work.
My wife picked up some foam for me from the craft section at WalMart, which I cut and shaped to round out the mount.
I had expected to be able to easily sand down the hardened putty, but boy was I wrong! Even my Dremel tool with a sandpaper drum on it barely touched it. My wife suggested I wrap some batting around it before I put on the leather.
BONUS points for identifying the group I'm watching/listening to at this point in the process:
I purchased some scrap leather off ebay for a couple of bucks (maybe 5). It was relatively thin - it must be stretchy enough to stretch out the wrinkles that are inevitable when wrapping a flat object (leather) around a rounded object. (Kind of the opposite of map projections - representing the globe on a flat surface (map)...sorry, I'm a GIS guy).
Admittedly, I was nervous at this point, and at first figured I had enough leather for two of this, but was wrong! It may look like I could upholster a sofa with it, but it was irregularly shaped.
I was pretty relieved and happy with the result:
Just about totally giving away the band on-screen with this shot. If you know your bass players, then....
I ended up just using some dark brown leather shoe lace, wrapping ONE strand around the joint b/w plaque and leather; and then wrapping a double stranded, twisted, around the antler bases. I am not too happy with that part, but used hot glue at the back to secure it, and am so glad to have it done, that I'm not changing it.
That is a huge oak I'm standing in front of:
And of course, one with my son: (I love my daughters too, but for some reason, am hesitant about putting their faces online - no offense to ANY of you folks - just in general. I could/should be with him too, but...)
Color-tweaked a little for fun.
I let the cape sit in the freezer b/c a friend was encouraging me to get a mount done, but I didn't think he was big enough. I was also trying to finish my Ph.D. Now that I've done so, I cut out the skull plate and did my own antler mount.
I had some walnut lying around, a few ideas, and thought I'd share the process with you all. Scroll to the bottom if you want to just see the finished project!
A refresher: Here's the buck upon being shot.
He was wedged between a split trunk, not 25 yards from where he was shot. He smacked the tree head-on, and must have lunged through in his dying breath. There was bark in the antlers and marks on the tree. The lack of blood spilled where he lay indicates to me that his last heart beat was when he leaped through the tree.
So, I lopped the skull plate out, boiled it for a bit, and didn't bother to clean it up with H2O2. The rack looks pretty big with my 5-yr old holding it, eh?
I worked on an arrowhead template for a while, and then cut out the plaque from some walnut I had laying around. This was the only way I could fit the shape in, and avoid some defect in the wood. I did not like how the grain makes i look like it's off-balance.
I "scalloped" the edges with a shaper and a quarter-round bit, and then finished it off with who know how many coats of TruOil. I did not rub it down afterwords, although i kind of wish I had.
With some iced tea on hand, (tall glass for me, Angry Birds cup for my son), and some Durham's putty, I went to work.
My wife picked up some foam for me from the craft section at WalMart, which I cut and shaped to round out the mount.
I had expected to be able to easily sand down the hardened putty, but boy was I wrong! Even my Dremel tool with a sandpaper drum on it barely touched it. My wife suggested I wrap some batting around it before I put on the leather.
BONUS points for identifying the group I'm watching/listening to at this point in the process:
I purchased some scrap leather off ebay for a couple of bucks (maybe 5). It was relatively thin - it must be stretchy enough to stretch out the wrinkles that are inevitable when wrapping a flat object (leather) around a rounded object. (Kind of the opposite of map projections - representing the globe on a flat surface (map)...sorry, I'm a GIS guy).
Admittedly, I was nervous at this point, and at first figured I had enough leather for two of this, but was wrong! It may look like I could upholster a sofa with it, but it was irregularly shaped.
I was pretty relieved and happy with the result:
Just about totally giving away the band on-screen with this shot. If you know your bass players, then....
I ended up just using some dark brown leather shoe lace, wrapping ONE strand around the joint b/w plaque and leather; and then wrapping a double stranded, twisted, around the antler bases. I am not too happy with that part, but used hot glue at the back to secure it, and am so glad to have it done, that I'm not changing it.
That is a huge oak I'm standing in front of:
And of course, one with my son: (I love my daughters too, but for some reason, am hesitant about putting their faces online - no offense to ANY of you folks - just in general. I could/should be with him too, but...)
Color-tweaked a little for fun.
