The Lip Curl King: Archery Harvest

[Huntress]

Open mouth mounts are sooo hard to do and your taxidermist did a great job on yours....hope you gave him a big tip!!!

[eemer]

Man, what a great job!

I won't even attempt an open mouth mount!

[ncturkey]

Great looking deer Sloppy.Looks like you have been really successful here lately.Thanks for sharing it,Mike

[Brian89]

what a great taxidermist , that is an awsome job, he needs to be in some contests or somthin..

[kahuna]

Very, very nice. That must have been real exciting, not only harvesting a nice deer, but the whole "floor show" that went with it. AWESOME!

I know all about lip curls. Why, just the other day.......well......better leave that story for another time.

[Huntress]

In most cases none of the original mouth is used. In order to use the teeth, tongue, inner lip skin, etc. the taxidermist would have to preserve them in the exact pose that's being mounted...in your case the lip curl. The entire upper and lower jaw would have to be cleaned of all soft tissue and rebuilt somehow. I have never heard of anyone freeze drying the whole mouth/tongue for a mount. The time and expense to do it would more than double the cost of your mount.

The commercial mouth inserts/jawsets that most taxidermists use were cast from molds made by a pro. Unless your taxidermist does a lot of open mouth mounts for competition he may not have the skills to do mold making. Any time you see an open mouth mount you're looking at around a hundred dollars more for supplies and an extra 2-3 hours of work to install the jaws/tongue and finish the mount....This is on a commercial mount. When doing a competition mount, some taxidermists spend well over 100 hours, casting noses/septums, jaws/tongue, etc. and mounting/grooming/finishing. Most customers could not afford to have their mount done to competition standards so the best taxidermists will try to incorporate as many 'competition' details as they can and still try to keep the cost down for their customers.

I hope this answers your questions....if not let me know.

[eemer]

Sloppy,

Huntress pretty much covered it well. Taxi's use what they call "Jaw Sets" which are cast and available from most taxidermy supply houses. Most of sets I've seen come unpainted so the taxi can paint it to match the original animal.
I know of only a few taxidermists that have even attemptedto cast their own jaw set and they have way more experience than me!

[morelhunter]

Hello to all, just joined and was looking around and found this topic. Thought i would post a pic from a friends taxi shop hope you enjoy.

[RodnGun]

Hey Morelhunter......welcome! Thanks for the post......but Wow!!!.....I'm trying to figure out if I like that mount or not!

Based on the posts in this thread about what it takes to do an open mouth mount (I know squat about doing taxidermy work).....this must be one of those very difficult mounts....but the looks of this.....like "hey this arrow is bugging me" just kinda rubs me the wrong way......me.....I bowhunt 99% of the time just to put that on the table.

[Huntress]

Morelhunter-
Welcome to R&S. Hope you'll share some pics and tips with us in the 'sheds and shrooms board'....I need all the help I can get when it comes to huntin shrooms.

I have to agree with Rodngun...when looking at that mount your eyes are drawn right to the arrow. IMO it distracts from a well done mount and a nice rack. If there was NO arrow, the quality of the mount and beauty of the rack would be what stands out. I guess in my shop we try to recreate and celebrate the life of an animal...not it's death.

Your friend does very good work!! I love seeing good taxidermy! Can you share some more pics?

[deerslayer173]

Cool mount Sloppy. That's a nice one to come home to everyday. ;D ;D

[Country2dBone]

i have never even seen an open mouth mount boy those are kewel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! licking his wound and the lip curl both are very impressive indeed. sloppy, country says good post!!!!

[taxidermywoman23]

Well I guess it is my turn to comment.

As for the picture of the deer. The deer is real clean looking and well groomed. Nice sheen to the hair like it should on a tanned cape. The mouth looks as if it was put together well and the paint is blended not just sprayed on. Only thing I see that I don't care for are the eye's. When a deer does a lip curl the eye should have a heavy brow. The eye should have a kinda droopy look. Kinda hard to tell from the pic but the eye lashes look to be pointed outward.. They should be pointed down. I am doing an open mouth buck here in the next few month hopfuly. Depends on when the cape gets back from the tannery. I will post pictures to show you what I am talking about.

[kygal]

Good Job.....I Love the open mouth Mounts
they seem more realistic.......Keep them Pictures coming;)

[goosereaper]

slop, u got some great lookin mounts here! i love the look of the curled lip on him!

Adam M