Trophy Care
and Field Dressing
Story by
Julie Bowling
of Julie Bowling Taxidermy
T
he hunt is over! Now the reward-
ing work of packing your animal
back to camp or home begins.
Here are a few tips, DOs and
DON’Ts, to insure your trophy
will be well preserved and make
an excellent specimen to hang on
the wall as art and living memory for generations
to come.
Figure 1: Go back approximately
3 ribs back from front the front
shoulder and ring the body, then
go just above or just below the
knee joint and ring the leg.
DOs
Use a sharp knife – nothing will make your
job and your taxider-
mist’s job harder than
Use a sharp
jagged and uneven knife
cuts. A good sharp knife
knife, nothing
makes all the difference.
will make
When capping, always
cut from the skin side,
your job
being careful not to cut
and your
the hair.
Get it cool – the
taxidermist
longer the cape is on the
job harder
animal the better your
chances are of the body
then jagged
temp causing bacteria
and uneven
growth that will cause
hair slip. Care for your
knife cuts.
cape like you would the
meat! The best thing to
do is get it in a freezer or to your taxidermist as
soon as possible, if not, have a cooler with ice to
store your cape until it can be processed.
DON’Ts
Salt – salting your cape should be left to your
taxidermist. Salting is a process that is ONLY
effective if you get 100% of the meat, fat, and
membrane off of the hide. Otherwise it causes a
seal that traps bacteria in the skin, causing
irreparable damage to the hair follicles, thus
causing hair slippage.
Other thing’s taxidermists see a lot of is cut-
ting the throat, cutting the armpits, leaving it in
the bed of the truck or anywhere else exposed to
the elements, (heat, dogs, birds, insects, bacteria,
etc…) and drag marks where hair is missing.
20 • Grant County Hunting Journal 2015
Figure 1
Figure 2: Cut
straight up the
back of the neck to
the middle of the
back of the head,
then Y your cut to
the back of each
antler.
Figure 2
Figure 3: After ring-
ing both legs either
just above or below
the knee, cut down
the back of the leg
and Y the leg cuts to
the center of the
body, leaving the
brisket section of the
cape whole, then
ending back at the
cut around the body
(do NOT cut through
the armpit.)
Figure 3
MyEagleNews.com