Mounting Deer Antlers

A homemade deer antler mount that looks good enough to hang up in your house.

Step 1: Shoot a deer!

In order to get your deer antlers it would probably be good to shoot a male deer (a buck). You might be able to get some from a hunter friend or something like that if you aren't a hunter yourself.

Be sure to leave the top/front portion of the skull attached which is necessary for the mounting.

Comments

[Lorddrake]

what is the best method for cleaning the leftover bits of meats off the bone so that it can be mounted.

boil it?

bury it?

leave it outside for a while and hope a small animal doesn't run off with it?

[DonQuijote]

it seems stupid to me, that anyone would NOT have those skull bones in plain sight. but that's just me, don't feel insulted.

[Deltaforce2555]

Its a different style of mount. If the deer was beat up one might not want to see the scared head. I believe this is a style of the European mount. Also a full head mount is expensive and no one does that for all their deer unless they are all monsters. So do you do a full mount for all the deer you bag?

[rmccue]

Delta- I agree that there are reasons for the presented method. I wanted to let you know that a European mount however, is when the antlers are intact with the rest of the skull as well as lower jaw and all of the flesh is removed.

[DonQuijote]

i actually meant something else..... my old man has a pair of antlers, cut up just like that, and he put it on some lumber piece he polished, and voila. the only difference to your pair, is that the remains of the skull bones are in sight. and i like it better that way. it's basically just screwed in place. with some decent looking screws.

[Khurs]

You may as well. The animal is already dead.

[Bran]

To get it done by even the smallest taxidermy shops costs about $300 dollars.

[canida]

Sweet! Now all I need is a deer... ;)

[whiteoakart]

in Michigan, you just need to drive a couple of miles down the road. The roadside is littered with 'em. All the hunters that I know carry a portable cleaning kit in their car, because they know they will eventually hit one no matter how careful they are. Don't want to waste a good deer.

[rocotillo]

i am very sorry but who want to hang a horned jock strap on their wall?

[whiteoakart]

roco, it would say a lot about your manliness to have a horned jockstrap, don't you think.

[whiteoakart]

I found a huge frozen buck (8 point) floating in the lake this weekend. What is the best way to saw off the top of the skull? Hacksaw, Dremel, cross-cut saw, chainsaw? thx

[A.C.E.]

O! a chainsaw is not reccomended

[A.C.E.]

if you want to cut the horns out of the skull and keep them together with a peice of bone or something, you can use a sawz-all (thats what i used, its kind of like a big jigsaw) by just cutting a short wide U under the horns. after that, just trim off all of the ecsess bone. done. P.S. dont worry about cutting too far into the head.. the deer wont be using its head much anymore ; )

[whiteoakart]

I got it this weekend. I used a 18 tooth/inch hacksaw and cut right on through the brain. As it had been dead for some time and the innards were not frozen, it smelled to high heaven once I got through the bone. I think I will soak my hacksaw in bleach for awhile. Today I am going to clean up the rack with some advice from a hunter friend. I will definitely be using your instructable for the mount. Thanks. I will post an image here when i am done.

[GorillazMiko]

Amazingly done Instructable! It looks great, nice job getting featured too!

[Deltaforce2555]

That is a fine job. Looks like it was done by a company. I'll be sure to use this this Fall after I bag a nice one. Picture quality is great too.