When decideing to do a life-size mount, take into consideration the size of the
animal and where you will be placing it. A life-size moose is huge and may
not fit into the room you would like to put it in. I am going to skip to
small life size animals because the skinning techniques vary with most animals
and this could ramble on for a long time. Call your taxidermist if you want
detailed instructions on how to skin big game for full body work. Small game
from coyotes to squirrels make outstanding life-size mounts that will fit
into most trophy rooms with little problem. They will look best with a simple
or complex habitat base that you help design. With a little extra work, life-size
mounts add greatly to any trophy collection.
Most small game is best skinned using a dorsal incision. This cut will begin at
the base of the tail and extend to the back of the head, along the back of
the animal. Skinning the face and feet of small animals is time consuming
and difficult without proper tools, so it may be best to leave that job
to the taxidermist. With the dorsal incision, you should be able to get the
body of the animal out without any problem. Salt or freeze the skin as soon
as possible and get it to your taxidermist.
If the animal is small enough, or you have the room, you may want to freeze
the whole animal and bring it to your taxidermist whole. Many taxidermist
prefer this so they can make a decision on how best to skin the animal based
on hair length, mount position, etc.
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