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Mule Deer Art

As some of you may know, we had a small fire in our Lodge in 2011 that damaged some of our historic mounts, including a 7×7 bull elk, a mountain lion rug and a mule deer. In addition to repairing the logs of the Great Room, we had to also have those mounts repaired.
Pre-remount-Mule-Deer1
Due to time availability, the elk was sent off to well-known taxidermist “Atchison Taxidermy” in Butte, MT. But, our very own Foreman, Jeff, repaired the lion rug and the mule deer. After taking this picture, Jeff got started on tracking down a new “cape” for the buck. A cape is the hide that covers a mount from the shoulders forward for “shoulder wall mounts” such as this. As the buck was so large, he had to order a cape out of Alaska where he could find one for larger deer.
Once the cape arrived, the rest of the supplies were ordered, including a new “form” (what goes inside) as well as glass eyes, paint, etc. Over the winter of 2011/2012, Jeff got busy re-mounting the buck here at the ranch. Once the basic mount was completed, Jeff felt that it deserved a little more “art” and so gathered some sagebrush from around the ranch. This allowed him to showcase the buck in a manner similar to what it’s natural habitat would have been.
Here is the finished product – quite an improvement, don’t you think?
Post-remount-Mule-Deer-2
Post-remount-Mule-Deer-1
And, here’s a couple of pictures of the repaired & remounted bull elk!
Elk-Remount-1
Elk-Remount-2