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Velvet mounts

S

SaddleGuy615

New Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2019
Messages
23
I may be going on a velvet hunt in my home state but my biggest hang up is whether or not I can preserve it for a reasonable cost. Anyone have experience with this? How hard is it to preserve velvet at home? Can you do a skull mount with velvet on. So far I’m not impressed with the flocked velvet option but if that was my best option, I would do it. Anyone have a good person for that? Looking for any info on this. Thanks.


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I did a euro mount myself of a velvet buck I got a few years ago, it came out ok but not great. It’s still pretty cool but not “amaze your friends” awesome. Just freeze the whole head when you get it and then you have time to decide what to do with it.

My main piece of advice would be to touch the velvet as little as possible during the entire process from finding the dead deer to hanging it on the wall. Don’t drag him out by the antlers, wrap them loosely for freezing, careful when boiling the skull, etc. Every time you touch it, little hairs fall off making it look worse.
 
Depending on the stage of the velvet the best is to either have it freeze dried or have it injected with a preservative. I've got one velvet 8 pt on my wall and was very careful getting him out of the woods as to not create any damage. After getting it caped out it went straight into the freezer then following day straight to the taxi so he could inject the antlers.
 
I'll start by saying that I have read that the only gauranteed method is to freeze dry it. Even taxidermist have trouble with velvet. @Rodney is our resident taxidermist and can probably give you some expert advice.

But, my youngest son's first buck was in velvet. I initially bought velvet tan and tried to inject it but that didn't work. What did work was after I boiled it I put the entire head in a large Tupperware container with a towel soaked in Denatured alcohol. Every day I would soak the towel in alcohol again and wrap the horns in the soaked towel. I read you wanted to keep it sealed to keep the fumes in and keep the horns wrapped in the wet towel. I think I kept it in there for about a week. After that I covered it in Borax for another week or so. It's been two years now and it still looks pretty good.

Screenshot_20200819-210151.png
 
I’ve killed one velvet buck and a caribou in Alaska both full velvet. The buck I wrapped the skull and antlers in a trash bag and packed ice around it in the cooler for the rest of the trip which was five days in 95 degree heat. Taxi freeze dried it and cost me roughly $150. The caribou was a pain because of the length of the trip but luckily it was cool and I just kept it in the shade where the breeze could hit it. The taxi in Alaska is soaking the entire rack in what I assume is alcohol and the process takes about a month. To do just that was $195. So far neither one have been a huge issue but it’s one more thing to worry about. I don’t care if I kill another one in velvet at this point lol.


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Looks great, denatured is the way to go. You can cut off the horns and completely submerge then and finally reattach. The towel method works as well - maybe not quite as much penetration but probably no practical difference.

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GCTerpfan said:
I'll start by saying that I have read that the only gauranteed method is to freeze dry it. Even taxidermist have trouble with velvet. @Rodney is our resident taxidermist and can probably give you some expert advice.

But, my youngest son's first buck was in velvet. I initially bought velvet tan and tried to inject it but that didn't work. What did work was after I boiled it I put the entire head in a large Tupperware container with a towel soaked in Denatured alcohol. Every day I would soak the towel in alcohol again and wrap the horns in the soaked towel. I read you wanted to keep it sealed to keep the fumes in and keep the horns wrapped in the wet towel. I think I kept it in there for about a week. After that I covered it in Borax for another week or so. It's been two years now and it still looks pretty good.

View attachment 32618
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What did you do to the antlers to protect them during boiling? Your mount looks great, exactly what I would want


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I have 2 velvet whitetail shoulder mounts, 1 injected 1 freeze dried.

The injected looks decent, the freeze dried looks great. That buck was just beginning to shed so his velvet is hanging down several inches in a few places. 9 years later the freeze dried buck still looks perfect.


Like others said, handle the velvet as gently as possible and have a plan for getting it in a freezer quick.
 
SaddleGuy615 said:
What did you do to the antlers to protect them during boiling? Your mount looks great, exactly what I would want


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I gently wrapped the bases in plastic wrap and aluminum foil and was REALLY careful to keep them above the water. If you look close you can see I still damaged some of the velvet along the bases but, the whole process ended up being kind of a rodeo. I had put this buck and a velvet 8 point that my nephew had shot the day before into an old freezer in my garage so that I could do ample research, figure out a process and take my time. Well one day before I had done any of this I realized that the freezer had been unplugged. When I checked both heads had thawed and were just starting to smell a little so I was scrambling to boil them, figure out what to do about the velvet and then treat the velvet all in the same day. I'm lucky it turned out as good as it did.
 
flinginairos said:
I’ve killed one velvet buck and a caribou in Alaska both full velvet. The buck I wrapped the skull and antlers in a trash bag and packed ice around it in the cooler for the rest of the trip which was five days in 95 degree heat. Taxi freeze dried it and cost me roughly $150. The caribou was a pain because of the length of the trip but luckily it was cool and I just kept it in the shade where the breeze could hit it. The taxi in Alaska is soaking the entire rack in what I assume is alcohol and the process takes about a month. To do just that was $195. So far neither one have been a huge issue but it’s one more thing to worry about. I don’t care if I kill another one in velvet at this point lol.


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Click to expand...


Thanks for ruining tonight's video for me.... lol
 
BackSpasm said:
How was this done?????
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It's a mountain mike skull. I cut the antlers off and dipped them in 1% permethrin. This preserves the velvet because the only way it would leave otherwise is insects. So the permethrin keeps them at bay
 
GCTerpfan said:
I'll start by saying that I have read that the only gauranteed method is to freeze dry it. Even taxidermist have trouble with velvet. @Rodney is our resident taxidermist and can probably give you some expert advice.

But, my youngest son's first buck was in velvet. I initially bought velvet tan and tried to inject it but that didn't work. What did work was after I boiled it I put the entire head in a large Tupperware container with a towel soaked in Denatured alcohol. Every day I would soak the towel in alcohol again and wrap the horns in the soaked towel. I read you wanted to keep it sealed to keep the fumes in and keep the horns wrapped in the wet towel. I think I kept it in there for about a week. After that I covered it in Borax for another week or so. It's been two years now and it still looks pretty good.

View attachment 32618
Click to expand...

(Side note-love that mount plaque/bod/whatever you call it)


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Spence71 said:
(Side note-love that mount plaque/bod/whatever you call it)


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Thanks, there's some sentimental value in that plaque for my son. It was given to him by our elderly neighbor who was a sign maker. He passed away about two years ago. The last time we visited him, he was in a hospital bed at his house and he had his wife go downstairs and get that plaque. He told my son that he made it before he got sick just for my son to mount his first buck on. He was one of a kind and someone my son looked up to.
 
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