Outstanding! I have three sets, one big buck I took in Idaho years back and two my Grandfather took in the late 40's. Right now they are mounted on those cheap looking kit mounts. They don't do these antlers justice. Deciding I want to make quality mounts for them myself, I came to RU-vid and found your video. Your method beats all I have seen so far! Thank you for posting this!
just wanted to let you know i think all your videos are great brother we appreciate your honesty and experience. i learned some great techniques, keep em coming
Great how-to video! I've done several in the past but like you, I'm always looking for new techniques. I've tried your concrete mixture a few times now and I have to say this is the best concoction I've tried. Thanks!
Thanks for all the tutorials, and humor. I tried this one today on a set I have had in the closet for three years, six more to go. Man, you best be on your a game with this mix no drinkin till after. I used water from an ice chest, and it still set up quick, maybe I didn't use enough water. Anyway, a little file work and sanding and it should be fine. Thank you for taking the time and effort to show how its done... Merry Christmas
i just did this on an old whitetail I was given. for the gluing I had no sprayed adhesive available so I just took regular school glue and used a paint stir stick to spread it all over the cement worked like a charm! Thanks So Much Love the videos!!
great job man. I just did a Euro mount myself with a buck i shot and wood i milled from my own property. Very rewarding project i must say. Video coming up tomorrow. I have a crown mount to try one of these days. My first buck antlers are sitting in my garage waiting for me to do something with. Thanks for sharing the how to!!
Thank you very much for this video. I just finished my first crown mount and it looks great. Only difference I made was I that prefer the antlers coming out at you a bit more than you do. These were easy to follow instructions and the end result is awesome! Thanks agin!
Great video! Thank you for sharing this awesome craft. Now I know how I’ll get over my “end of whitetail season depression”. My dad has over 30 skull caps sitting in the dark. Time to plug in the glue gun!!!!!! God Bless.
I checked out your video because some gave my son a set of antlers. Im not a big hunter but wanted to comment I like the way you go about showing how you do it all along giving the end user the freedom to just do it how they want because no was is wrong. I think your a little modest because I think they really good and you definitely know your business. You surely have honed your craft. Excellent video to teach a novice.
That's a good way to do it. I do mine similar except I screw the antlers to the finished plaque. Then I use upholstery tacks around the skull plate to fasten the suede leather down. Decorated rope around the bases and attached a picture of the deer below with the nameplate.
Thanks for the tutorial. Used your guidelines for a set of vintage antlers I picked up and they turned out beautifully. I used apoxie clay rather than the suggested cement/plaster of paris mix (definitely a more expensive option but for a single set of antlers the quantity made more sense), it sets within a few hours and dries fully overnight.
Your work is so beautiful! I am an aspiring taxidermist and have recently been messing around with bones, these videos are filling my head with ideas and they're so informative! Thank you for being wonderful!
WHITEBONE CREATIONS HUNTING I tried your mixture of plaster and concrete and it keeps cracking between the two antler bases. I’m using Portland cement. Do you have any tips to prevent cracking?
Thank you for this awesome video. My husband and i recently got our very first bucks so their getting mounted and im gonna use your ideas and try it out. thanks again
I have several horns to hang up.I have made a lot of plaques to put them on but have not done it yet. I will now thank you for the idea. Those look very nice and much better than using those plastic covers. I will go get the materials to do mine this week. Again thanks for sharing.
Almost the same way I do mine. I have added a couple features to mine and that's I hot glue or epoxy a empty shell casing above the antlers in the middle and also try to put a small field picture of the buck after it's killed at the bottom underneath the mount. Gives it just alitte more features to it.
Great video! I am excited to do this with my buck from this year. Quick question though, where do you make your cuts on the skull to remove the antlers?
This video has been a good reference for me this past year. I have a question: How long do you let the mixture cure on the horns before you start sanding and putting the leather on? I know you said "the next day" on the video but mine seems to be taking a few days before its completely dry. I'm using your mixture so do you think I'm making it too wet to begin with?
Hey man! Wanted to let you know i love the videos! I have 2 old sets of antlers that are about 8 years old. I would like to boil them down to just the bone. Would i have to go through a special process? Or could i just go through with boiling? They are crowns with hair still on them. Again, love the videos!!
Just a tip if one wants to mount a rack strong enough to lay some weapons across, such as with moose, elk or even whitetails if one desires, is to use autobody bondo. Inserting screws into the skull gives the bondo something to grasp and works well even with sheds with a metal strap screwed between the two bases of the crowns. Cling Wrap under the base keeps everything from sticking to anything but the skull or the metal strap and leaves a flat surface for mounting to the placque. With a little practice carving, filing or sanding the bondo, one can even build a complete skull face if theirs is missing. Two long carriage bolts right through the cape with the heads countersunk into the bondo and then bondoed over to leave a smooth surface can be painted or covered with leather to one's own tastes, just as you do in this video. I have a few videos on my channel where I show such repairs and mounting. Merry Christmas and God bless you and yours.
EdOfTheNorth good tips, if you want to make a super smooth, super easy to form bondo form, I suggest using a high quality body filler (rage gold or U.S.Composites for example) and ceramic microballoons mixed at a 4-to-1 ratio (filler to microballoons). MUCH easier to sand/shape than just filler alone
Great Video! I ended up using the concrete/plaster mix. Came out super bumpy and not smooth. Can I run another coat of just plaster over the top of my form to make a smooth finish???
I recently tried using this method using plaster & cement. I couldn't find the quikrete brand that i saw in your video except in fast drying which i tried but couldn't get it on fast enough. I tried again but used some other brand of portland and DAP plaster of paris. The dry time was super fast (3 to 4min) but i did get it on. The mixture cracked allover and big pieces fell off around the back side. I was wondering about which brand and type of cement and plaster you are using. Thanks and God bless
hey man beautiful job. iv been trying a few and theyre coming out good so thanks a lot for this video. I have about 20 sets of rams horns without the skull cap and im wanting to mount these in a similar fashion as your crown mount but without the skull cap I haven't got anything for the horns to sit into or on and if I screw them straight into the board then use the concrete/plaster of paris mix it doenst sit quite right. any suggestions?? thanks
Where did you put the braided leather ? Did you wrap the base of the antlers and THEN cover with leather ??? Love you vids. I want to try this and you Euro mount method. ........when I kill one. Lol...last chance this weekend here in Ga. Thanks man
So you say half plaster of paris and half concrete. Do you remove any of the larger marble size rocks in the concrete mix? Maybe sift out the concrete so its mainly a sandy mix?
Thanks very much for the tutorials and videos! Your videos are a blast to watch! Im looking forward to giving new life to some of the racks I've collected over the years... Many of my bucks are early season archery in velvet.Do you have any suggestions for preserving velvet for this type of mount?
I have done a pile of velvet bucks and they are not easy however they look awesome all done. In short you want to dry the velvet to the horn before you boil. You can use Velvet tan from vandykes and a needle to inject it or even easier brush on acetone and let them dry, then wrap the horns good and boil wash whiten. Here is so cal drying normally takes 4 days.
Well done with the content of this video. Thanks to your video I will be mounting a rack like you did. Are you boiling the remaining skull cap after you cut it off or any prep to remaining skull bone before doing the plaster mold?
thank you sir good to hear from you. lost your number or I would have given you a call. plan on doing it over Christmas break Matt Beatty. out. Merry Christmas.
Was wondering if you could maybe give better detail on what kind of cement or concrete you used. I grabbed some cement patch stuff and it set like a rock as soon as I mixed couldn't really form it at all. Thanks really like the videos!
Taylor Henderson Hey Taylor I am using commercial grade quickset cement by Quikrete and half plaster of paris. The colder the water the slower the set time. Good luck and thank you
Really like the vid. Just a tip, make sure to buy "cement". I bought a cheap $3 bag of "concrete mix" and the pebbles and aggregate in there were so big that they aren't going to sand down well. This is why I started with a rack so small you could fit it inside a basketball. Thanks again!
I noticed that you mentioned that sometimes you also mount "Sheds". Can you make a supplement video showing what method you use to secure the shed antlers to the base mount? Any help would sure be appreciated. Oh, and by the way, Thank you for these videos. They're very informative and helpful. I certainly subscribed to your site!
awesome videos. I live in Alaska and i got a Caribou last yr and its 37" wide and 36" tall. Will this method work for that as well? I haven't really found any mounting kits for Caribou or Moose. Any recommendations? Thank you
I just bought another set of antlers and this one has some old dried skin over the skull bone. Do you think it'll be ok to just leave it there and put the plaster and leather over it? It's really dry and it doesn't smell at all.
No problem. You can just cover it up. That old hide is like a rock. If it has hair on it I just burn it off with a torch and then wire brush it smooth.
NIce work man !! Alos i was wondering when you mount to the first piece of wood do put the back of the scull event with the wood or is the back of scull hanging? also how far do you come down on the wood from skull?
+Outdoorsmen1214 I mount the skull cap to the form wood then the finished panel gets screwed into that form wood and then the hanger gets screwed to the finish panel. Hope that helps thanks for watching.
Mr Ryan. It's Mr Matt Beatty. Thanks for showing the easy way to mount my grandfather's old rack. do you have any suggestions of how to glue back or cement back the skull I have 1 rack where its split down the middle. you know the squiggly line. of the skull?
+Matt Beatty Brother its been too long hope your doing good. In the case of broken skull I would drill the skull cap on each side just below the pedical. Then attach each antler to the board in its most natural state. If you need to build up or shim the center of the skull cap do so. When it finally sets in the concrete it will be strong and natural looking as one piece. Thanks for watching
One quick note that may or may not have already been commented (I didn't look yet, sorry). I followed these directions to a T. One thing I learned from it is that there is a difference between concrete and cement. You are using cement. Not concrete. Concrete has sand and stone in it. The first one I may was pretty bad because of all of the stones in it, even after I tried to sift them out using a kitchen strainer. It made it impossible to sand, and pieces of it literally crumbled off. Luckily I was able to take a hammer and lightly tap on it to get it all off to have a second chance at it.
Ricky Riner Thank You! I did the same thing about a year ago and my mount was extremely bumpy with all the pea gravel in it. Now that I know what to get, I can give it another shot!
To add to that (though this is late, might still be helpful), I would suggest using something like pre-bagged mortar (sand and cement). Concrete in all forms is just aggregate and binding agent, whether thats cement or bitumen (tar). Something like HB40 or brickies cement comes out much much smoother (just be careful with the water with hb40, it turns to soup with almost nothing). Edit: also any time you are mixing any form of cement or concrete from dry, mix it up properly while its dry before adding any water. Its near impossible to actually mix it right (without a mixing machine) if you add water early.
