My first gator mount.

[HeneryHawk]

Hello all, this is the first gator mount 6'2" that my dad and I did. It was a fun project and took a lot longer than expected. It was also more work than expected. ( only mount that we ever did with any animal. )

[Cr0ck1]

cool looking? where you gonna mount it on the wall?

[HeneryHawk]

It actually belongs to a friend of mine, he gave me two hides so I gave him that one done and second one will go in my dads log cabin as soon as we get it done.

[TimE1]

Pretty cool! Turned out good.

[DaveT]

Man that looks great......good job!

[dropt9]

nice job

[XD45]

looks cool

[lamehawk]

Enough to give someone a good scare! Great mount!

[nicerack]

Nice =)

[Stevekcmo]

I would like to know how you did this mount. I tanned a gator hide last year for the first time and this looks great. It makes me want to do my next gator like this.

Do you mind telling my the process you went thru on this?

Thanks.

[bodysnatcher]

Looks great.

[ihunt47]

ohh god i would have
to much fun with that mount lmao

[fishindad]

That is GREAT! How did you tan the hide?

[HeneryHawk]

Hey guys if you were to do it without the head it is sooo much easier.

1st step is to flesh hide very well, I large spoons sharpened and pressure washer to clean it. Try not to blast water into the skin but go at it at a angle.

2nd step would be to clean the head out. This part takes a while. Using drills, chisels, die grinders, ect... Clean skull till there is only the very outside is left. On the lower jaw you have to cut out a strip because the is alot of fleshy *meat* inside it. Once you do that the teeth will want to fall out if you are not careful. You skin back everything that is not attached to the skull (like jaws).

3rd step is the easiest, I tanned it 2 days in Wasco's reptile tan. No checking ph or nothing. Probley is not the right way but its the way I did it.

4th step it remove hide to tan and towel dry. I rubbed borax (team mule I think was the brand) to help preserve and keep bugs out. Then I stapled mine to a piece of thin paneling, stuffing it to the shape I wanted with newspaper (I ended up replacing later with foam and fiberglass insulation). I wish I would have used a ripped down 1"x4" down the middle to stiffen up the paneling a little because it wanted to bend on me.

After it was good and dry I spray foamed the head area to kinda close the hole off because you can see inside it with the mouth open. Then used bondo to set the eyes in place (black marbles) and to fill the bullet hole up. 44 bangstick makes a pretty good mess. After that I cut panneling to shape and sewed it on with cat gut twine. After it dried I sprayed it with black rattle can and polyurethane to make it glossy. I had lot of help from dad and it would not have turned out as good without his help.

I would not mind giving a hand to someone in Bville, just be prepared its alot of work.

[dogindaily1207]

nice