The Process:

The great thing about Mid-State Taxidermy is that every part of the process is done in-house. Here is a trophy Whitetail being prepared for the tanning process:

 

	First and foremost, the hide must be removed from the carcuss behind the front shoulders. Here, William begins to skin the head beginning at the mouth of the buck.
	He will skin the buck's face almost all the way to the eyes.
	Now he will make a triangular incision on the top of the buck's head to begin skinning around the antlers.
	Here he will skin around the base of both antlers.
The hide is then peeled away from the skull as he works towards the front of the skull.
	The hide is then placed in a garbage bag for storing.
Eventually, once the excess flesh has been removed from the hide, the hide ends up in a vat containing a tanning solution where it will remain for 4 to 5 days.

 

Here a trophy class Bull Elk is prepared for a european skull mount:

 

	Once again, William makes a traingular incision on the top of the skull.
Because this European mount will utilize a reproduction skull, only the removal of the skull cap is required.
	All that remains is the removal of the skull cap. For this any saw can be used. Here he uses a sawzall.
	Now that the skull cap has been removed, all that remains is to remove the antlers from the base and mount them on the reproduction skull.