UPDATED....Got my goat back, but it's different.

[TedH]

Picked up my pronghorn tonight from the taxidermist. I was surprised to see the dark patches on his cheeks were a lot smaller and lighter than when he was on the hoof. Is it normal for those real dark cheek spots to fade during the process? I was starting to think they mixed up my hide with another customers, but I compared other markings and I'm convinced it's the same critter that I took in there, just don't get the changes in the color.

[Pisgah]

No personal experience of pronghorns except observing them on trips out west, but I think they have scent glands in that area. Could it be stains were cleaned or the glands removed during the taxidermy process?

[TedH]

I wondered about that myself, because I know whitetails have similar patches on their legs.

[tom deinek]

It's so nice, who would care?

[Blaine]

The color temperature of ligbt can cause a color shift......hunting pic seems like early or late which warms colors considerably. ...

[FWiedner]

Doesn't look like the same critter to me. The markings on the face don't seem the same from one photo to the other but the neck looks the same.

Could be the angle of the photo or a trick of the light like BG said.

The horns look the same to my eye.

But that's from a guy who's lookin' at photos of one side of a piled up antelope on the Internet.

As has been suggested, several factors of processing could change the appearance from that first DRT lovliness to the stately and picturesque mount we see before us.

Your taxidermist did a good job. It's a nice mount.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
That is a fine looking "goat" whichever way I would look at it.
Communications is one of the basics to all peace and harmony. I would give my taxidemist a call and kindly ask. It sure would beat always wondering.
Still a fine head to gander at.
Mike in Peru

[Pete44ru]

.

http://www.clairol.com/en-US/hair-color ... t-touch-up

[TedH]

Gentlemen, it's not that I'm unhappy with it, I am very pleased with how it turned out. Just curious about the change of the colors. I did a little poking around on the net and found that there is indeed scent glands there on the buck's cheeks, which I believe would collect dirt and be darker in color. The pic from the hunt was taken early in the morning as Blaine suggested, but I don't believe that was an issue here. I was always sure the horns were mine, but questioned the hide at first, but now I'm confident it's all mine. I tried all day to get a hold of my taxidermist just to ask about the scent glands, but he never answered the phone.

[Ravenman]

Nice trophy but I think the taxidermist used an other hide. If I look at the hunting picture the white section of the upper jaw shows a different pattern too.

[cshold]

Looks like a different hide to me as well Ted.

Look at the corner of the mouth in the field picture.

Notice how the brown over the bridge of the nose
extends down below the crease of the mouth?

In the mount picture it comes nowhere close to the
crease of the mouth let alone dropping below it.

[Don McDowell]

The cape you got back is off of a younger buck, and probably from a different gene pool.
Notice also that your buck had a split ear, and that might be the reason for the different cape, that split ear may not have skinned out real well.

[TedH]

Well now, I hadn't noticed the split ear Don. I'm afraid you may be right, but I was hoping that wasn't the case. Isn't that something I should have been told about by my taxidermist? I can see if some problem came up with my cape and he had to find another one, but I think he would have some obligation to inform the customer.

[rjohns94]

Nice goat. It's on my wish list

[Booger Bill]

This reminds me of a guy that died, undertaker called the widow to take a look at him before they put him on display. She said, well you did a nice job on elmer but he didnt dress in gray. He liked bright colors. Undertaker said wait in my office a little while and we will change his cloths. She sat at his desk and her elbow hit the intercom and she heard the undertaker yell out, "Hey otto. Will ya change heads on one and three?"

[Griff]

This reminds me of a guy that died, undertaker called the widow to take a look at him before they put him on display. She said, well you did a nice job on elmer but he didnt dress in gray. He liked bright colors. Undertaker said wait in my office a little while and we will change his cloths. She sat at his desk and her elbow hit the intercom and she heard the undertaker yell out, "Hey otto. Will ya change heads on one and three?"

Ted, I gotta agree with Don. You still got a nice lookin' buck! I don't know about taxidermist etiquette. But, I'd call.

[TedH]

Ok, so the more I stew about this, the madder I'm getting. I've brought myself to admit what I always knew in my head that it's not my animal. When I was at the taxidermist picking it up, I even made a comment to him that it looked a lot lighter in color than what I thought it had been. He didn't seem concerned, and I was just glad to have it back after a year long wait. Now I feel like I don't even want it. I spent a good deal of money on the hunt, time off work, a couple days of preseason scouting, planning, and finally the hunt and pulling the trigger on my first and only pronghorn. Now what I have isn't even MINE. I will certainly do my best to get to the bottom of it with the taxidermist, but I feel like if he was going to admit he did a cape swap he would have done it when I was there picking it up and commented about it being so much lighter in color. I don't have a good feeling about this......

[Don McDowell]

Take that picture of your buck that clearly shows the split ear, the larger black spot and the darker hair tone and face.

[PriseDeFer]

The old switcheroo. We went through this with Grand Dad, knew it wasn't him right off.

[TedH]

Finally got in touch with my taxidermist, and told him that I was pretty confident I didn't get my own cape back on my mount. He wasn't aware that it wasn't the cape I brought to him last fall. Some capes he does in-house, but he said pronghorn are a little different, so he sends those off to a tannery, and they must have some how got switched there. But the next thing he said made me feel a lot better, "What do I have to do to make it right?". I told him the only thing that would make it "right" was if by some miracle they could find my cape and send it back to him. He said the chances of that were slim to none, but to bring in the mount and some photos of my goat in the field for him to look at. After looking at the photos he agreed that it was a different cape. He was going to get in touch with the tannery and see what they can come up with. If they can come up with my cape, he said he would be glad to redo it, and even offered to redo it with another cape that looked closer to what mine looked like if they had one they could send him, or dye the cape that's here to more closely resemble my animal. Told him I probably wouldn't want that, because I would still know it wasn't my animal, and if they can't come up with my cape then I will just have to take what I got. So I guess we're on hold till he finds something out from the tannery.

[Rusty]

Well at least he sounds like he's being reasonable about it, trying to make it right. They probably figure a cape is a cape for the most part most people don't have pictures to compare them to and wouldn't look that close.

[Griff]

Well at least he sounds like he's being reasonable about it, trying to make it right. They probably figure a cape is a cape for the most part most people don't have pictures to compare them to and wouldn't look that close.

Admitting the error is a definite first step.

[Gobblerforge]

I know this isn't easy but after hearing the taxidermists answer, and knowing the chances of finding the correct hide, it's probably on another mount by now, I would just be happy with the mount I have. It's a good looking mount and it already has some good stories. These things are just memory and story starters anyhow and yours has both.
Party on.
Gobbler