How to Cape a Deer for Mounting

Before you can have a deer head mounted, you'll need to cape it.

Every once in a while, a hunter shoots a deer that is a truly extraordinary specimen. If you're that hunter, this is a deer you'll brag about for the rest of your life. It's a deer your friends will envy and your family will be proud of. It's confirmation of your hunting prowess, and it needs to be hung in a prominent spot. If you have a deer and want the head mounted, you must enlist the services of a reputable taxidermist. But before your deer head can be mounted, you must cape the deer.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Skinning knife
• Surgical gloves
• Cooler

1. Sharpen your skinning knife. A dull knife will be difficult to use, and the edges of the cape will be ragged instead of smooth.

2. Put on a pair of surgical gloves. Although there won't be a great deal of blood, there will be some. Surgical gloves will keep your hands clean while giving you a full range of motion as you slice the deer's skin. Wear old clothing.

3. Hang your deer. The best way to do this is to tie a rope just above each of the deer's hocks. Toss the loose ends of the rope over a tree branch. Pull on the rope until the deer's entire body is suspended. Tie off the ropes.

4. Place the tip of your skinning knife against the deer's sternum, just behind its heart girth. Puncture the skin.

5. Slide the tip of the skinning knife in a continuous line around the deer's body. Slice a circle in the skin around both of the knees.

6. Grasp the deer's left front leg. Run the tip of your skinning knife in a straight line from the back of the deer's knee to your previous cut. Repeat the process with the right front leg.

7. Grasp the skin, and gradually start pulling downward. Use your knife as little as possible. Continue pulling the skin from the deer's body until you are about an inch from the deer's ears.

8. Mark a spot on the neck about three inches away from the head. Cut through all of the neck muscle.

9. Grasp the head in both hands and give a quick twist. This will remove the head from the body.

10. Place the head and flapping skin in a cooler and take it to the taxidermist. Take the rest of the deer's body to a slaughterhouse to be turned into venison for your freezer.