Got a few of these guys put back together last week. The freeze dried velvet looks really sweet on the euros, and is a great option if you don't have room for a shoulder mount. You can kind of tell from the pictures, but by freeze drying the antlers, I get hardly zero shrinkage in the tips of the antlers and absolutely no color loss from the velvet. This means that no matter what stage of growth the antlers are in, I can preserve them to look just like they where when the animal was alive. If you want your antlers to look like they did when you shot it, freeze drying the velvet is the only way to go

That second one looks familiar.

Do you cut the antlers off and freeze dry, or is your machine big enough to fit the whole thing?

How do you re-attach if you cut them off?

Thanks.

Yes, the antlers are cut off the skull before they go in the freeze dryer, the skull has to be cleaned separately from the antlers. The antlers are re-attached by drilling holes in the both the skull and the antler, setting a post in the skull and placing the antlers back in position

Taylor does great work. He did a velvet axis wall pedestal for me last year where the velvet had torn when the deer hit the ground. Taylor sewed the velvet and then freeze dried; you can't even tell there was as tear ever there.

Taylor is the only taxidermy I trust in, or near the hill country.

Thanks rborn, your buck was a fun little project, I was happy we could get it put back together for you

Here's a before picture of antlers and tattered velvet


and here's the buck drying just after I finished mounting him