Wood Deer Taxidermy

This is how I made my Wood deer taxidermy display. I made this as gift for the land owner for where I hunt. I gave him this for people to put there name on if they shot and miss and don't get an actual deer. It looks cool for any room, also looks cool in a trophy room with real mounted deer. This was pretty easy to make. I made templates on paper and traced them onto wood. Did some sanding and staining and was pretty much done. Add a few screws and your done. I did the cutting with a jig saw.

Tools and Supplies

wood

screws

sand paper

pencil

paper

screws

stain

jig saw

drill

drill bit

Before I did any cutting I first made templates out of paper to be traced onto pieces of wood. There were three different templates that I made. If you search around online you might be able to find some templates and resize them to a size that works for you. I drew my templates by free hand looking at images of deer heads. I started with the head part I used a normal size sheet of paper using the edge to be the flat part that will go against the wall. Then I started with the top of the head finishing with the nose. Then make the bottom of the chin and neck. I might take a couple try's just get some paper and start drawing till you get a good template. Then I made the antlers this also took a couple goes at it. At first I made them not wide enough and had to modify them so that they were a bigger spread. You can make them how every many point you want.. They don't have to be the same. The last template was the easiest to make which was the wall mount, I folded a sheet of paper and half and drew half of the wall plack. I then cut out all the templates with a scissors.

After you have your template made now trace them onto your wood. The head piece was traced onto a 2 inch piece of wood. I had some scrap wood in the garage that I used. Try to trace your template where theres not any knots on the wood. Or if there is a knot you can line it up so that it will be the eye of the deer. I used a pencil to trace it then a jig saw to cut it. It not to hard to cut I made a few cuts at a time and then connected them. Then I traced and cut the antlers, I traced the antlers template on a 1 inch piece of wood I believe pine. The one thing with theses is to make the the part that get screwed to the head flat so it sits flush with the head. I cut these with the jig saw also. Then lastly I cut the wall mount this was the easiest one to cut.

After you have all your pieces cut take a finishing sander and sand them all down. To get in the corners of the antlers I used my hand to paper to sand. Make sure to get all sides and edges making them smooth. I used one screw to attach each antler. Screwing at an angle to make sure it was connected good. I pre drilled the hole so the wood wouldn't split. Place the antlers where you think they look the best. You could also make small ears to attach. I then made sure the back wall piece was centered and screwed that down.

I stained the head piece and wall mount but not the antlers. I stained the head without the antlers attached. I used the same stain for the head and the wall mount. You could use different colors for these. The stain I used was a little darker than I wanted. Make sure to stain it evenly cause you can see all sides of the of the head.