First Big Game Mount: White Tailed Deer

I have been interested in taxidermy for several years now and have completed only waterfowl. The mounts have come out pretty good and were surprisingly not that hard to do. Here are some of my mounts.

I also did a couple more but unfortunately do not have pics.

I decided when I got a pretty good buck this past year to try my hand a big game. This is a bit more intensive than the ducks due to the prep for the skin. These need to be tanned or they will be destroyed by bacteria. I will be updating as I go through the mounting process and for now, I have the antlers attached and the manikin prepped for the hide. I also did tan the skin but will not be documenting that process since I have never done that. I will see how it goes and if the tanning is good, next year I will document how to tan a skin.

For now, here is a quick video of how to attach the antlers to the manikin as well as how to finish them once installed.

Thanks for reading and watching!!! I will be putting more videos up as I finish the deer!

Finally found some headgear!!!!!

Well, I have been fishing a lot lately and not taking my two pointers out for late season pheasant hunting or shed hunting. I did notice on my deer cams that the deer on the property I hunt still had all of their headgear on well into late March. This would be the reason that I had been shed hunting several times with none to show. Here are some pics of the bucks with headgear in late March.

With the weather coming in I decided to take the dogs out for some shed hunting because the deer finally lost their racks and I thought maybe we will have some luck. As it turns out, we did. Both of my pointers found a single side of a rack which was pleasant because I was beginning to think they just had no interest in sheds. They both proved me wrong.

Was a cold morning and snowing at times quite heavily. We walked for about 4 miles and found these two antlers in the bushes. The amazing part was I never would have known they were there if the dogs had not found them.

Dogs did great finding them and bringing them back to me so I know have the pointers trained to find songbirds, squirrels, rabbits, pheasants, quail, and sheds. Great feeling when both dogs got a set. Here is one rub of note because I have not seen too many like this one. This was an extremely large deer note the diameter of the tree.

Great to be out in the woods with the dogs and have them working. They never cease to amaze me at their instincts when it comes to everything hunting.

How to install a pigtail on your trailer wiring

well here is a quick video on how to install a 4 way flat connector pigtail onto the trailer end of your boat wiring. I had a little mishap last week on the way home from Braidwood Lake and destroyed the plug. I purchased a pigtail end for under 5 dollars and had the water proof butt connectors so this was an easy and economical repair. Hope this helps somebody out there but I know most of you probably can do this type of repair already. I am planning on rewiring the whole trailer next year if I keep the boat. Thanks for reading and check out the video.

Braidwood Bass Fishing

Hey there guys! Just a quick little video I made fishing at Braidwood Lake. The fishing was good I would say but no big fish landed except the carp. All bass were 1-2.5lbs and came on a variety of presentations. We got them on deep diving crank baits, jigs, swim jigs, and chatterbaits. The colors were as varied as the presentations. The best colors seemed to be red, orange, brown, black on the chatterbait, and chartreuse. Fish were caught mostly on rock or wood that had access to deep water. Nothing was caught right up against the bank. Thanks for reading!!!

22 for 22 Shedding Light on Veteran Suicide

So, earlier this week I was nominated by my friend and fellow brother in arms Dan Roloff to do 22 push ups a day for 22 days to call attention the fact that 22 veteran brothers and sisters kill themselves every day. His message was simple, if you are hurting, please reach out to someone and do not leave the incredible void in the lives of your friends and loved ones that this action will cause. There are people like he and I who will listen if you reach out. I am starting mine right now and will be following through with my 22 of 22.

Unfortunately, I experienced one of my best friends and fishing partners following through with this act a little over a year ago and to this day, I am struggling to come to terms with his leaving. I miss him and have not felt like the grieving process has even begun. This small action will bring light to this issue and will hopefully catch on and many people will do the 22 for 22 so that maybe our veteran brothers and sisters will stay around a while. I also hope that this will give me a sense of doing something to honor my friends memory, and maybe in some way will help me process through this in my own life.

Thanks Dan, you are a true brother even though we do not see each other any more, I feel connected to you in a very special way! Well here it goes. Thanks and I am nominating every one of my friends that sees this to perform the 22 for 22 to honor our veteran brothers and sisters past, present, and especially, the ones who have passed on! Thanks for reading!!!!

Minn Kota Maxxum Control Box Repair

Ok, so I had a little mishap on the water several weeks ago and I leaned on my already cracked trolling motor control box and finished her off completely. The whole bottom cracked and one of the gears even fell out so I had no pointer disc for directional control. I temporarily fixed it until the parts arrived with some zip ties. You could probably tell I used to be a mechanic, we could fix anything with duct tape, zip ties, a hammer, and a prybar!!!!! I ordered the parts and was eagerly waiting for them.

In the mean time I could not help myself and went fishing anyway. I know it was cold but I went to Braidwood Lake. It is a cooling lake and the the water temps were anywhere from 55 to 70 degrees so no ice. After the last time I went out, I was tired of my boat looking like a hoopty, so when I got home, I made the repair.

This repair was not difficult at all. I made a little vid so you could check that out. It is a bit rough, but I will be putting more into these vids to increase the detail and better audio quality.



The only thing that was a bit difficult was the piece that held the cables for the pedal travel. Most people take the cables off of the black circle and then just mark one cable the lower or the upper so that they can remember which was which. I did not do it this way and just left the cables attached and scribed a line on the black piece and then another on the shaft so I could line the pedal up with no issue. I had no trouble and it seems to be working great. I will find out the next time I get her out on the water. If you have any questions you could put a comment on youtube or respond here and I will help out with whatever I can. Don't forget to check out my facebook page adventures midwest and if you like the vid don't forget to subscribe to my channel. Thanks for reading and watching if you check out the video!!!!!

How to clean your cork!

Well late winter is when I usually get my fishing gear cleaned because I have time now that hunting season is coming to an end. This secret is the magic erasure. It is an inexpensive way to make your fishing gear look and feel new.

All you do is take your magic erasure and wet just like you would to clean your sink and go over the cork or any other parts of the rod for that matter and voila, your rod looks and feels new. This only takes a couple of minutes per rod and it is worth it. I find that after I use my rods, the cork not only gets dirty but feels smooth and has no tack to it. After going over the cork with a magic erasure, that tack is present and the rod feels new.

Here they are before the cleaning.

And here they are after cleaning with the magic erasure.

So go ahead and give this a try to restore your fishing gear to new condition!