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Bear Mount with Bad Odor - What to do

Saw several good responses to the bear loosing hair question and thought maybe someone could help me. I have a bear shoulder mount that has a bad chemical type odor. Kept waiting for it to finally go away, but after 14 years I don't guess it's going to. The mount was placed on a form that was too small for the hide. Any ideas on getting rid of the odor?

just give it time!

What do you think? Another 14 years or so. I'm half blind and can hardly hear now...maybe I won't be able to smell by then and it'll be a moot point.

Frebeeze Should help but just like I said in the other post, it was probally not tanned right.

Take regular Lemon Pledge spray on a soft cloth and wipe your mount down with the grain on a regular basis.This not only keeps the hair clean and glossy it will also aleviate any offensive smells you may have.

I have the same problem with a full mount and my taxidermist tells me it is caused by humididty and that spraying it with frebreeze will only make it worse..and it does smell worse when humid kinda a wet dog smell

I agree with BouBound, I mean come on already if you just give it a little more time and quit being so impatient it will be just fine???

Look I bet you by 2018 this wont be such an issue for you and you will laugh at how impatient you were about the smell going away. Just my opinion!!!!!

:0)

the other option is to use it for bait!

it has the smell and the look. a true decoy of sorts

set it up in the woods, put a stand over it, and see what comes in

have you considered giving it a shower?

had a girlfriend with the same odor you describe............kinda like a wet dog. the shower thing worked!! and i wasn't going to give it 14 years.

You go to a good taxidermist next time!

The good taxidermist suggestion is best. It smells because it was not properly tanned (commercially). All fatty burbearers need to be comercially tanned before mounting. Otherwise, the oils are not all removed from the skin, and it smells. Also may be the tanning chemicals that were used. Sounds like half-assed taxidermy at best. There are some spray on agents to kill foul odors, but I have had no luck with them. Best suggestion is to shoot another bear and have it done right. I am talking from 20 years of taxidermy experience, and getting this same type of question asked many times. Sorry for the blunt answer.

www.allhunts.com

Try this. Take the mount outside and wash it with a mixture of 30% Pinesol, 30% Downey fabric Softener and 30% water. Basically just wash it like you would shampoo your own hair. Let it sit for 20 minutes. Then rinse it off with a hose. Blow it dry with compressed air(if you have it) or a leaf blower, or a vaccuum or at the very least a blow dryer. I use this method on Catalina goats to kill the smell. You have nothing to loose.

Hugh

Thanks. I'll try all of these (saving the bait suggestion for last)

You could always give it to the mother in law! :o!!

Ask your taxidermist if he used dry preservative to preserve the skin. I he did, THATs your problem!

PIG DOC THAT IS ONE OF THE FUNNIEST THINGS I'VE READ IN A LONG TIME. I HAVE 15 YEARS AS A TAXIDERMIST , MORE THAN LIKELY A BAD TAN OR (NON-TAN) FROM A TAXIDERMIST CUTTING CORNERS. TOO BAD

Pig Doc RIGHT ON LOL

LOL omg this thread so damn funny im in tears laughing my ass off!

???? I had a Coyote mounted three (3) years ago and a Bear mounted two (2) years ago which both had a rancid sickening odor after they were mounted. I tried pet carpet cleaner on them and left both in my Sunroom for 5-6 weeks each in the Summer with no success??. I had to keep them in the basement due to the odor (Not humid in the basement!). I frequently would take a wet towel after bathing and wipe them down with no relief either! I sprayed them with different household cleaning products too frequently. I tried a bottle of OdorXit I ordered over a period of time which helped somewhat. I finally bought large leaf bags, baking soda and a bottle of Poof; I powdered and sprayed both mounts and set them in a sunny window for a few weeks each with the top of the bag cracked. Later, I dusted the mounts, and I still continue to spray a second bottle of Poof on them periodically. Good news, I have to get very close to smell the grease stink now. I just got a new rescue RedTick and Poof worked on an accident on my wife’s carpet also! I also sprayed Permethrin on the mounts just in case too! I had thought about hosing the mounts off, but now I might simply try the Windex treatment mentioned by others instead, and spray on a flagrant aerosol or something. Then, I may be able to bring the mounts out of my basement Man-Cave. These are the only mounts I have had stink too. Note: I carry Dawn Soap, five (5) gallon buckets of water and a cooler with ice jugs and water on my truck, and de-bone Critters and pack them out before taking them home. I soak the hides in a buckets with some Dawn Soap on the way home, and then I rinse and salt the hides thoroughly when I get home, and freeze the hides if I don’t immediately have a Taxidermist lined up.

It's almost Halloween, stick it outside by the front door to cut down on the candy bill!

Do not soak your raw skins in a Dawn liquid solution. Introducing extra moisture without immediately rinsing and draining then salting is a potential for slipping of the hair. Dawn soap is somewhat alkaline. This will actually speed up hair slipping if not rinsed out. Just keep the hides cool while traveling and freeze before getting to a taxidermist. A salted hide also does not completely freeze in a freezer anyway. An improperly salted hide before fleshing can be a real pain to flesh for the taxidermist.

Still smells after 15 years?

Yes, not properly de-greased. I have done some bear and de-greasing is the big one, commercial tan or in house tan. Dry Preservative on bear should not be considered. I degrease every step and then do it again.

I doubt it would help but you could run a ozone machine in that room. The kind you run for 2 hours and need to leave the house. 6,000 mg/h ozone generator for 2 hours is my suggestion.

Smells= bacteria eating food source (improper tanned hide)

You may be interrupting the bacteria with some of those remedies. Thus reduces smell for a while. Until the food source (bad hide) is eliminated.

The problem will be there. Not a good thing, needs to be monitored weekly as it is an attraction for more problems, which will eventually infect the rest of the mounts.

Throw it away or if it is possible get it redone correctly.

Not wise to have a stinking hide in the house.

so its been smelling since 1995? I'd be use to it by now...

the post started in 2009....

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