Jarbidge Archery Bull Almst Home To Cali
Elk
I shot this bull in the wilderness on opening day last year. He was full velvet when I harvested him with my bow. Between processing the elk, the pack out and the ride back to Cali, the velvet was not in good shape. We decided to strip it down and my taxi just sent me these pics. I have to make a decisions as to stain the antlers or leave them freshly stripped. I am leaning towards leaving it as is, but how often do you shoot a bull with white antlers? I'm sure it would of only taken this bull a few days to darken his head gear. What say you?
I would lean toward stain...
Nice bull! Congratulations! I have had the taxidermist stain deer and caribou I stripped. Came out excellent. Never killed a bull elk in velvet short of some spikes and small rag horns.
Do you like him white? Your critter in your house, likely for a long time. Good luck with the decision.
I would say stain them, but he is your bull!
The fake velvet is difficult to get right. Maybe your taxidermist could match it up to your picture though. That would be really cool if he could get it matched up for color and coverage to match the picture.
Fake velvet, when done right, can look amazing. Most often it does not.
If you're VERY CERTAIN your guy can do it right, I'd go that route. However, it may add significant cost to your taxidermy.
Otherwise I'd stain, as the white antlers look "odd" to me. But even stain can be done "right" or "wrong". You need to be sure your taxidermist can do it "right".
Ultimately it's your trophy so you make the decision - good luck!
And congrats on a beautiful bull!
Nice bull! Stain. Fake velvet looks fake.
stain
fake velvet is great stuff and exactly as advertised..............fake.
I agree with the other comments. Fake velvet looks less than natural. I would stain the antlers, but there are various shades.....lighter vs darker, orangish vs brownish, etc.....decisions, decisions....
I've heard reviews, not great ones, about the fake velvet. Plus the cost is approx $2,500/ to have it "flocked" (with shipping out of state), in addition to the $1,500/ for the mount. I've made the decision to keep it hard horned.... Thanks for the feed back on staining, sounds like most would stain em...
I would also stain. I stained two caribou bulls that I stripped velvet off of and I am glad I did. They look great!
Congrats on a great bull!
Stained for sure. I've never seen a bull with white antlers....
Your call on what you want. I shot (rifle) a mountain caribou in full velvet. The velvet got destroyed in the very long horse pack out. I elected to go with fake velvet. The color of the fake is different than the real velvet. But I think it looks great. It was pretty spendy though, I believe $500 and that was about eight years ago. It is a heck of a rack so I suspect that an elk would be in that ball park.
Dale, would you mind a picture?
That sounds way high for the fake velvet at $2500! Would definitely be stain at that price!
Left one was stripped and stained. Right one was stripped and then had the synthetic applied.
Left one was stripped and stained. Right one was stripped and then had the synthetic applied.
Moose in velvet
Moose in velvet
Moose stained
Moose stained
I like synthetic velvet and I like staining white antlers:)
The Moose euro on the ground was in velvet when I shot it but the velvet was coming off that day so I stained that one myself.
Congrats on a tremendous elk.
spend the money and fake velvet - and if he can do it, use the pictures you have to hang strips - that's a unique bull to get in velvet !!
Fake velvet generally looks really fake, too perfect. Unless someone has a taxidermist who can really artfully distresses it, I would advise against it.
I'd tend to leave it (in fact, I have left a couple bucks white where I lost the velvet), or as a distant second stain it.
I think a big problem with fake velvet is the lack of added “skin” over the antlers. If you have ever killed a solid velvet animal you know how full and big it looks. Even preserving the original velvet it looks dried out and shrunken after they drain the blood. If you have stripped fresh velvet you know how thick the skin is over the antler.
Would be nice if there was a way to recreate that look. Maybe a taxidermist can chime in, but I’m thinking maybe dip the antlers in latex, or some other coating to add the “skin” back then flock the “velvet” hair on?
Nice bull! I would stain. The reason we rarely see a hard horned elk with white antlers is that they don't strip it all in one shot. By the time they are done shedding, much of their antlers have already started taking on a stain. White antlers without shredded velvet hanging off and a few spots of velvet still intact looks unnatural.
With all the animals you harvest, I would think you use the same Taxi over the years?
He should be able to work with you on the cost ($2,500.00--No Way)
Seeing as your bull looked so Unique with the velvet...…
Tough call, whatever you decide is best for you though.
Good luck, Robb
I’ve seen the ‘best’ artificial velvet and personally I wouldn’t be happy with it. If that was my bull I would probably leave as is. Or, you can always add stain later if desired. I’d want to find someone who is really, really good at it.
NorCal explained in his post, to me anyway, that the taxidermist doing the work does not do the flocking and it has to be sent out additionally for the work.
I would shop around near home to get a quality job done and get him put back just how he is in that picture. That is a very unique look and I’d try everything to get it to how he was in the field.
I’d call Mogollon Taxidermy in AZ because that Coues deer they did is the best I’ve ever seen.
But between white and stained I’d get the stain.
Stain. When I see a set of white antlers, I think of game farm animals.
Do the flocking yourself it's easy. Would be a pita but it's not hard.
Stain. Those antlers just do not look right.
If I was going to do the artificial and make it look like when you killed it, I'd go with Dennis. Check my link...
Shrewski,
Are you saying that the Coues in your picture had fake velvet? I do think that Coues with fake velvet do look better than the other species. I think it must be related to the lighter color silver velvet versus the brown colors they use on mule deer, etc.
Marvin, I may be confused. PM me your phone number and I will text you a couple pics.
Regardless, if I killed that bull in full velvet, I would research the heck out of who does the best fake velvet and schedule a vacation around getting that done.
Went ahead with the stain, I’ll post a pic up next week. If I find someone to do the velvet and it makes sense financially, I’ll do that down the road. Thanks for all the feedback.
