Activities, Hunting Experiences
08 January 2025
After a successful stalk of a deer comes the time-honoured tradition of preparing a trophy for mounting.
It’s a process that takes precision, patience, and respect – and with a few key tools, can be done anywhere. Let’s take a look at the process of preparing a deer trophy for export at Poronui Lodge.
We happily accommodate any mounting requests at Poronui. Guests can preserve the skull and antlers of a deer as a single item for a homestead aesthetic. We’ve also prepared deer and other animals for full body mounts – an impressive display and conversation point in any home. Additionally, we have a lot of experience with the European mount, where the top part of the skull and antlers are preserved for an attractive wall feature.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the process of preparing a shoulder mount, an enduring mount that proudly displays the deer’s head, neck and shoulders.
Caping is the process of removing the skin before it can be sent to an expediter and taxidermist for preservation.
Your guide will generally be the person to prepare the cape of your deer. Caping begins with a cut around the deer’s midsection, just in front of the rear legs or the pizzle, before making a split down the spine of the deer up to the back of the skull. The idea is to preserve as much skin as possible; the taxidermist may not need all of it, but it increases the chance of a successful mount.
From here, the cape is carefully peeled toward the head, leaving as little meat on it as possible.
Then it is a matter of removing the skin from the skull. Since the forward-facing parts of the deer are going to be the most visible, and this skin is more delicate, your guide will work slowly to free the skin from the skull with care. Working from the snout and cleaning around the lips makes for easier work and a cleaner skin, with as much tissue as possible left on the skin here.
Our guides are skilled at cape preparation, taking care to work around the waxy hollow of the scent glands, the thin but durable skin around the eye, and severing the optic nerves to free up the cape.
The front and back parts of the cape meet at the antlers. Good preparation involves making a Y-shaped cut that connects the spine to the pedicles where the antlers meet the skull. The skin here often requires extra leverage, so a blunt prying tool can free the skin from the pedicle without damaging either skin or skull.
At this point, the cape can be removed in one piece, ready for preparation for the expediter.
Once the cape has been removed, and the skull detached from the spine, your guide will start measuring the deer antlers to determine the Safari Club International SCI score.
The SCI scoring system provides a standardised measure for trophies, specifically for antlers. This process involves taking a tape measure up various main trunks of the antler and measuring more than a dozen points and kickers.
The sum of these measurements produces the SCI score, a crucial metric of the quality of your trophy. This score not only quantifies the size of the trophy but also serves as a testament to the skill and patience of the hunter.
Because trophies and mounts are an important part of a successful hunt at Poronui Lodge, we have established a reliable network of experts who will deliver your trophy to you.
After the cape is removed, it needs to be prepared to be shipped to John Mitchell at NZ Expediters in Taupo. The skin is wrapped in a heavy-duty cling film, tagged clearly with your details, and then deep frozen to make sure it remains in the best possible condition, along with the skull and antlers.
The expediter then begins the complex process of preparing the cape for preservation, including cleaning up and dry salting the skins, and cleaning the skulls. They will preserve and treat the skin according to Aotearoa New Zealand’s export rules, and the import rules of your local jurisdiction, along with all the necessary paperwork. Your cape and skull will move through customs with ease.
It takes around three months for your trophy to get to your home country, where our taxidermist contacts will prepare the final mount. Typically, the cape is placed on a lightweight foam shoulder mount, with the skull cap and antlers (as if from a Euro mount) placed onto the mould for presentation.
The final product, when it arrives at your door, will be an impressive shoulder mount that you can display as a proud reminder of your hunting skill and experience at Poronui.
Want to ask a question about Poronui, personalise your vacation with bespoke itinerary options or find out about available dates?
Simply fill in your name and contact email address with a short message and we will get back to you.
