have any of you mounted a rattle snake

[Hoosier Taxidermist]

Just wanted to know if any of you have mounted a rattle snake just want to know how hard it is.

[ruggedpirate]

real esey

[bill]

It is easy. but be careful of the fangs there are multiple rows of them.

[mountman]

got 6 in the freezer but havent tried any of them yet, just bought the reptile manual, pretty interesting read, if you want one michael pm me and we'll see what we can do

[jimb]

Snakes are mechanically fairly easy to put together.Like anything else,to do a good one takes some knowledge of the animal and good sound taxidermy techniques.This is a picture of the last one I did,using a hand-carved body(that is if I do this right)

[fishslayer13]

jimb, Thats a great looking mount ! excellent job. do you do any wholesale snakes ?

[jimb]

fishslayer13,I'm sorry I don't do wholesale work.I have trouble getting my own customers work done as it is.That one is a rare personal mount.It's hard to find time for those.

[kerby]

That head is really convincing! I've only carved a snake body one time....egads! Started off using commercial forms and was always frustrated....justly so. So now I just make my forms from the snakes that I'm going to mount. Alginate/Jeltrate, then bondo. Gives more flexibility and they are always accurate. And the cost is about the same (not counting the time LOL).

Have a few projects for this fall and winter in preparation for next year's competitions. I haven't competed in a few years. Next year I will be doing the New Mexico (only a few hours away), Kansas (I have family there) and then the Arizona (where I live) shows.

Here is an Arizona Black rattlesnake (Crotalus cerberus) from 1997. Repro cactus pads that I did as well.



Kerby...

[jimb]

Kerby,that's nice.I agree about the commercial forms.Great job on the cactus also.They look real.Those blacktails sure are pretty.I do a lot of carcass casting of snakes also.That head is actually a reproduction.I seem to get a better looking head with those.

[kerby]

I'm getting ready to do a few with repro heads as well. I'm going to do it 2 ways; first is to attached the skin right at the base of the head, as tight as I can get it; the other is to keep a few inches of the neck on the repro head, thus taking the focus point off the head, plus the scales will be larger down on the neck.

Kerby...

[jimb]

Not a rattlesnake but this was a fun project I did a couple years ago.It's a 5 foot African cobra and all I had to work with was a New Method,dry tanned skin.I made a measurement chart from the skin,covered the base in plastic,poured 10 lb. foam on that and carved the body out of the foam.No commercial forms for these guys.

[kerby]

I also like your idea with the plastic and pouring the foam, then carving.

I've done the plastic on the habitat, put the snake on it and then made a mold.

Kerby...

[deer4ager]

I an not sure if I can mount a rattle snake in North Carolina, I do want to try a snake though.

[eastartaxidermy]

jimb, kerby....those are very nice snake mounts, really life like..... i have mounted snakes, but try to stay away from doing them if i can. i have a 4 year old boy that is not scared of anything and my luck if was to see me mounting a snake, he would go out in the pasture and try to play with them.

[I once was thirtyeightspread]

i tried to mount a sidewindeer once..........them things areto low to the ground got catus needles in my knees