Mounting and Skull Caps

I personally feel as though if you are proud of the animal you harvested that you should either mount the entire head or maybe just the antlers if you are not willing to pay the price for a head mount.  I personally have two full head mounts from the years that I have been hunting, a big ten pointer that was taken with my gun and a tall, narrow, and massive thirteen pointer that was taken with my bow.  There was no way that I was not going to mount these based on how bit they were.  If you feel as though the animal can not be beat in your eyes go ahead and mount the head but be ready to pay for it, I believe my last one was around the five hundred dollar range.  A more money sensitive approach would be to skull cap it, this requires you to cut the antlers off the head usually right behind the eye and right in front of the ears is where I cut mine.  They can be decorated to look like a piece of art if done correctly.  I usually order a skull mount from a taxidermy magazine so all that needs to be done is screw the skull plate onto the mount then fill in the area over the skull but under the base of the antlers to make everything look uniform and even.  Usually we paint ours with a textured paint to give it an aesthetically pleasing look to the room but you can also cover the base in felt to give it the the same kind of pleasing look.  If you are proud of what you took mount it unless you cant afford it then skull cap it.  Happy hunting!