The hunter did a double-take—was it really what he thought it was? In plain sight were two long-dead skulls of two whitetail bucks, locked forever, from a battle old as time. The hunter, Wes Archer, one of my long-time clients, told me of his find. I told him that many years ago I had mounted a pair like that with a lot of difficulty. Ten years passed. Wes took the skulls out of his closet, walked in my shop with them, and said, “Let’s do the damn thing.” Taxidermists learn every day, and trial-and-error must be prominent in our DNA. All locked bucks are not locked alike!

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A bluegill probably represents a fisherman’s first fish over other species of freshwater fish. They are fun to catch, great to eat, and make very attractive mounts. When I was building my taxidermy clientele back in the early 1960s and 1970s, I completed three stringer mounts of bluegills, with a few other members of the sunfish family added in. They were displayed with my name attached in the three largest sporting goods retailers in my area. Bluegills are easy to skin, mount and paint, and stringer mounts represent what most freshwater fishermen bring home from the rivers and bayous here in Louisiana. I cannot begin to calculate how much fish taxidermy these three displays brought to my growing business. Even though bass were number one on my volume list, bluegills were number two, followed by crappies. That’s because I would get 10 to 12 stringer mounts of bluegill to do every year, with 5 to 7 fish on each stringer.

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Glenn’s short story started just as Glen Browning's always did with information about the subject, and it sucked me right in thinking it was from “Mr. Bird Man Browning,” with me even thinking that it is really ironic that we both had wives with fathers of the same name. I am still laughing at myself as the rest of the second paragraph finally brought me back to earth. John Moody and Glenn Moore are two of the finest men I have had the pleasure to know, and this excellent short story, by and about family, is something we had to share. After all, it came to us right before Christmas 2020 as we were being told families should not gather because of the pandemic.

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As long as many of us can remember, we’ve been attracted to wildlife. Your first introduction of silhouettes may have been in a book or a road sign depicting a whitetail deer, moose, or bear.

Millions of years ago, you would have needed to determine friend from foe; collecting data by the silhouette was probably the first tell. One can feature a hunter setting out mornings in a westward direction, while in evenings east, being aware of his own silhouette.

That’s how important the top line or silhouette is. When recreating wildlife, does your silhouette depict the species, or does it send mixed messages?

In this series of articles, we’ll explore visual similarities and differences in detail. Whether you’re committed to absolute realism or pushing the envelope toward taking artistic liberties, we’ll compare reference through various mediums, leaving your art to complete this study. This article is primarily about the similarities in kit foxes, red foxes, bobcats, and coyotes, however, it pertains to many other species.

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Let me start this article by telling you that most of what I’m going to say is opinion-based, so feel free to choose what you want to believe and what you don’t. Also, I want to say that my opinion about competing with whitetails has treated me well the past few years, allowing me to win array of awards, including 2019 World Champion Whitetail.

It is often said that competing with a whitetail deer is harder than with any other species. Is this true? In my opinion it’s not harder, but it is different. Allow me elaborate a bit on this subject.

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