Choose your taxidermist well before the season opens. It will save you in the long run, and you're more likely to be happier with the finished mount.

Cape Your Own
Never, ever, slice a dead deer’s throat. It serves no purpose and causes an often irreparable scar that you won’t be happy with on your finished mount.

“The most common error we see,” says New York taxidermist Rick Streeter, “is a cape with four eye holes. This occurs when you cut into the membrane located right above the eyeball. To make sure this doesn’t happen, stick your finger into the animal’s eye socket and feel for the knife’s blade. The presence of your finger against the blade will hopefully guide you around the socket and stop you from cutting through the upper eyelid.

“The second most common error we see occurs when a hunter slices through the lip, leaving most of it attached to the skull and not the hide. The trick is to insert your finger inside the animal’s mouth and find the knife’s blade. Then cut inward and back toward the base of the jaw so that you do not cut across the lips. Your taxidermist will need at least a half-inch of lip all the way around in order to give you a realistic looking mount.

“When you get to the nose, stick your finger inside one nostril at a time and feel for the blade. You want to leave the animal’s nose on the hide, not the skull,” says Streeter.

If there is no freezer available, you must also turn the ears and split the lips. The lips are actually easy, but the ears are a bit tricky—get some first-hand experience from your taxidermist.

Transporting Your Trophy
Use a burlap bag, which allows air to circulate around the hide. You can also use an ice chest. Put the ice in a plastic bag, or keep a block of ice in the bottom of the chest with a piece of burlap used to separate the hide from the melting ice.

Salt can be used to draw moisture out of caped hides, reducing the risk of spoilage caused by bacteria. To properly salt a hide, you must rub the salt into the entire cape, especially on the deer’s face. Roll up the hide and store it in a cool area. Wait twenty-four hours and shake out any wet salt. Then re-salt the hide and hang it in a cool, dark area.

If the hide is not completely removed from the skull, you are better off freezing the whole head and cape, then transporting it to a taxidermist. If you freeze the cape, put it in a plastic bag. This is the only time—other than traveling on a commercial airplane—when it is mandatory, that a plastic bag should be used.