Fixing a broken goat

[OntarioHunter]

This goat was shot by my brother's late father-in-law, 1955 on the mountain above my parents' lake cabin. Several years ago some kids at a nephew's pot party twisted off one horn to make a pipe. Thankfully they couldn't get the other one off. Mike threw it in a closet and forgot about it. But the moths didn't! Last year he dug it out and asked if I might be able to do something with it. What a filthy mess! But Mike was very close to Menno and I knew that goat meant a lot him. So what the hell, I'll give it a shot. Not the greatest taxidermy work back then and a lot of moth damage but I managed to make it presentable.

I used the old horn to cast a new one. My daughter painted it. See if you can tell which one is real. Keep in mind the replica is bone white. I'll post a photo answer later.

Figured there might be some money in this kind of work since it's not uncommon for goats to fall off ledges when shot and break a horn.

Edit: Nothing wrong with the goat's left eye. Just reflection from the camera flash. Prior to the "before" photo she repaired cracked nose and repainted eyelids.

 

[runningmt]

Your daughter has some artistic talent! Great job!

I love old taxidermy, and this one is pretty awesome!

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

That is very impressive. I'm always blown away by taxidermists ability to fix things.

I shot a busted up bull and my buddy offered to fix all the tines. The lack of symmetry definitely bugged me, so I was all for it. Honestly, it took me a second to figure out which tines were the real ones and which were the fake ones.

 

[ChaosOneZero]

Same thing happened to a nice whitetail buck my great grandfather killed many years ago. Ended up breaking off a brow tine, and the taxidermist was able to fabricate one and you can’t even tell. Next time I’m at my dad’s house, I’ll take a pic and edit this post to add it.

 

[OntarioHunter]

Thanks guys. I'll pass that on to her. She has certainly become a master with paints and very quickly. We are now getting orders from out of province to do fish ("Superior TaxiderMiss"). She may have to teach me so we can keep up.

To answer the question in initial post, here's photo of the horns shot from a different angle. Left one is the fake.

 

[OntarioHunter]

Working on another resurrection project now: a huge winterkill whitetail I found circa 1966. 9x8 (possibly 9x9) and I'm guessing it would have scored at least 175 ... before a couple of points disappeared. Hard to tell if they broke off or rotted? Didn't appear to be rodent damage as the edges at breaks were too rough. Before I found it some punk with a .410 blasted the bleached skull twice and broke it in two. We finished rebuilding the points today and have ordered the paint. This guy will be a beauty when finished. Quite a story about the special place and time when I found it. And his son who was even more spectacular. If it turns out well this rack will definitely deserve a shoulder mount for my daughter's showroom. Look for another thread soon with photos of progress in stages.