Elk taxidermy. Question on eyes

[IrkedCitizen]

My Sister killed her biggest bull in 2023 and it is at the taxidermist waiting to be finished. The hold up seems to be locating a blind/dead eye. The bull was injured and his right eye was blind/foggy when she killed him and would like to have it incorporated into the mount.

A simple google search turns up a Payer 28/30/32mm Whitetail Deer blind eyes but no blind elk eyes. Payer elk eyes are available from 28mm to 40mm in 2mm increments.

I'm not a taxidermist so I'm not sure if there are shape differences aside from the MM sizes.

What say you all? Try the WT eye? Paint an elk eye? Or just say screw it and use a normal elk eye? Even with a normal eye he will still be a neat mount.

Been a year and a half at this point in time.




It's going to be this form but facing left to showcase his right brow tine and blind eye

 

[BigAntlerGetter]

My taxidermist is having trouble getting even regular eyes at times so I’m sure some specialty eyes are hard to get. He told me when they call him with stock of any eyes he would need he tries to order double so that he has a stock of them. And an eye isn’t as simple as just paying it cause it wouldn’t look like the foggyness was on the inside.

Ur taxidermist also knows what size eye you need, im betting ur gonna need bigger than a 32mm for a bull elk.

Ur trying to play god on a professional persons judgement, im sure if he could fit a whitetail eye he would go that route. Ur not doing anything special finding something as im sure thats his avenue of expertise. You wouldnt walk into the tire shop and tell the tire guy how to mount ur tires would you?

If you want the mount back have him put a normal eye in it and call it good, personally i would wait the extra time to have my animal look as close as it could to how it was.

I’ve had 2 different taxidermists do ducks for me one guy had a very fast turnaround (3months) the other didnt(12 month min). Price was within $50 of each other the guy with the longer turn around being $50 higher but i bet you can guess which duck came back looking better


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[butcherboy]

You’re going to need a bigger eye than a 32mm. The smallest elk eye I ever used was a 34mm. Most elk are done with a 36mm. It’s based on the socket size in the manikin. The bigger the form the bigger the eye socket. I did do a lot of animals that I had to drill out the eye socket to fit a bigger eye. The eye on the cape of an elk will be bigger than a whitetail. If you want to wait then see if Payer will make a custom eye but you might pay just a bit more for it. I think I would just mount the elk with a normal eye. I used a lot of eyes from Payer. Great eyes and way cheaper than some of the others out there.

 

[wytx]

Find a local artist to paint the glass eye.

 

[Indian Summer]

Paint it. Pretty simple for any taxidermist. I’m thinking a light mist of a satin finish clear coat maybe with an additive to make it slightly opaque.

 

[Weldor]

What about a costume shop ? see if they have a white out contact like in the horror movies and glue it on a regular eye. Amazon probably sells them?

 

[butcherboy]

It’s not actually that simple to just paint it. A glass eye is painted then a coating poured over it then usually baked to harden. When the mount is done the eye is sprayed with cleaner all the time, scraped with a scalpel to clean off clay. Once it’s finished and painted then it’s cleaned again and scraped to clean off the paint. It would probably work to actually glue something to the eye after the cape is painted and eye cleaned. I would probably pour a thin layer of epoxy with an additive and then cut it to the shape of the eye and glue it on. Cover with painters tape during the mounting and painting then peel it off nice and clean.

 

[Indian Summer]

I think that’s over complicating things a bit. You could probably scuff a glass eye with steel wool and then spray a clear for the wet look. I might go to a good local auto body shop if I wasn’t such a do it yourselfer.

 

[Turkeygetpwnd38]

I know Hayes taxidermy in Libby does the dead eyes for deer and bear. I think he does them in house, but I could be misremembering. Might be worth a call.

 

[butcherboy]

I think that’s over complicating things a bit. You could probably scuff a glass eye with steel wool and then spray a clear for the wet look. I might go to a good local auto body shop if I wasn’t such a do it yourselfer.

Definitely don’t scratch it with stelel wool to rough it up. Once a clear coat goes on it will show those scratches big time. It’s actually a pretty simple process to pour a thin layer of epoxy with a tint. Cuts very easily with a pair of scissors then it can be glued right over the existing eye. I know quite a few guys that used to make eyes for all the mounts they did. They quit doing it unless it’s a special and unique piece. It just takes away the time we could spend on another mount. Most that do a custom eye is usually for a competition piece. For a commercial piece some kind of method like I explained would be the easiest, fastest, and cheapest way to do it. If you do scuff up the eye then something like liquid crystal might work to fill in any scratches. Most importantly, I would talk to your taxidermist and find out his method or what he wants to do and come up with something you will be happy with.

 

[TaperPin]

Bad details make a mount look cheap. For me if it was high up on a tall wall, it probably doesn’t make a difference how the eye is whited out, but down lower anything short of a custom eye won’t look right if it isn’t lifelike. The reflection off a living eye is hard to duplicate with epoxy or spray paint.

 

[IrkedCitizen]

Thanks for the responses. Apparently I got my wheel squeaky enough for them to grease it. Got a text saying they found one.

 

[IrkedCitizen]

He is finished. Figured I would update.

 

[fuzzymarindave]

Well done! Very unique trophy there.