Knights Wildlife Studio

Today was like Christmas morning for me. I got my turkey back from last year. Big thank you to Knights Wildlife Studio for bringing him back to life!

Truly humbled to be inducted into the Georgia Taxidermist Association Hall of Fame class of 2021. Along with Jimmy Byrd, Henry Ford, Matt Thompson and Ronnie Bullock.

Oaklyn said the green duck is so soft!

A simple inexpensive pedestal mount is to use a cypress knee. The one in the first pic is 4’ tall. You will need a 12 piece of 1/4 key stock and a 6 piece of square tubing. The 12 piece of key stock is attached with bondo after drilling a 7/8 hole in the top of the knee with a spade bit . 6 is buried and 6 is exposed. The 6 tubing is also attached with bondo into the deer form after drilling with a 7/8 spade bit...just make sure to tape up the end going into the dee...r so the bondo does not get into the tubing. You can do this procedure before or after the deer is mounted. Clean off excess bondo as it firms up. Make sure to let bondo set for 24 hours before assembling the two pieces. Once assembled you can use the deer form for leverage and slowly bend the rod to make eyes level. Most customers don’t realize that sometimes a nice base is as much as the deer mount itself. Make sure to have the landowners permission before you cut anything. We don’t supply any cypress knees, but can help you assemble it if you bring one. The back of the deer is covered in Realtree cloth. But can be covered with a variety of patterns. This is just a simple and inexpensive way to display with a pedestal. The metal pieces can be purchased at most any metal fabrication shop. See more

Wooduck Merganser hybrid is finished.

HOOD DUCK... every once in a Blue moon a Taxidermist will receive the rarest of rare specimens. This is the case here. A Wood Duck -Hooded Merganser hybrid. In fact so rare that I decided to come in on my off day and go ahead and mount it. Since a trophy like this is irreplaceable and once in a lifetime I did not want to risk a bad freezer or other disaster that would cause the loss of this fowl. TOTALLY MY DECISION... customer has no idea I have done this. Just thought I w...ould share the process. I had many questions... would the head invert like a merganser, would the skin be tough like a diver, would he have that fish eater smell? What was in his stomach? Acorns or minnows? The answers are, yes head would invert easily, he fleshed like a ring neck, had no fish odor, unfortunately craw and stomach were empty of any contents. I mounted this bird old school... It’s this simple and I quote from Ed Thompson back in the day. Put back what you take out. There is not a drop of caulk in this bird. ( nothing against caulkers). I learned it’s about taxi ing the skin and pin in place. And using clay to build back muscle tissue along with wrapping to recreate muscle tissue. Here are a few pics of the process. Note on the one picture, the wire through the wood is pinched in place with drywall screws. This anchors the wire and will be cut off flush with a dremel tool. You don’t have to bend the wire over and staple. Also used cotton balls to fill the crop area. See more

Old squaw and pheasants on the menu today!

Just took in a Wood duck -Hooded Merganser hybrid.

Happy birthday to me... came in on my off day and mounted Geezer... the name given to this buck by my son Hunter. He was at least 8-1/2. He was a 4-1/2 in 2016. No one had ever seen him in the daylight although there were pictures of him in the daylight. You don’t see deer of this size in this area very often. He had a 8 eye to nose measurement and was 24 at the jaw with the skin on. I knew when I caped him he had a lot of loose skin in his neck area which meant he had rec...ently lost weight from the rut. These measurements are typical of the Wisconsin strain Midwest Whitetail along with the distinctive burgundy colored cap on his forehead. He had an 18-1/8 inside spread and 22 beams. He really never grew much antler wise after 4-1/2,. This goes to prove that a true trophy has nothing to do with score. This guy eluded many hunters including surrounding land owners who also had pictures and were pursuing this buck. That is until he had a Bipolar episode from a 165 express. I will post finished pictures at a later date. Plans are to pedestal mount him on the point of a large Cypress knee . The form was a McKenzie 6900 series. See more

Asking for help on this one for a customer. He shot this buck out of state recently and the buck ran and crashed into a rain swollen creek with heavy current. ...Apparently knocking his right antler off. After many hours of searching it was not recovered. Here is my question... I’m looking for a shed of a right side to try and match this rack up. Customer is sick about this buck of a lifetime for him, and is willing to pay for a matching shed so we can help him restore his buck. Main beam is 23. G-1 is 5, G-2 and G-3 9, G-4 4-1/2. H-1 is 5, H-2 4-1/2, H-3 4 and H-4 3-1/2. Any help is appreciated. Contact me here on Facebook, thanks in advance. See more

DEAR VALUED CUSTOMERS... EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY ANY MOUNTS THAT REQUIRE DRIFTWOOD WILL BE AN EXTRA $20.00. DUE TO INCREASED SHIPPING COST AND LOWER AVAILABILITY. WE HAVE ALWAYS INCLUDED DRIFTWOOD IN OUR PRICE, BUT SADLY DUE TO THE NEW ADMINISTRATION WE ARE ONLY KEEPING OUR BOTTOM LINE THE SAME. THANKS FOR YOUR BUSINESS AND UNDERSTANDING. THIS WILL PRETTY MUCH INCLUDE EVERYTHING EXCEPT SHOULDER MOUNTS. IM SURE MANY OF MY FELLOW WILDLIFE ARTIST THAT DO THIS FOR A LIVING WILL FOLLOW SUIT. Sincerely, Tim

Egyptian goose we just finished up for a customer!

Turkeys and ducks! Really cool mallard wooduck hybrid for hanging dead mount.

Magnum Black Duck. Biggest I’ve seen, and I’ve seen a few.