Processing and registration of hunting trophies. Primary processing of wild boar trophies in the field Trophy - tusks on a medallion
Many hunters and gamekeepers are interested in the question of how to immortalize their prey as a taxidermy product and what should be the initial processing of wild boar trophies in the field. This question is considered one of the most interesting for trophy hunters - people for whom the main goal of hunting is the extraction of a trophy animal. Hunters in this category are faced, willy-nilly, with the production of a taxidermy product from the animal they hunted. They must remember that the hunters do the first phases of perpetuating their trophy themselves, when the animal is skinned in the field. And the quality of further production of taxidermy products by taxidermists depends on these first very important steps.
Primary processing of wild boar trophies in the field
The hunter needs to know that the following trophies can be made from a boar. This is a full-size stuffed animal, a chest-length stuffed animal, a stuffed head with an open or closed mouth, as well as a carpet with a three-dimensional head, fangs on a medallion, a skull on a stand, and a hoof as a pencil holder.
It is worth first reminding hunters of the basic rules for skinning (or skinning) a wild boar for the purpose of making a trophy. All cuts, in order not to damage the hair, are made from the side of the mesra (from the nutria), but not from the side where the hairline is. The cuts should be made along a single straight line, without side cuts.
Full-size stuffed animal, also a carpet with a three-dimensional head
The skin is removed in layers for this purpose. Incisions are made on the boar exactly along the abdominal side. In this case, the cut should not reach 15-20 cm to the lower lip. If you have the opportunity to deliver the trophy to a taxidermy workshop within 2 days (in autumn) and up to 5 days (in winter), then the skin does not need to be removed from the head. It will be enough to use a knife to separate the head from the neck along the last vertebra. The hooves are cut off at the joint. The skin must be stored in a ventilated, cool place.
The skin can be placed in a plastic bag only for the duration of transportation, and the bag must remain open.
Stuffed boar head
A circular incision is made behind the front hooves. It is worth noting that one of the most serious mistakes is that sometimes the head is cut off just behind the ears. Next, circular incisions are made on the front legs in the area of the elbow joint. Once again I would like to remind you that a longitudinal incision is made only along the chest of the boar.
Trophy - fangs on a medallion
Tusks are separately considered an independent trophy, therefore, when making a stuffed boar's head, hunters often use artificial tusks, which are cast in the shape of natural tusks and made of high-quality plastic. Fangs made in this way do not differ at all from the original ones. And the original fangs, after special processing, are mounted on an artistically designed stand, often made of valuable wood. This type of trophy looks impressive on a carved medallion with a bas-relief of a running boar and framed by oak leaves with acorns. At the customer's request, the date and place of harvesting of the cleaver can be engraved at the bottom of the medallion.
To make such a trophy, fangs and bone are cut out with an ax according to a special pattern. Fangs cannot be immediately cut off behind the visible part of the fang, since it must be remembered that any fang has a root that is longer than the protruding (visible) part of it. Under no circumstances should you try to boil the fangs yourself, since this stage has its own characteristics. This should be done by a professional taxidermist.
Boar trophy - skull on a stand
This type of trophy attracts the attention of collectors with its special shape and proportions. To make this type of trophy, the head should be separated from the neck along the last vertebra, without touching the skull. It is not recommended to pull out the skull yourself, as this procedure requires skill. It is worth knowing that failure to follow the step-by-step special technology for boiling the skull can lead to cracking of the fangs. It is better to deliver the skull to the workshop in its raw form.
Trophy - a hoof in the shape of a pencil holder
To make this souvenir, you need to cut off the boar's leg at the hock joint. If the material is delivered to the workshop within 3 days or is frozen, then there is simply no need to remove the skin. But otherwise the skin is removed from the leg.
If it is not possible for you to deliver the trophy to the taxidermy workshop within 2 days (in autumn) and up to 3-5 days (in winter), the following manipulations must be carried out with the skin. Let's consider this procedure step by step.
The skin is completely removed from the head. The auditory canals are cut, and as close to the skull as possible. The skin around the lips and eyes is carefully trimmed. Around the eyes, the skin is trimmed along the bone of the eye socket to avoid cutting the eyelids. The entire patch is cut off along the nasal cartilage.
Particular attention should be paid to ear preparation. To do this, it is enough to separate the skin of the ear from the cartilage, but always along the back surface of the ear. For work, you should use a sharp pocket knife or scalpel. And cutting off the junction of the cartilage with the skin, we gradually turn the ear inside out.
To better supply salt to all areas of the flesh, where there is a large amount of fat and muscle, transverse and longitudinal “cuts” or notches are made, with a frequency of up to 1.5 cm. It is necessary to carefully rub a large amount of salt into the resulting notches.
The tail also needs to be prepared. To do this, you need to make an incision on the inside of the tail (namely from the anus), then remove the tail vertebrae. And the skin of the tail must be thoroughly salted.
After all the steps, you should thoroughly salt the entire skin. Salt is thoroughly rubbed into all areas of the flesh. Special attention is paid to the hooves and head. Salt is rubbed generously around the eyes, into the ears, lips, and “muzzle.” During preparation, salt is poured into the resulting “ear” sac, after which the ear is carefully turned inside out. Salt is also rubbed in from the outside, from the fur of the ear. A whole boar skin will require about 5-7 kilos of salt.
And for the skin of a head that is cut to the shoulders - no less than 3 kilos.
Next, the well-salted skin is folded along the back line, flesh to flesh. Roll up into a roll and leave open for a day. It is best to place the skin on a net or sticks so that the resulting brine liquid can drain freely. After 24 hours, the skin needs to be hung over a stick for several hours to allow the liquid that appears in it to drain. Next, the remaining raw salt is removed, after which the skin must be re-salted. The skin is rolled up as described above and stored open in a ventilated, cool, dark place. And if it is expected that the skin will be stored for a long time, then for 7 days of salting it is necessary to hang the skin in a dark place to dry.
Kaliningrad hunting club
Boar tusks - a valuable trophy
At the IV All-Union Hunting Exhibition in 1985, first and second places with a score of 148.85 and 143.40 points were taken by wild boar tusks from the Vitebsk region. Vitebsk hunters have other wonderful trophies: at the World Exhibition in Plovdiv (1981), the fangs exhibited by hunter I. A. Shipulo were valued at 136.00 points; hunter I.F. Luzgin is the owner of the trophy with 129.90 points.
The most obvious reason for the good trophy qualities of wild boar in the Vitebsk region is the selectivity of the hunting method existing here. In the region, as in Belarus generally, there are practically no individual wild boar hunts; licenses are issued only to teams of hunters. During collective hunts, hunters prefer to go around the herd of wild boars, and then drive it out to a chain of shooters with the help of beaters with dogs, that is, conduct a round-up. The usual result of such hunts is young-of-the-year piglets and pigs attached to the herd. Cleavers aged one and a half years and older, who, as a rule, lead a solitary lifestyle, if they find themselves in a salary, they are well oriented in the environment by sounds and smells. They are not afraid of the noise of the corral and the barking of dogs, they often hide and leave the enclosure unnoticed, and when raised, they leave unharmed through the flanks or a rare chain of beaters. As a result, the wild boar population has had a high proportion of old loppers for many years.
Another possible reason is the tradition of caring attitude of Vitebsk hunters to feeding wild boar in winter. Even on the farms of the Belarusian Society of Hunters and Fishers, which are run on a voluntary basis, feeding areas where up to 40 wild boars gather are not uncommon. Feeding is carried out in an exemplary manner in farms with a ranger service. And the feeding conditions in the first two years of the animal’s life, according to the most authoritative expert on wild boar, professor from the GDR L. Briedermann (Briedermann, 1986), have a great influence on the development of the canines. Good trophies cannot be expected from piglets that are retarded in development due to poor feed harvest and harsh wintering conditions. There is another reason - low standards for wild boar production in the republic. The influence of good hereditary inclinations of the wild boar population in the north of the republic - the Belarusian Lake District - cannot be ruled out.
The size of the fangs depends primarily on the age of the animal. The prevailing opinion among hunters that the size of the tusks does not depend on the weight of the boar is apparently explained by the fact that the loppers participating in the rut lose a lot of weight. Of course, individual variability also matters. Already in a one-and-a-half-year-old pig, 3.5-4.0-centimeter fangs protrude from the lower jaw. Their width when emerging from the gums is about 14 mm, at the base about 21 mm. This unevenness of width is a distinctive sign of the youth of the animal. Boars at the age of 2.5 years are the most dangerous for a dog; they are light (75 kg), fast animals, their fangs are sharpened and stick out 5-6 cm. However, only the tusks of a wild boar at the age of 4-5 years are of trophy value; they are slightly they protrude more outward (6-7 cm) with a total length of about 21 cm, but their width evens out and amounts to 24-26 mm. The fangs reach full development in cleavers at 7-8 years of age; their length is usually 21-23 cm, width - 28-29 mm.
Later, the tops of the fangs become less sharp and often break off. The development of fangs stops, and the length may even decrease due to wear. Such animals do not participate in the rut, their meat does not have a specific smell, and they are well nourished.
However, for the most part, our hunters do not know how to correctly remove boar tusks from the jaw or preserve them. It is a shame to see damaged fangs, which, if properly processed, could decorate any exhibition. Every boar hunter should know for sure that only a third of the lower canines are visible from the outside, and two-thirds are in the jaw. Attempts to cut out fangs with an ax, in which their lower ends are broken, are by no means uncommon. The most common cause of death of trophies is their cracking.
Processing of tusks consists of the following: the skin is removed from the boar's head, the tongue and the largest muscles are separated. Although the ends of the canines of the lower jaw are located at the level of the fourth premolar tooth, it is recommended that sawing be carried out behind the last molar. Of course, the lower jaw can be boiled whole, if the dishes allow it. There are no mistakes when sawing off the upper jaw; it is enough to step back 2-3 cm beyond the characteristic, highly developed ridge of the alveolus of the upper canines, which corresponds to the level of the third premolar tooth. The usual tool for this operation is a hacksaw.
Sawed-off jaws are placed in cold water and boiled for about an hour, from old animals - longer, then the water is allowed to cool. The fangs of old cleavers are extracted (pulled out) easily, but in young ones, due to the mentioned unevenness in width, they can be extracted only by sawing off the lower jaw at the level of the fourth premolar tooth and pushing them in the opposite direction.
From the extracted fangs, a thin adhesive layer of soft tissue is carefully removed with a blunt scraper, and the pulp is removed from the cavity using tweezers or a wire hook. The fangs are wiped and left to dry in a cool room. Here comes the most dangerous moment: in a village house later, and in a city apartment, where the air is very dry in winter, longitudinal cracks may appear on the fangs already on the third day, and then entire pieces often fall off.
Therefore, it is advisable to fill the fangs no later than 24 hours after drying. In the hunting literature there are recommendations to fill the fangs with paraffin, wax (M. Kulich, 1980), and rub them with paraffin (I. Roskopf, 1977). However, with sudden changes in air temperature, especially during winter transportation of trophies to exhibitions, and with very dry air, paraffin does not protect fangs from cracking. Filling fangs in several layers with BF glue is equally ineffective.
The most reliable product is a two-component epoxy-based casting composition (E. House, V. Vernits, 1975; M. Kulich, 1980; A. A. Fandeev, V. P. Nikolskaya, 1983).
Before filling, the internal cavities of the fangs must be degreased with gasoline, alcohol, ether, and acetone. The resin consumption for filling all four fangs is about 40 ml (the capacity of one lower fang is 9-12 cm 3, the capacity of the upper fang is about 4 cm 3). Before the resin hardens, it is recommended to insert a piece of copper wire into the cavity of the fangs, with which the fangs will be attached to the stand. You need to wear rubber gloves when working with the hardener. The fumes generated when mixing resin and hardener are undesirable for people prone to allergic diseases.
Unfortunately, filling does not protect the enamel along the outer edge of the lower fangs from destruction; the enamel on the upper fangs also crumbles. Understanding that covering trophies with varnish or glue spoils their appearance, in this case, for the sake of preserving the trophy, we would recommend applying two layers of colorless PVA glue, produced by p/o Azot, to the surface susceptible to destruction. A.A. Fandeev and V.P. Nikolskaya (1983) advise covering the fangs with a thin layer of colorless synthetic varnish. L. Briderman (1986) advises soaking the outer surface of the fangs with a fatty composition to avoid drying out. But you need to know that all efforts to treat fangs will be in vain if you store them near heating devices.
It is not recommended to bleach fangs in hydrogen peroxide; it is advisable to leave a dark strip decorating them on the fangs just below the polishing. Bursted fangs should not be thrown away; they can still be saved by applying Moment glue and bandaging tightly with insulating tape, followed by filling.
The rules for evaluating boar tusks are the simplest in comparison with other trophies and are accessible to every hunter.
The length of the lower canines is measured to the nearest 1 mm from the base to the tip along the outer edge using a tape measure, the average value in centimeters serves as a score.
The width of the lower canines is measured to the nearest 0.1 mm using a caliper at the widest point; the average value in mm multiplied by a factor of 3 serves as the score.
The circumference of the upper canines is measured at the widest point with a narrow tape, the sum of the values of both canines in centimeters serves as a score.
A markup of up to five points is given for the symmetry of the fangs, the curl of the upper fangs, and the presence of a dark stripe at the polishing. A discount is given for asymmetry of fangs and other shortcomings.
A bronze medal is awarded to canines that score from 110 to 114.9 points, a silver medal - from 115 to 119.9, and a gold medal - from 120 points and above.
As an example, we give the price of fangs that took first place at the All-Union Hunting Exhibition in 1985. Thus, the main thing when assessing canines is their width. If we look at the exhibition catalogues, we will notice that the most common widths of fangs rated “for bronze” are 24-25 mm, “for silver” - 26-27 mm, “for gold” - 28-29 mm.
| Index | Size | Sum | Average value | Coefficient | Point |
| Length of lower canines | |||||
| left | 27,5 | 54,7 | 27,35 | 1 | 27,35 |
| right | 27,2 | ||||
| Width of lower canines | |||||
| left | 33,0 | 67,0 | 33,5 | 3 | 100,5 |
| right | 34,0 | ||||
| Upper canine circumference | |||||
| left | 9,0 | 18,0 | 1 | 18,0 | |
| right | 9,0 | ||||
| Surcharge | 3,0 | ||||
| Discount | - | ||||
| Final Score | 148,85 |
The fangs are usually placed on round stands of commensurate size, painted with dark brown stain; against this background the fangs stand out well.
Boar tusk processing
To extract the tusks of a boar, a part of the animal’s muzzle is sawed off between the eyes and the tusks, as shown in Figure 69. This piece of the muzzle must be at least three and a half times longer than the visible part of the lower tusks. The sawn-off part is placed in a cauldron with cold water so that it is completely hidden under water. The water is brought to a boil and simmered over low heat for 2–3 hours. After cooking, the jaws with fangs are removed from the cauldron and, without allowing them to cool, the fangs are removed. To avoid getting burns, use mittens or rags. The upper fangs are usually removed easily, but to remove the lower ones, they need to be pulled forward 3–5 cm, and then carefully open the jaw bones from the back so that the fangs come out freely. Then the fangs are placed in a cauldron of hot, oily water until it cools. They should not be left without water and should not be washed with cold water. The fang, cooling in oily water, becomes saturated with fat and acquires a protective layer. After cooling, the nerves are removed from the fangs and the inner surface is wiped with cotton wool, dried in a damp and warm place to avoid cracking.
Rice. 69. Extracting boar tusks
After drying, the fangs are degreased with gasoline. It is recommended to fill the inside of the fangs with BF glue (any) and, after holding it inside for 5–10 s, pour it out, repeating this two or three times at intervals of 30 minutes. Before doing this, the glue is heated in a bowl with warm water so that it pours out more easily. Instead of BF glue, the inside of the fangs can be filled with epoxy resin of the following composition: 80 parts filler and 20 hardener. Instead of glue, the cavities of the fangs can be filled with tweezers with cotton wool soaked in epoxy resin; after 12 hours the glue hardens, giving them greater strength.
To prevent fangs from deteriorating due to changes in humidity, they can be coated with a thin layer of colorless synthetic varnish. Fangs cannot be bleached.
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From the book Game Animals and Trophies author Fandeev Alexey AlexandrovichInstallation of boar tusks For installation of tusks, a wide variety of medallions are selected. The upper fangs are placed symmetrically in the center of the medallion, and the lower ones are placed on the left and right (Fig. 70). To attach the fangs to the medallion, special decorative frames from various
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This business- akin to star catalogs, where you can register a couple of luminaries for yourself, and also simply get into a foreign book, having only a photo with a trophy, without even making any measurements at all. This is also possible. In general, in Russia, even in hunting encyclopedias, they will include anyone you want, including fake generals of the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Cossacks - just pay money, and every year they will re-publish this lie with new heroes of Russia. Even at the recent exhibitions of the All-Russian Exhibition Center and Crocus, another such business was announced by the chief editor of MK, aka OiR XXi, organizing the Book of Russian Hunting Trophies... a multi-volume set.
At the same time, no one can hold an All-Russian Trophy Exhibition, let alone an annual one, once every three years.- nothing to show. The meeting of experts was forced to agree that it makes sense to gather only once every 5 years to, perhaps, evaluate something... or even not. One old thing travels for decades all over the country as a prop, that’s all the trophy business is. At the same time, 75% of artificial artists were brought from abroad by the organizers, who reward themselves.
In general, the easiest way to get an expert assessment, a diploma and maybe some kind of award- this is to find out at which of the All-Russian Exhibitions the Trophy Commission will work (which in fact is not needed for this and is assembled on its own from people who wanted to gather themselves, without having any authority) - make an application, pay a small bribe, At the exhibition they write a certificate and a diploma for you and certainly give you some kind of award (well, because no one brings anything, that’s why they give it to everyone who comes). All this in 3 days of the Exhibition is easy, fast, cheap and guaranteed - the Exhibition diploma is in your pocket, even if you come with a hedgehog from the Moscow region. But this is rare, once a year, and not every year. Moreover, in the regions you can carry out this trick yourself - no one bothers you.
An easier way- bring the data to the commission of the organizer of the trophy system, or send a photo to the head office and pay the appropriate fee (in fact, for placement in the catalogue), - you receive your papers and a copy of the catalogue - everything is the same as when buying stars in the sky or areas on the Moon. They will send you and register - don’t doubt it, this is a business - you will succeed, you will recommend it to your neighbors and send it yourself, why lie. It works all the time, no need to wait.
As for actually obtaining knowledge with an accuracy of +- 10-15% about what you caught - regarding the wild boar - you yourself will find out all this very easily if you make a few simple measurements. However, the correct extraction of fangs and scalding of the skull is quite important here, which many do incorrectly. We must not forget, for example, to boil it so as not to lose the lower part of the fangs during dismantling, let it cool without removing it from the water so as not to crack, not to overdry and especially not force dry, so as not to dry out, remove it first by pushing towards yourself, and then carefully tapping it with a mallet, while dismantling the jaw from below and from the side... it is better, of course, to let a professional taxidermist do this. They know how to stretch a wolf into a lion, and a boar into a saber-toothed tiger.
And since I’m quoting Kretschmar in the text, I’ll take the picture from Kuzenkov’s journal, so that it doesn’t turn out that someone is closer to the topic than the other.
Accordingly, about the systems themselves, in order not to repeat ourselves and not tell ideas from a third person, it is better to quote a direct participant in one of these assessment systems, therefore Below I will give an excerpt from the text of Mikhail Kretschmar, who has repeatedly participated in such commissions(no comment, what I said, so be it):
The system of the International Council for Hunting and Game Conservation CIC is more conservative, but has actually retained its position to this day. It is based on three basic principles - typicality, beauty and symmetry. This system is very complex and contains a whole list of additional factors that influence the final score. It was this that was the basis of the “Regulations on Hunting Trophies in the USSR” and subsequent educational methods of universities involved in training specialists in the Russian hunting industry.
The assessment of trophies according to CIC is carried out mainly in relation to European game (the system for assessing trophies of wild boar and red deer is especially well developed - it is the European population, one might even say that it is “modeled” on red deer).
There is a scale of discounts for the asymmetry of the horns (for example: the basis for the discount is the difference in centimeters between the length of the right and left horn), for the atypicality of trophies (if the camber of the deer's horns is greater than the length of the horn, then the difference is a discount), for an ugly appearance (broken process). Not only the linear dimensions are assessed, but also the weight of the horns (not earlier than three months after extraction, with the sawn-off skull, including the nasal bone).
Along with discounts, a system of premiums has been developed for color, pearliness, rosette crimp, and grooves. Animal skins (bear, wolf, lynx, etc.) are also subject to evaluation in this system. For all animals, ranges of points are defined that allow the trophy to be qualified for bronze, silver and gold medals or the Grand Prix. However, trophies are actually assessed according to the CIC system only at specialized exhibitions.
CIC like the system is designed for the so-called. "cultural" hunting industry of Central Europe, with constant monitoring of the trophy condition of each promising individual and constant culling of animals that are unsatisfactory in trophy terms.
Eva Shockey with an Alaskan moose trophy
A much younger system was developed by the chairman of the International Safari Club, McElroy, in 1975. It is called the Safari Club International system, abbreviated as SCI. In this system, even atypical and not hunted horns are subject to measurement; there is no system of discounts and allowances for (un)symmetry, (un)typicality and beauty. Skins are not subject to measurement, since the shot animal itself is subject to measurement.
In this system there is no division into bronze, silver and gold medals, but there is a minimum required for inclusion in the SCI Book of Records. The creators of the method for measuring trophies of the International Safari Club had the following tasks: the method must be objective, and therefore only antlers and bones are used for measurement (with the exception of euthanized animals, wild turkey) and completely exclude subjective signs; it should be simple and universal; accessible (i.e. Trophies should not only be measured at exhibitions) - this implies the presence of a network of specially trained meters. And it was realized.
Of course, the SCI system is not without its shortcomings - for example, it has a clear bias towards North American animals. In practice, this is manifested in the fact that there are no strict, unambiguous criteria for differentiating European elk trophies by type - stag-shaped or spade-shaped. And since each horn option is evaluated using its own methodology, there is room for discrepancies.
Trophies for measurement in the SCI system are accepted no earlier than 60 days after the animal was harvested - after the expiration of the so-called. “green” or “wet” period - during this time, excess moisture already leaves the trophies and they take i.e. dimensions that practically do not change in the future. It is necessary to have field photographs with the trophy; for animals with branched horns - several photographs from different angles, in which all the processes will be clearly visible.
After measuring the trophy, the measurer fills out a special form, which indicates the species, place of production, date of production and measurement, type of territory (fenced or free), organizing company and guide. In addition, the hunter chooses the type of recording of his trophy, for example, just an entry in a book (in which case the hunter will receive a small colorful certificate) or a walnut medallion.
There are restrictions on how a trophy can be included in a book—minimums. If the trophy scores less than the minimum during measurement, then the hunter has the opportunity to include his trophy in various nominations using the so-called. “photo entry” - this requires only a photo with the trophy and a short questionnaire, no measurement data is needed.
The system, widely known in the world, used by such a prominent international organization as Game Conservation International, is distinguished by its enviable simplicity and clarity in presenting results, but is practically unknown in Russia.
Just as other systems common abroad are unknown to us, in particular English system of Roland Ward, which is, perhaps, the first truly trophy hunting-oriented trophy recording system (i.e., a system that has important key links: a methodology, meters and a trophy book). The first edition of Ward's captured book was published in 1892; there are currently 29 editions. The disadvantages of his system include the fact that for horned animals (for example, antelopes), this system takes into account only the length of the horn, and the base is ignored - thus, it is not the oldest animal (traditionally considered the best, “correct” trophy) that gets the advantage, but for example, young or female (as is the case with the oryx, in which females have longer, thinner horns with small bases, while males have thicker but often short ones).
Also It is necessary to mention the methodology of the American Boone and Crockett Club founded in 1887, part of which formed the basis of the SCI trophy measurement methodology.
In addition to the above systems, often (sometimes even too often) measurements are carried out according to the outfitter’s or hunt manager’s own methods. Usually they are extremely simple and take into account either only the weight of the trophy’s antlers (roe deer, elk) or its length (bear).
P.S. Andrey Shalygin: By the way, for each type of smartphone in the corresponding App Store you will always find a dozen programs for independently assessing trophies according to the standards of any trophy assessment system, so in a certain sense, to obtain an accurate estimate for some systems and an approximate one for those taking into account invariants, it is quite enough to be able to use a tape measure and calipers.
One of the main requirements for the design of trophies of both wild boar and other animals: the trophy must be easily removed from the medallion. This unwritten rule primarily applies to those trophies that will be evaluated by experts or intended for display at exhibitions. In these cases, the owner of the trophy needs to do everything so that the experts can easily and effortlessly remove the trophy from the medallion, take the necessary measurements and then just as easily and conveniently attach it back. In the end, whatever trophy the hunter gives for evaluation is the one he wants to get back. But is this possible if, for example, the fangs are glued to the medallion with epoxy resin? Therefore, do not be surprised and do not make a fuss if in this case the experts refuse to evaluate your trophy.
In order to avoid such an unpleasant situation and to ensure that your trophy is perfectly prepared for display, below we present the basic principles of the primary processing of boar tusks.
If you have caught a trophy boar, then you should act like this:
You need to skin the pig's head, removing as much excess meat as possible.
The head must be boiled. In order not to completely cook the upper and lower jaws, you can file them, but you need to keep in mind that on the lower jaw there is only 1/3 of the fang on the outside, and 2/3 is hidden in the bone itself. You need to carefully calculate how much to saw off so as not to damage the fang. The same applies to the upper canines, which are immersed in the jaw by more than half. It is not recommended to separate the upper and lower jaws before cooking, as the fangs may crack. Under no circumstances should jawbones be chopped - in their “raw” form, fangs are very fragile, especially in the part that is inside the jaw.
The next principle regarding boiling fangs is that the trophy should be placed in cold water. Cooked fangs need to be cooled without removing them from the water. The purpose of this is to get rid of sudden changes in temperature, which will protect the fangs from cracking.
Under no circumstances should you cook a boar's head under pressure in an attempt to shorten the cooking time. Know that in this case the fangs will be damaged irrevocably.
After cooking, the fangs must be separated from the bone. The tusks of an adult boar are simply pulled out, but the tusks of a young boar are usually removed by breaking the jaw bone.
When the fangs are removed from the bone, they need to be cleaned of fat with a simple rag using laundry soap. In no case should you use bleaching powders - they affect the color of the fang, and in this case the trophy is lost as such.
When cleaning is completed, taking into account the experience of many hunters, it is advisable to use the “PVA glue method”. The glue is poured into the fang, wait a moment, then the excess glue is poured out and wait until it dries on the inside of the fang. This is done twice. This creates a layer of glue that will prevent the fangs from falling apart if they crack. Then all the free space inside the fang is filled with cotton wool. The top layer of cotton wool is filled with PVA glue, wait until everything dries and... the fangs are ready!
In no case should you follow the example of such “masters” who fill the fangs with epoxy resin, and, in addition, place nails in the resin so that they can be attached to the medallion. As the resin hardens, due to the force of surface tension, the enamel-covered portion of the fang may eventually separate as the resin compresses more than the fang itself. The size of the fang changes (the width decreases) only for the first time. It is not for nothing that this trophy is allowed to be assessed no earlier than two months after extraction. At this time, significant changes occur, and further changes are of little importance.
In addition, it may be advisable, after filling with cotton wool and glue, to dip the fangs in liquid paraffin, or, even better, to dip cotton wool in paraffin and cover the trophy with it to avoid the influence of strong temperature fluctuations on it. A canine treated in this way is protected from the effects of temperature and humidity, however, there have been cases when, after many years, canines treated with paraffin also deteriorated. The microclimate is more important: if the trophy is in a hunting lodge or room where the humidity level is relatively stable, then it will not be damaged in any way, but rooms with central heating are less friendly with trophies.
And finally, about attaching the trophy to the medallion. This can be done without damaging the fangs using decorative loops or other methods, but most importantly, as mentioned at the beginning of the article, the trophy should be easily removed and attached in place.
