Horn color

[Dawg2019]

This has probably been in a previous thread, but here goes. When I took my impala the horns were a brown/rust color, I looked back at pictures to confirm this. But now, after getting animals back from taxidermist they are a dark almost black color, what’s up? Can I take them back to the original brown?

 

[Rem700stw]

I believe this is due to 2 factors primarily. One is the application of disinfectant to allow importation ("dip"). The other is that there has likely been an oil applied, often teak oil, to prevent cracking/splitting/peeling of the horny laminae we refer to as horns.

 

[BRICKBURN]

rusty brown colouring will be due in large part to.....

After you clean the dirt off. Not so much.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Let's see the before and after pictures!

 

[TTundra]

I learned this the hard way after my first safari. The oil/insect repellent and the boiling process do quite a bit of color changing. I asked on my second trip to try to keep, or bring back the original color as much as possible, especially for my waterbuck.

@buck wild has a great little thread on this

https://www.africahunting.com/threads/re-conditioning-horns.49471/#post-538823

 

[MarkB]

Did you tell the taxidermist to leave the horns natural? Many many taxidermists make them dark/black. I have seen black shoe polish used by SA taxidermists =disgusting. I personally have all mine natural, every part of my mounts look like the animal when I shot them, one must fix/color the lower portion bleached out from over boiling. Many taxidermy pics on here will show both styles. Up to the owner what they like. Its the same with inner ear color, any different ways to complete inner ears.

MB

 

[MarkB]

PS, I have no connection to Gizmo, but his kudu horns in his latest post look perfect. To me. That's the color of the ones I have shot and how they look.

MB