Deluxe Antler Mount Kit, Solid Wood with Rustic Barn Board Look

My boyfriend shot his second buck this year, a small one but I still wanted to hang it up on the wall for him. After looking at a half dozen subpar antler mounting kits online, I settled on this one simply because it would be shipped the fastest. None of them are perfect or particularly easy, and they almost all require an artistic touch to make look any goodUpon opening the box, I was impressed by the quality of the skull cover. It is deeper than many I've seen and I had no trouble fitting it over the small rack. It looks plenty big enough to fit over even a large deer skull plate. It is made from some sort of really thick and heavy rubber with flocking on it. I managed to scuff mine right away because flocking is easy to scratch and scuff, but it does look very nice otherwise. The wooden plaque was alright, a good size and shape but it isn't sealed at all and the wood seems even more gray in person than it did in the online image. Almost like a beachy or driftwood gray. The included pins look nice, the hanger is pretty standard but the two screws they include to attach the skull plate to the board (2" screws) were a bit long. When I screwed the skull to the plaque, the screws stuck out the back of the plaque. I swapped them out for 1 3/4" screws which worked fine for me.The directions are alright, but I didn't really use them. It's sort of self explanatory if you've ever seen an antler mount before. Pre-drill your holes in the skull plate, then use the two screws to attach it to the plaque wherever you think it looks the straightest-- make sure you place the skull cover overtop the skull plate so you can see where the cover will go to. I didn't measure anything like the instructions said simply because my cuts on the skull itself weren't exactly straight. I just eyeballed it and it looked fine.Cutting the cover was the real chore. Scissors and knives will be far too bulky to get a nice cut. A box cutter would be fine if you can get a thin one. You really almost need a scalpel or precision knife to make the cuts small, round and clean. The rubber is very thick and it was surprisingly difficult to cut even with my very sharp precision knife blade. I just went slow and cut off very small pieces at a time, eyeballing it again because I didn't want to draw on the cover like the instructions said and risk messing it up if I drew too large or in the wrong spots. I did accidentally cut off a bit too much on one side, more on that later. But eventually I chiseled out something that fit perfectly over my set of antlers and looked half decent.Once I had the cover in place, I grabbed two of the four included pins and GENTLY tapped on them with a hammer. If you're gentle and let the weight of the hammer alone do the work, you won't bend them. They're not as flimsy as other reviewers suggest, you just can't slam them with a hammer like you would a nail. They went in effortlessly and looked good, and now I have two spares for any future mounting project.Last thing was the ropes around the antlers. They include enough rope that I could have wrapped three individual antler bases, but I only needed the two. Just figure out how long it needs to be to wrap around the base of your antler then use some clear tape and TAPE around the rope where you want to cut it. If you don't tape it similar to the already pre-taped ends before you cut it, the ropes will unravel and the fibers within them will unravel. Save yourself the fight and just tape first then cut. Wrap around the bottom of the antler and use some hot glue to attach the ends behind the antler where you won't really see it.That's all there is to it. The hardest part is cutting the cover just right but if you're patient, you'll end up with a decent looking finished product. If the wood had been more brown than gray and the included screws weren't too long, I really wouldn't have anything negative to say about this kit at all. Easy to figure out. Good luck with your own projects!

Nice antler mount! Love the color options. Purchased to mount my sons first buck he shot this last season. My only difficulty with this mount is that it was hard to get the skull cover to form around the skull on his buck because it wasn’t a real big buck. It was a little two point and the skull wasn’t full size so the cover was way too big and no matter how I trimmed it, it left big gaps to try to cover up with the little rope. I was able to get it to look decent and my son is very happy with it. A full size buck may be a bit easier to install on here. All and all I’m happy

I want expecting a DIY art project of measuring and cutting.... I made it work. Will take a day or 2 of waiting for glue to dry.

This only took about 1 hour to have it hanging on the wall. The kit is very forgiving and easy to form around your antlers. The rope finished it off nicely and covers up any little hiccups you had. Looks fabulous!

Ordered this kit for a 3x3 mule deer mount. The cover that comes with the kit was too narrow and not tall enough to cover the pedicals no matter how I flexed it and it was too much for the rope to cover up. Followed the instructions exactly and just wasn't able to make it work. I'll probably just hang onto it until someone I know gets a smaller deer.

Easy to assemble and looks great on the wall

Bought for my sons first deer mount … Looks very good .. he is very happy with the mount and plaque ..

This is a great mount kit and I would've given it 5 stars but its a little misleading. Not totally their fault but kinda is. It says it comes with everything needed to mount the antlers, which it does, if you kept the skull... I had to order a replacement piece to screw the antlers together so this mount would work. I think its a bit pricey for what you actually get; a piece of barn wood, string and felt cap, but it really does look nice and it saved me time of routing a piece of wood myself.

Pretty easy to set up. I would recommend that when you cut the holes in the cap for the antlers that you start smaller than you think you'll need, and try a fit, and make bigger as needed. The braid that comes with it is quite thick and is great to cover any mistakes. I took it apart and only used one strand. Turned out pretty well I think. Also the skull cap is thick so you'll have a rough time cutting it with standard scissors. I used tin shears. I would buy this again.