To do this open the skin down the center of the back of the neck from just back of the horns to the shoulders or at least half that distance. A neck of medium length is preferable and many a fine head has been ruined by being cut off just back of the ears.
Connect the upper end of the opening cut with the base of each horn or antler by a short branch making the whole opening of a Y or T shape. Turn the neck skin inside out down over the head, which in case of a deer may rest on the antlers, until the ears are reached, cut these off not too close to the head and the horns are next met with.
Work the skin from around the base of these with a dull knife or a small screwdriver blade. With the same tool pry the thick skin away from the frontal bone. When the eyes are reached have a care not to cut their lids, working closer to the bone than the skin. Use the screwdriver again to scoop up the skin from the so-called tear pits in front of the eyes.
Let all the dark colored skin on the inside of the lips remain attached to them. The skin of the neck is the thickest on the whole animal and must be reduced by shaving. The skin of the whole head and neck should not only be freed from all flesh and muscle but shaved to about one-half its original thickness. For this purpose work on it with a sharp knife or draw shave on a half rounded beam.
Split the lips and remove their fleshy interior, split the nose cartilage and separate it from the outer skin. With some blunt tool pry the skin of the back of the ear from the cartilage and turn the ears wrong side out to their tips. Give the scalp at least 24 hours' pickling or it will be liable to excessive shrinkage on drying.
Many a fine head mounted green, without thinning or pickling, has shrunk and continued to shrink for months, until all stitches gave way and it cracked and shriveled to an inglorious end. If a paper head form is to be used, the top of the skull at the base of the antlers is sawn off and the balance of the skull discarded, the more common method will require the cleaning of the skull with antlers remaining on it. A little boiling will expedite this and by chopping an opening (1½ inches wide in case of a deer) into the lower part of the brain cavity the brain is removed. This opening will also receive the end of a wooden neck standard of plank three inches wide.
A nail through the top of skull will hold it temporarily till the lower jaw bones are placed and the whole held solid by packing the base of skull and jaws in a mass of soft plaster which will harden in a few minutes. This neck standard should be at right angles to the greatest length of the head.