Just 5 days ago, I could have probably told you how I thought you should ship a deer head out of state, but I really had very little clue how to do it.  This past week's success in Missouri took care of that though.  Paul Sparks and I both shot our largest deer to date, and we decided to get them mounted.  Our good buddies at Aim Low Productions had a couple great taxidermist in mind, but none of them lived within a short driving distance of where we were.  After calling several taxidermists, we decided to send our heads to Almberg Taxidermy in Worthington, MN.  He is the sponsor taxidermist for Aim Low Productions, and said that he could get our deer heads done quickly.  Now with our decision made, we had the task of figuring out how to pack two deer heads and capes into boxes, and get them to the taxidermist without any damage.  Brian Almberg gave us instructions on how to package and ship our heads, so we headed off to find all the materials needed for the task.

The first thing we did was to cape the deer, get the heads into trash bags, and in the deep freezer to thoroughly freeze before shipping.  Once the heads were frozen, we headed down to the local grocery store, where they were extremely helpful in giving us a nice assortment of boxes to try for packaging.  We bought some packing tape, and headed back to the barn to start the packing procedure.  We decided on a cup packaging box to fit both deer heads in.  It measured 34" tall by 84" circumference.  We lined the box with left over insulation our friend Clint had in his basement.  Then we placed my deer's head (still in the trash bag) in the bottom of the box, and covered it with a couple sheets of insulation, before placing Mr. Spark's deer head on top.  We stuck both our tags to the trash bags our heads were in, so the taxidermist would know which one was which.  We staggered the heads and used the empty space between the heads and the side of the box to pack with addtional insulation for extra cushion.

Once the deer were packaged, we securely taped the lid, sides, and bottom of the box.  Now all we had to do was get them down to the local post office before closing time.  It cost us right at $35 insured to send our two heads to MN to Almberg Taxidermy.  To send that same package to Florida, would have cost us three times as much.  Remember to check shipping costs before you package your game, as different shippers have different criteria for the packages they ship.  The two deer heads will be delivered to the Taxidermist tomorrow, and hopefully everything got there in one piece.  If you have never shipped a head cross country, hopefully this story will help you if your get that opportunity.

Good luck,

Chet Maxcy

Team NSSOutdoors