125 
March, 1923 
A DEER-FOOT GUN RACK 
CAME out of the woods with four 
more feet than I had gone in with; 
harder feet, too, were these daintily 
formed leg-ends than my number 
eights—I realized, after the first two or 
three days of tramping that my feet, as 
well as the rest of my plump self were, 
to put it mildly, distressingly soft. 
Those feet (not mine but the other 
ones), had been so useful to the previous 
owner that it really did seem a shame to 
throw them away now that he could use 
them no more; they ought to serve some 
purpose—what could I do with them ? 
As I thought the matter over, there 
came to mind the interior of a log-built 
hunting shack belonging to a friend of 
mine, a member of the tribe Disgust¬ 
ingly Rich. The walls, as I recalled 
them to mind, had been adorned with all 
manner of trophies: heads of deer, 
moose, elk, cat and hear gazed pleas¬ 
antly or balefully, according to the na¬ 
ture of the beast, across the fire-lit space 
to where record fish, much out of their 
element, seemed in the flickering light of 
the fire, to writhe beneath the protecting 
glass. I recalled his guns and rifles— 
Side view of deer-foot gun rack 
Gee! how I would have loved one or 
two of that array of beauties. As I 
thought of those guns I remembered 
how he had them supported on the 
walls and then I knew just what I 
would do with those four feet that 
so lightly and swiftly had carried the 
huge buck that once possessed them, 
through swamp and wood. I decided 
to try to construct a rack for my little 
30-30 carbine. T felt that I was not up 
to mounting the head in a very life-like 
manner, so that I had left to more ex¬ 
perienced hands up in the woods to he 
shipped to me later, but a rack I thought 
that even such a dub as I might con¬ 
trive very well. I do not know if I went 
at it right or if I did it at all in the way 
it would have been done at a taxider¬ 
mists, but the result is up to my expecta¬ 
tions and that is saying a whole lot, too, 
as I really think that I am more critical 
of my own work than some tolerant 
friend might be. 
For the benefit of the chap who likes 
to fuss with tools and who might profit 
by my experience, should he wish to 
make something of the kind, here goes 
for a description of how I did it. 
F IRSTLY, the hoof: with a stick and 
a metal rod that I flattened at the 
end, I cleaned out the marrow from the 
bones. Before the bones, hide and sinew 
became hardened I bent up the hoofs to 
an “L” and tied, in the position as shown 
in the side view of the illustration, with 
a heavy piece of twine. I then packed 
them in wet salt for about a week so 
the hide would become well salted, then 
brushed them off and hung them up to 
dry. I had cut off the hide down to 
about where I wanted it, leaving about a 
quarter of an inch to allow for shrink¬ 
ing. I let them hang up where it was 
warm for about a month, then removed 
the strings. By that time they had 
dried out nicely and they were ready 
to be worked up for fastening to the 
board or panel or whatever else was 
decided upon. 
I procured a nice piece of chestnut— 
did you notice that “I procured”? Well, 
all directions in any well written article, 
start off with the word “procure.” I am 
so doggone poor that I hardly ever buv 
anything anyway — it is nearly always 
necessary for me to “procure,” so as I 
have said, I procured a nice piece of 
chestnut, about seven-eighths of an inch 
thick, three and three-quarters of an 
inch wide and twenty-eight inches long. 
These dimensions of course may be 
changed to suit one’s ideas, but the rack 
I describe nicely holds my little carbine, 
so I will give the dimensions followed 
in making my rack. 
Two round blocks, two and seven- 
eighths inches in diameter and about 
three-quarters of an inch thick I screwed 
to the panel as shown to give additional 
thickness of wood as better supports to 
the hones. Through the centers of these 
blocks and the panel I bored holes with 
a five-eighths inch bit. These holes are 
twenty-one inches from center to center. 
Now for the hoof or foot—I cut off 
the hide to about where I wanted it to 
project from the block. At that point I 
sawed down through the sinew and 
trimmed away until the hone was laid 
bare. With a flat file I rounded up the 
hone to fit the hole snugly, being careful 
not to file off so much of the bone that 
the walls would be too thin. The thicker 
the bone is left the better; if the bone 
is a large one it is better to make a larger 
hole through your panel rather than to 
file the hone too much. I spoiled one 
hoof in not being careful in this direc¬ 
tion; I used a half-inch hit for the holes 
at first and filed one bone so thin that in 
forcing it into the block it broke square 
off, much to my sorrow as I had planned 
at first to make a rack that would hold 
all four feet. 
Now shove the bone into the hole 
until the hide butts against the face of 
the round block and with a pencil mark 
upon the block the outline of the hide- 
covered bone. With a gouge or chisel cut 
a recess in the round block (I made mine 
about three-eighths of an inch deep) for 
the hide-covered hone to fit into a way, 
to keep the hoof from turning. When 
both feet have been fitted they may he 
permanently fastened to the panel; if no 
great weight is to be supported, marine 
glue or some good ferrule cement will 
answer for fastening, but I put mine in 
for keeps. I procured some long brass 
machine-threaded screws, nearly the 
same diameter as the holes in the bones. 
T cut off the head end and filed the sides 
of the shank flat. T melted up some black 
cement, such as T use on metal fishing- 
rod ferrules, and covered the screws with 
(Continued on page 145) 
