Cleaver fangs. Processing and registration of hunting trophies

Boar is the most common type of animal that has good trophy qualities. Hunting a wild boar is dangerous, but also interesting, since this animal is unpredictable and distinguished by its audacity. If the boar has scored full force, then he is called a boar and even bears and tigers try to avoid meeting him. Considering all of the above, it becomes clear why the obtained trophies are valued so highly.

Currently, only canines are included in the assessment methodology
this unpredictable beast. The size of the fangs primarily depends on
the age of the beast itself. A one and a half year old pig has fangs from the lower jaw
protrude three to four centimeters, the width of the fangs is uneven. A mature animal has this feature
disappears - fangs at 5-6
centimeters rise above the jaw. Boars that have reached
2.5 years of age are especially dangerous due to the sharpness of their fangs and their mobility. Trophy
the fangs of an animal 4-5 years old have greatest value. This boar has tusks
protrude from the jaw at 6-7
centimeters, the width of such fangs reaches 25-26 cm, and the total length is 21 cm. Subsequently, the length
fangs increases slightly, the tops of the fangs become less
sharp, and sometimes even broken off.

Every year many wild boar heads appear at exhibitions,
however, the quality of their production is very low. The same can be said about
a large number of fangs sent for examination. Many hunters don't
know how to remove, process and store the trophy, and this despite
trophy value of fangs and large volumes of production. There have been cases when fangs
were hacked from the jaw with an ax or were cut off at the base. In similar
cases, adequate assessment of canines is impossible, since most of length
fang is lost.

With a successful hunt, many people have a natural desire
make a stuffed animal or carpet out of the trophy. It should be remembered that boar tusks
need to be processed and determined for the medallion separately, regardless of
Are you planning to make a stuffed animal or a carpet?

Before removing the fangs, you must first remove the skin.
(this process begins with the boar's head) and separate it from large muscles and
tongue skulls. The cut jaws must be placed in cold storage. Under the flow
Using water will speed up the process of removing blood. Next jaws for 1.5 hours
boil and remain in water until completely cooled. Such
procedures are aimed at ensuring that the fangs do not
cracks have formed. Now you can extract the fangs. With the bottom
the fangs will have to work hard, but the upper fangs can be removed quite easily.
This is explained by the fact that part of the fang (2/3) is located in the jaw and their diameter
exceeds the size of the outlet. To remove the lower fangs you need to
pull forward, then open the back of the jaw at the 4th level
premolar and using a wooden block push out the fangs.

After this, you need to carefully remove a thin layer from the fangs
tissues that surrounded him. This is best done with a non-sharp scraper. Further
The pulp should be removed from the tooth cavity using tweezers or a hook. Internal
the surface should be degreased with acetone or alcohol. After such preparation the tooth
should be placed in a cool, dark place to dry. There is a risk that
During drying, the enamel will crack from drying out. In a village house it can
happen three days later and later, in a city apartment earlier. Therefore if after
installation of boar tusks for drying has passed one day, try to
filling procedure. Filling will prevent the fang from collapsing and will prolong the time
storage of the trophy.

What composition should I use for filling? There are many
recommendations, but the most common are paraffin, BF glue, wax,
a two-component composition based on epoxy resin. Paraffin and
wax cannot ensure the resistance of fangs to temperature changes. Glue BF
a little more effective, but the most reliable solution is epoxy
resin with filler (cotton wool or similar filler). Filling does not protect
the outer surface of the fang from destruction; for this purpose, the enamel of trophies is processed
additionally. To do this, use compositions that do not give shine: several layers
PVA, wax-paraffin mixture or modern non-glare varnish coatings. Dark
It is better to leave the strip on the fangs as a decoration.

The most critical stage is the treatment of external and
the inner surface of the trophy, since the period depends on these stages
storage of fangs. But remember, if the trophy is stored near heating
devices, then no treatment can protect it. If the fangs burst,
then they should be glued with “Moment” type glue, then tightly wrapped with electrical tape and filled
epoxy resin.

The final stage of processing the fangs is installing the trophy on the medallion.
For each trophy, a medallion is created individually, taking into account the characteristics
specific instance. The interior in which the medallion will be placed is taken into account
installed, and of course the owner’s preferences are taken into account. When installing
One rule must be followed - canines must be measured by experts
should be easy to get. The fangs can be secured with a wooden plate or with
using narrow metal clamps. Another mounting option is a screw head
placed in the holes drilled before pouring. When does installation occur?
onto the medallion, screws are inserted into pre-drilled holes in the medallion,
then tightened with nuts.

Sometimes the fangs are attached with double-sided tape. But most often
During the casting process, the wire is strengthened at the base of the fang. When it happens
installation on a medallion, this wire is inserted into the holes on the medallion itself
and secured with reverse side.

On the medallion you can place not only boar tusks, but also
his head. In this case, the fangs are installed under the head (classic
execution), in which artificial fangs are already installed.

Well, the final touch is to indicate the name on the medallion
owner, date and place of extraction of the trophy.

High quality, for a reasonable price.
Of all the game that is usually hunted, the cohort of prestigious ones has long included boar, also called wild pig. In ancient times he had a different name - boar. This is a solid, far from stupid and savvy animal. He never backs down and is ready to defend his life to the end, which often threatens the hunter with serious injuries. The brilliant writer A.A. Cherkasov, who described hunting with amazing talent, in the book “Notes of a Hunter” Eastern Siberia" describes the behavior of a wild boar during a hunt: "...look at cleaver, when the dogs catch up with him, stop him, hunters will fly up and surround him from all sides, and he, seeing trouble, will begin to defend himself. All the fur on it stands on end, the eyes burn with courage and throw terrible sparks, white foam pours out of its mouth in clouds, and the cleaver either stands motionless, waiting for an attack, puffs and furiously sharpens its huge white fangs, then rushes like an arrow at the enemies and bold, swift , with an elastic swoop knocks down brave fighters, crosses them in two like a gauntlet, throws them up with his snout, slashes with fangs like a knife, makes terrible mortal wounds, releases their intestines... One turn of his snout is enough to kill a careless hunter who decides to come too close to him and somehow make a mistake..."
The danger of boar hunting is also reflected in the treasure chest folk wisdom- in sayings, for example, one of them says: “If you’re going to fight a bear, take a straw, wild boar If you go, carry the coffin."
But, still knowing how dangerous this animal can be, you should not fall into a stupor from fear of such game. If you meet such a serious opponent, you need to be very careful and not lose your composure. And of course, you don’t need to move around hecticly, twitch, and you shouldn’t let fear guide your actions.

All appearance wild pig indicates that this animal is adapted for living in dense tangles of forest thickets and reed thickets. The head is large, wedge-shaped (in proportion, it is almost one third of the entire length), a powerful neck and a large body, as if compressed on the sides, enable the animal, when a threat arises, to escape through the forest wilds and rubble, breaking through any thickets with amazing speed .
Boar legs are hardy, short limbs covered with coarse hair. The tail is not too long, reaching approximately to the heel joint, and has a tassel at its end. When a wild boar runs away from danger, its speed can be about 40 km/h, and it will jump four meters in length and one and a half meters in height. And the wild boar is capable of maintaining such a pace, without stopping for a smoke break, at distances of 10 or even 15 km. This animal can quickly and easily swim across water obstacles, even if the river has a high current speed, it forces swamps and is able to overcome steep slopes.

The wild pig is a natural all-terrain vehicle, only impassable snow reduces its ability to maneuver. Only at the first inattentive glance can a boar be called a heavy and clumsy animal. In reality, it is a fast and playful animal. The boar can make a lightning-fast throw towards or at the enemy at any time. The size of an adult pig is quite significant. The height at the withers can be about 120 cm, and the length of the animal is often more than two meters. Such an animal weighs about three centners, or even more. With all this, it is also a well-armed enemy - the boar has well-developed tusks. They are clearly visible when looking at a wild boar - they do not fit into oral cavity, and turn menacingly white on the outside. On the upper jaw, the fangs are blunt and not too long, and at the exit from the gums they bend upward. On the lower jaw of a wild boar they are more serious - these are sharp triangular fangs, and they grow throughout their life and when the boar is already seven years old, their size is already ten centimeters. It must be said that the lower tusks of a boar are always sharply sharpened, they never become dull, the fact is that the upper tusks are closely adjacent to them and act as a grindstone. The lower tusks are a lifesaver for a boar - it is a digging stick, an “axe”, and a “knife”, and much more. It is the boar's impressive lower tusks that give another name to adult males - they are often called cleavers.

Female wild pigs also have fangs, although they certainly cannot boast the same size, they do not even protrude. Actually, this makes female wild boars less dangerous than adult loppers.
Boars have a well-developed coat. IN winter time Each bristle splits at the end, and itself becomes very strong and elongates. These bristles on the back of the animal tangle and create an original mane. In addition, during cold times a dense undercoat grows. The fur of a boar, its part consisting of bristles, is most often dark brown in color, lightened at the ends, maybe with a grayish tint, or even completely white. The undercoat is also brown with an admixture of chestnut color. Wild boars do not differ in the variety of skin colors; they can be brown or brown, almost always in darker shades, the limbs are always darker than the body, they can be completely black. On summer time The stubble is thinned out and shortened. The color changes and becomes lighter and moves to the “area gray", gray or even ashen colors begin to predominate in the color of the skin.
By nature, wild boars are cautious and wary animals, so they usually try to leave when a person approaches. However, when a boar is wounded or very angry from long-term persecution, it can turn all its forces against its pursuer, not caring about the sense of self-preservation. Boars have remarkable expressed feeling hearing and smell. But vision is much weaker. But this does not mean that a boar’s vision can be ignored when hunting it. Already from a distance of a hundred or one and a half meters, he can detect even small movements of the hunter and immediately goes in the other direction.

It is very important to properly skin a dead animal. Depends on this appearance trophy and its evaluation. When skinning, the killed animal is laid on its back and, having pulled back the skin on the belly (near the anus), it is cut through sharp knife. The incision is made along the midline of the abdomen from the anus to the angle of the lower jaw (to the chin), as well as along the underside of the tail to its end. The knife is inserted under the skin with the tip upward; in this position there is less risk of cutting through the muscular wall of the abdomen. On the front legs, skin incisions are made from the soles along the inner sides to the chest, and on the hind legs - from the soles on the inner sides to the anus, going around it with an incision in front as close as possible (Fig. 66).

Rice. 66. Cuts for skinning

Then the skin is separated from the hind legs to the claws. After this, the terminal phalanges of the fingers are cut so that only the claws remain with the skin (Fig. 67). To make it easier to photograph the skins of small animals (cats, lynx, wolves, etc.), they are hung by their hind legs. Skinning is carried out from the forelimbs in the same way as from the hind limbs.

Rice. 67. Processing the paws of predators

You must remove the skin from the head very carefully so as not to cut through the skin around the ears and eyes. Having reached the ears and exposing their bases, they cut off the ear cartilage near the skull and leave them with the skin. In the eye area, the skin is cut as close as possible to the bones of the skull and the eyeball, so as not to damage the eyelids. When skinning, the animal's mouth is opened and cuts are made along the edge of the mouth from the inside near the teeth, leaving the lips attached to the skin (Fig. 68). After the skin is separated from the carcass, the ear cartilage is removed so that the ear does not lose its shape as it dries. Separating ear skin from cartilage is a difficult operation. The cartilage fuses especially tightly with the skin on the inside of the ear. Great care is needed here to avoid cutting or tearing the skin.

Rice. 68. Cuts along the edge of the mouth

To protect against spoilage, the removed skin is cleaned of meat and fat and covered with a thick layer of salt. For the skin of a lynx and wolf they spend 2–2.5 kg, for the skin of a bear - 5–6 kg. Having rubbed well with salt, the skin is left unfolded for several hours, and then rolled up with the flesh inward, hair outward, tied with rope and stored for 2–3 days. Then the salt is shaken off and the skin is hung in the shade to dry for 2–3 hours.

For long-term storage, after drying, the skin is once again cleaned of any remaining meat and fat, salted a second time and dried. If diaper rash appears on the skin, wipe it with acetic acid.

To exhibitions hunting trophies represent only tanned skins. There are many methods of dressing, but we will not recommend them here, since dressing skins at home requires not only knowledge, but also a lot of practical skill.

If the skin of a bear, wolf, lynx or other predatory animals has a high score, the local society of hunters and fishermen can provide practical assistance in organizing its processing at the relevant factories. In exceptional cases, the board of the Russian Hunting and Fishing Union can help.

If, after dressing and complete drying, there are unevenness on the skin or it is dry, then use sandpaper to clean off all the unevenness, and then place the skin for a short time in wet sawdust. Having spread it on the boards with the fur down, pulling it slightly in width and length, straighten the paws, head and nail it along the edges with nails; then they are dried and the edges, perforated with cloves, are carefully trimmed (carefully at an angle, without touching the fur). The fur is combed with a brush. To dry, bear skins can be stretched on a frame made of poles or thick slats.

The finished skin is hemmed with cloth (preferably green) completely and only along the edges of the outline. The edges of the cloth are cut with teeth or other patterns. Then, in accordance with the contour, a linen or other lining is cut out and hemmed to the cloth on the back side of the skin. Between the skin and the lining, it is good to lay batting in the shape of the skin. Metal rings are sewn to the head, tail, and paws at a distance of 30–50 cm from each other to attach the carpet to the wall. You can make a carpet from the skin with a head and an open mouth. However, this work requires a lot of knowledge and experience. If desired, the production of such a carpet can be ordered from a taxidermy workshop.

The next main task of the owner of the trophy is to preserve it so that neither moths nor skin beetles damage the skin. To do this, you need to keep an eye on the skin, shake it off periodically, and dry it in the sun.

The quality of trophies, preservation, and good display appearance largely depend on their processing and design. Great importance At national and international exhibitions and competitions, the design of the trophy is attached. Before starting to directly process the hunting trophy, the hunter must take care of it at the hunting site, since very often damage to trophies occurs during their transportation. If the animal carcass cannot be delivered with the trophy without damaging it, then it is best to separate the trophy from the carcass. Usually the skull is separated from the neck after the skin has been removed. In this case, special attention is paid to maintaining the integrity of the occipital parts of the skull. The head of an elk, deer, or roe deer is cut off along a line coinciding with the angle of the jaw bone. To do this, the head is pulled back and the neck muscles around the head are cut at the level of the movable joint of the skull and the first cervical vertebra, then the joint membrane is cut with the end of a knife and the head is separated from the cervical vertebra with a strong jerk. When transporting a boar, the head does not need to be separated from the carcass, but to prevent damage to the tusks, the jaws are tightly tied with a piece of hay placed between them, and the tusks are wrapped in paper.

Proper processing and design make it possible to identify the main advantages of trophies and draw the viewer’s attention to them. Processing and design are not very difficult and are accessible to everyone, but they require great care and attention. The processing and decoration of trophies consists of the following operations: cleaning the skull, boiling, filing, degreasing and bleaching, selecting a stand and mounting.

To process hunting trophies, you must have two sharp knives - one with a long blade, the other with a short one; tweezers, scalpel and scraper for removing the brain. The scraper is made of steel in the form of a spoon, 2x2.5 cm in size and 15–20 cm long; a wooden handle is attached to the end of the scraper. The edges of the scraper must be sharpened.

First, you should clear the skull of meat, which is most convenient to do at the site of cutting the carcass. To do this, use a sharp knife to cut off the largest muscles and remove the eyes and tongue. After liberal salting, the skull can be safely transported for several days, even in hot weather. To repel blow flies, it is a good idea to sprinkle the skull with mothballs. When transporting, it is advisable to place the horns along with the head on hay or straw.

The brain is removed with a scraper, mixing the brain until soft, through the foramen magnum, without expanding it. You can also use a wooden spatula or a wire hook or a stick with cotton wool wound at the end instead of a scraper. Then the skull is washed under a strong stream of water.

There are several methods for final cleaning of the skull, but the simplest and fastest is boiling the skull in water. The only drawback is that bones cleaned in this way, if you do not strictly adhere to the rules, sometimes are not snow-white, but retain a yellowish tint. To prevent the skull from darkening during cooking and to bleach it more easily in the future, it is first placed in running water for 10–20 hours. If the water is not running, it is changed several times. To better bleed the skull, add a 1% solution of table salt to the water.

Boil the skull in a large saucepan or cauldron so that the water constantly covers it completely, but does not reach the horns. To do this, the trophy is tied to two wooden blocks and with the help of this device the depth of immersion is adjusted. It is advisable to wrap the lower third of the horns (rosettes and lower processes) with a rag so that fat and water do not get on the horns.

The skull is never placed in hot water, and heated together with water. After boiling, the fatty foam is constantly removed, adding evaporated water, since the bone protruding from the water turns brown and then does not bleach. It is very good after half an hour of cooking to change the water and start boiling in clean water. When cooking, it is not recommended to add any chemicals (soda, ammonia, washing powder, alkali, etc.).

The duration of boiling the skull is 1.5–3.5 hours, depending on the size, type and age of the animal. Particular care should be taken when processing the skulls of small ungulates, whose bones do not fuse. When boiling such skulls, check every few minutes to see how the meat separates from the bones. When it separates easily, boiling is stopped so as not to destroy the bonds connecting some bones. When the muscles and tendons are cooked to sufficient softness, the skull is lowered into clean water for cooling and cleaning begins. The meat, softened by boiling, is separated with tweezers, and the ligaments fused to the skull are scraped off with a scalpel or knife. Then the skull is cleaned of the remains of the brain and films.

Before boiling the skulls of bovid animals (mountain sheep, goats, antelopes, etc.), it is necessary to remove the horns. To do this, they are immersed in water for one or two days so that it covers the entire horn to the base. The skull can remain above the water. Water soaks (macerates) the connective tissue formations connecting the horns to the bone base of the frontal bones, and they are easily removed from the bone bases. The removed horns must be washed well and dried in the shade, and the skulls must be boiled and cleaned in the usual way. After filing, degreasing and bleaching the skulls, the antlers are placed on bone rods.

After thoroughly cleaning the skull from meat, ligaments and brain, it is important to skillfully file.

It is best to preserve entire skulls of deer, goats, and sheep. Such a trophy is more valuable, since the age of the animal can always be determined by the wear of the teeth. It is recommended to attach the lower jaw to the trophy with a cord or thin wire.

Sometimes only a small shapeless piece of the frontal bones is left with the horns, and the horns seem to lose their logical connection with the skull. Such horns look on their own, and not as a combat or tournament weapon for a male stag. To avoid this, the nasal, frontal and part of the parietal bones are left with the horns. If the horns are large and massive, then only the base of the skull with teeth is removed. In this case, not only the nasal bones, but also the premaxillary bones and the upper parts of the eye sockets are preserved.

The base of the skull is filed with a surgical or carpenter's saw with fine teeth, outlining the filing line in advance. To do this, the skull is immersed in water so that only those parts that need to be preserved with the horns remain above the water. Having secured it in this position, mark the water level with a pencil, then remove the skull from the water and cut along the line. When cutting, the skull must be wet, otherwise dry bones will crumble easily.

No matter how the skull is cleaned, fat remains in the bones, which gives them a yellow color, so the bones must be degreased. The most in a simple way involves soaking the skull for 24 hours in pure gasoline, then immersing it in water and boiling quickly. In this case, fire safety measures are observed especially carefully.

For bleaching, you can use a 30% solution of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2). The skull is immersed in the solution, making sure that it does not get on the horns, keeping it for 15 minutes (no more). A hydrogen peroxide solution of this concentration must be used extremely carefully so as not to damage the skin of your hands or burn your clothes. The bleached skull is washed with water and dried.

The third method of quick whitening is boiling the skull for 5–15 minutes (depending on the size of the skull) in a 25% solution ammonia(250 cm 3 per 1 liter of water). Make sure that the horns do not touch the water. At the end of boiling, a 33% solution of hydrogen peroxide is applied several times to the hot bones with a brush and, without washing it off, the skull is dried. It is better to work with hydrogen peroxide while wearing rubber gloves.

The fourth method is to cover the washed skull with cotton wool or gauze soaked in a 7–10% solution of hydrogen peroxide with the addition of 5 ml of a 25% ammonia solution per 1 liter of water. Bleaching is carried out for 4–5 hours in a dark place.

Fifth method - the skull is soaked for 1–2 hours in water, then boiled for several minutes, after which it is removed from the water, slightly dried and a 33% solution of hydrogen peroxide is applied to it, mixed until sour cream thick with fine chalk or magnesium powder, placed place it in a dark, damp place for 10–24 hours. Then the skull is washed with water and a brush, and dried in the sun. Make sure that this solution does not get on the horns. After bleaching, light cosmetics of the horns and skull are allowed; light horns can be slightly tinted with a weak solution of potassium permanganate or infusion of shells walnuts To do this, the shell is immersed in hot water and left for several hours.

You need to tint the horns very carefully, since experts can give a discount for light-colored horns during the evaluation, and remove them from the competition for ineptly tinted ones.

Coating the horns with varnish or other dyes is not permitted, otherwise they will not be allowed to participate in competitions and exhibitions.

Before applying cosmetics, the skull should be tied in a plastic bag. The tips of the deer's antlers can be polished white with fine sandpaper. To add shine, dry horns are brushed with paraffin or stearin dissolved in gasoline. After the solution has dried, the horns are polished to a shine with a shoe brush.

In order to eliminate any roughness on the skull, it is polished with fine sandpaper and wiped with chalk powder dissolved in denatured alcohol. Talc is applied to a cleanly wiped bone and covered with a thin layer of a liquid solution of colorless synthetic varnish, or the bones are wiped with cotton wool soaked in polish. This type of varnishing is usually carried out on the skulls of predatory animals.

To extract the tusks of a boar, a part of the animal’s muzzle is sawed off between the eyes and the tusks, as shown in Figure 69. This piece of the muzzle must be at least three and a half times longer than the visible part of the lower tusks. The sawn-off part is placed in a cauldron with cold water so that it completely disappears under water. The water is brought to a boil and simmered over low heat for 2–3 hours. After cooking, the jaws with fangs are removed from the cauldron and, without allowing them to cool, the fangs are removed. To avoid getting burns, use mittens or rags. The upper fangs are usually removed easily, but to remove the lower ones, they need to be pulled forward 3–5 cm, and then carefully open the jaw bones from the back so that the fangs come out freely. Then the fangs are placed in a cauldron of hot, oily water until it cools. They should not be left without water and should not be washed with cold water. The fang, cooling in oily water, becomes saturated with fat and acquires a protective layer. After cooling, the nerves are removed from the fangs and wiped inner surface cotton wool, dry in a damp and warm place to avoid cracking.

Rice. 69. Extracting boar tusks

After drying, the fangs are degreased with gasoline. Inner part It is recommended to fill the fangs with BF glue (any) and, holding it inside for 5–10 s, pour it out, repeating this two or three times at intervals of 30 minutes. Before this, the glue is heated in a container with warm water so that it pours out more easily. Instead of BF glue, the inside of the fangs can be filled with epoxy resin of the following composition: 80 parts filler and 20 hardener. Instead of glue, the cavities of the fangs can be filled with tweezers with cotton wool soaked in epoxy resin; after 12 hours the glue hardens, giving them greater strength.

To prevent fangs from deteriorating due to changes in humidity, they can be coated with a thin layer of colorless synthetic varnish. Fangs cannot be bleached.

Boar tusks are one of the best hunting trophies! A boar hunting- this is definitely a dangerous activity with a lot of thrills, adrenaline in the blood, and, possibly, piercing wounds for the dog, which often falls under the sharp fangs of the cleaver. In this article we will talk about one of the best trophies of a hunter, how to properly remove boar tusks, how and with what to treat them to preserve them for many years, and how to avoid cracking and damage to the tusks.

To begin with, it is worth saying that best fangs For a trophy, fangs are considered to be 20-23 cm long and a uniform width of about 25 mm. Choppers at the age of 4-5 years have such fangs. In old boars, 6-8 years old, the tusks can reach 25 cm in length and 30 mm. in width. But in boars over seven years old, very often (compared to younger individuals) the fangs are broken off or ground down by several millimeters. A piglet at the age of one year already has small fangs about 2 cm long. And already at the age of 1.5 years they can reach 4 cm. After another year, the fangs protrude by 5 cm or more. At this time they become razor sharp.

If you have not yet removed tusks from a boar’s skull, then it is better to ask a more experienced hunter to help you the first time. If this is not possible, then use the recommendations below, and you will succeed!

First of all, we remove the skin from the boar’s head, cut out all the muscles in the jaw area and the tongue. After this we will need a hacksaw for metal. But we will not be sawing off fangs, but jaws. The lower jaw of the cleaver is sawed off at a distance of 10-15 cm from the fangs, the upper jaw - at a distance of 5-8 cm. The sawing should be parallel to the growth of the fangs.

After we have extracted the jaw, it must be boiled. Pour cold water into some container (bucket or pan), place the boar's jaw there and boil over low heat. You need to boil until the tusks can be freely removed from the boar’s jaw. This is usually achieved by boiling for just over an hour. Then you need to wait for the water to cool and remove the fangs. After extracting the fangs, they must be freed from the soft tissue adjacent to the fang using hard tissue. Then the internal soft tissues of the tooth (pulp) are removed. Ordinary tweezers will help us with this, or, if this “tool” is not available, then ordinary wire. The fangs are wiped with a soft cloth inside and out. Some hunters wipe their fangs with a rag soaked in alcohol. Dry the fangs for no more than a day, since due to a sharp change in temperature they crack and fall apart. After drying, the fangs are poured.

Important!!! Before filling, the fangs must be degreased with gasoline or alcohol.

Some hunters use wax or paraffin for filling. But these materials are suitable for filling fangs that will be constantly in one temperature conditions. If the temperature changes, sooner or later they will crack. The most reasonable solution would be to fill the boar's tusks with epoxy resin. After pouring, until the resin hardens, it is recommended to insert a wire into the fangs (with its help we will attach the trophy to the stand board). But filling only protects the fangs from cracking, and it cannot prevent the destruction of the enamel. To preserve the enamel, boar tusks are coated with two layers of colorless varnish or colorless glue. Treating fangs with fat can also prevent enamel destruction.

The choice of place where the trophy will be stored is also important. There is no need to hang it in the kitchen, where there is constant heat from the stove, near heating appliances and wherever it gets sunlight. In short, avoid high temperatures! Good luck on your hunt and great trophies!

Wild pigs (Sus scrofa L.) are a pest Agriculture. However, in the forest they are more useful than harmful. IN last years due to a significant increase in the number of this artiodactyl, its shooting in Central Europe (Germany and other countries) is permitted within all year round. In the Soviet Union, restoration of the range and growth of the wild boar population began in the mid-thirties and is still observed everywhere, with the exception of a few regions of the Caucasus, Transcarpathia and the south of Eastern Siberia. At the same time, the acclimatization and reacclimatization of this promising hunting animal. The boar was imported and released into the Moscow hunting grounds. Kalininskaya, Yaroslavlskaya, Ryazan region, as well as in the Crimean hunting reserve.

Wild boar hunting is not only of commercial interest, but also of great sporting interest. During sport hunting, the most a valuable trophy It's not the meat that counts, but the fangs - formidable weapon boar Their size and beauty are, as it were, a measure of the success and courage of a hunter-athlete and at the same time an indicator of the level of management of a particular hunting enterprise.

Below are two complementary articles on the scoring of wild boar trophies. The first of them belongs to the pen of G. Domnik, a young German game warden who received special education in the USSR and relatively recently started practical work in German Democratic Republic. The second article, at the request of the editors, was written by prof. A.G. Bannikov based on foreign materials. During 1960, the editors will introduce Soviet hunters to the international rules for scoring trophies of bear, saiga and other generally recognized hunting trophies.

Cleaver skull: 1 - lower fang-dagger; 2 - upper canine

All representatives of the pig family (Suidae), whose distribution covers the hot and temperate countries of Europe and Asia, along with the islands adjacent to the south, as well as all of Africa and Madagascar, are assessed using a single point system. The family includes several genera, of which the only representative of the genus Sus lives in the USSR - the wild boar, which has several subspecies.

The Central European wild boar (Sus scrofa scrofa Linne) is found in Belarus. The European-Caucasian wild boar, also called the Persian wild pig (Sus scrofa attila Thomas), lives in the European part of the USSR - from the borders of Romania to Transcaucasia inclusive. The weight of cleavers (males) of this subspecies reaches 250 - 260 kg. The range of the Kuril subspecies (Sus scrofa riukianus Kuroda) is limited to the southern islands of the Kuril ridge. The Manchurian wild pig (Sus scrofa ussuricus Heude) is native to the Ussuri region and Manchuria. The Far Eastern continental wild boar is the largest: in the Amur region there are cleavers weighing 300-320 kg. Mongolian (Sus srcofa raddeanus Adlerberg) is the smallest subspecies of domestic wild boars; the weight of adult individuals ranges from 55-90 kg, and the distribution of these pigs is limited to Transbaikalia and eastern part Mongolia. Central Asian or Turkestan wild boar (Sus scrofa nigripes Blanford), found in Central Asia and Kazakhstan, northwestern Mongolia, the Chinese province of Xinjiang, Iran and Afghanistan.

Only the lower tusks (“daggers”) and the upper ones are recognized as sports trophies. Throughout the life of a male boar, his lower tusks continue to extend upward. The upper fangs are inferior in size to the “daggers”; every year they become more and more bent and make it possible to determine the age of boars from them. “Daggers” that are very thin at the top are a sign of the youth of the animal. The tusks of female wild boars are small and do not belong to the category of sporting and hunting trophies.

The assessment of wild boar trophies is carried out according to the rules adopted in 1952 at the International Congress of Hunters in Madrid and recommended by the session International Council hunting in Copenhagen (1955).

Cleverly mounted on a special board, the tusks of a cleaver, tastefully “padded” with a semicircle of long black bristles rising on the scruff of the enraged animal, are a wonderful decoration for the interior of hunting lodges and hunters’ apartments. However, when installing fangs, one should not forget such a “prosaic” detail as a tablet indicating the place and date of shooting and, if possible, the weight, length and height of the defeated animal. Thus, the displayed trophy becomes not only a decoration, but also acquires hunting, historical and scientific value.

Assessing a boar, or rather its tusks, does not present any difficulties.

The length of both lower canines is measured with a measuring tape to the nearest 1 mm. The tape is applied to the outer curve of the fang - from its root to the tip. If the root or end of the canine is broken, then its actual length is taken. The measurement results are indicated in the evaluation table in centimeters.

Also, the volume (section) of the upper canines at their widest point is measured in centimeters with an accuracy of 1 mm (see diagram); Abnormal deviations are not taken into account.

The width of the lower “daggers” at their thickest point is measured with a micrometer (caliper) with an accuracy of 0.1 mm; measurement indicators are entered into the table in millimeters. In this case, growths and other deviations from the norm are also not included in the assessment.

IN special cases- with highly developed and curled upper canines (a sign of old age) or with their clearly expressed symmetry - the score can be increased by an increase of up to 5 points (points). If the upper canines are very short or ugly, or if the lower canines become very narrow towards the end (a sign of a young animal), up to 5 points are deducted from the score.

For the assessment, the average data (half) of the sum of the measurements of both canines (in points) is taken and the established multiplication coefficients are entered: “1” for the length of the lower and the circumference of the upper canine and coefficient “3” for the width of the lower canine.

When assessing trophies, a trophy certificate is filled out and issued, indicating who it was issued to, what animal was taken and in what hunting area, the weight of the killed animal and the date. Next, the results of the trophy assessment are entered into the certificate, for example:

A bronze medal is awarded for a total canine score of 110 points, a silver medal for 115 points, and a gold medal for 120 points and above.

The record boar trophies that have received awards at international exhibitions in recent years are as follows: a cleaver, harvested in 1930 in Poland, received a score of 151.0 points; shot in 1935 in Czechoslovakia - 136.1 points: shot in 1936 in Romania - 134.9 points, etc.

Length of lower canine;

Width of lower canine;

Volume (section) of the upper canine

The trophies themselves - boar tusks - are fastened so that the smaller (upper) tusks are inside the larger (lower) tusks. The right ones with the left ones and the lower ones with the upper ones are fastened with metal plates or decoratively placed on a beautiful stand.

Boar tusks are a good decoration for a hunter’s home and hunting club premises. They are pleasing to the eye and evoke memories of a successful duel between a hunter and a large, cautious and dangerous animal.

Professor A. Bannikov, Moscow

Magazine "Hunting and Hunting Management", No. 1, 1960.