A couple weeks ago, Randy sent me a pic of his lion skull he did. We texted back and forth and I commented on how great it looked. I also asked how to get the smell out of a skull. He had a couple suggestions, then asked why...

Five years ago I killed a nice bear and documented it here.

http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=060184

I put a lot of time, effort, and work into this bear. But not long after I got this bear, the economy tanked. I was layed off, and not having the resources tried to do the skull myself. Needless to say it was terrible. So I put it in a tote out in the shed. The only reminders of my hunt were the pics I'd see from time to time, or a story of someone elses hunt.

I actually took the cape and had a fll body mount done, but the same circumstances and a bunch more that have followed have prevented me from getting it back. I'm not trying to sound like a poor me here, but hey life happens!!

I met Randy through this site, and like a few others from here have become real good friends. I'm blessed beyond measure to call this young man my friend. I could go on and on about him, but he'd pull the thread lol!!!

So Randy asks me to ship the skull to him and he'd see what he could do. I honestly thought, "Nothing!!" Seriously it had a bunch of missing teeth and was yellow (never use polyurethane!) and stunk. These are the before pics.

As you can see he stated filling in the teeth, and for the last two weeks I've gotten a steady stream of texts and pics with updates.





You can see how well he matched the teeth!!



And just yesterday got an email with a tracking number and this pic!!



Absolutley amazing!!

I just wanted to give a public Thanks to a great guy and even better friend! I am so grateful and now will be able to proudly display my bears skull and relive the memories of the hunt like we all enjoy doing.

Thanks again buddy!!  

Looks good. Nice going Mr. Burtis.    

Randy's a good guy
homebru

That looks great. Thanks for sharing.

This site doesn't amaze me any more, but what does still amaze me is the amount of combined talent available on this site and the general sharing of that talent.

Great job on that bear.

Chuckc

       

Great Job!!!

Nice work all the way around!  

I remember well following that hunt from day to day.  I just went back and reread it from start to finish again.  One of the all time best bear hunt threads ever!

Nice job!  Glad he was able to hook you up.

Awesome!!!
You guys are both men of many talents!!!
         

Nice!      

Way to be awesome! Great work!

Hes a good feller for sure. Nice work on those teeth.

Awesome, the skull looks great.

Nice bear, nice gesture. Way to go Randy.

Looks great!  Wow!

Didn't know Randy is a dentist too...     Good work. That's really turning lemons into lemonade.

Awesome job Randy! What a great way to remember a hunt my friend.

To be able to bring this memory back to life for a friend was truely my pleasure.

It was a first for me in some ways I have fixed one or two teeth mt never had to fabricate this many. I have not stopped thinking about ways I could have done it better since I boxed it up. It was a great challange a lot of fun and worth every single minute to know that he wont be in tote in the shed anymore.