- [Carl] There's more than just  pulling the hide over a form.

- [Bret] On today's "Prairie Sportsman," we're  in Big Bend to meet a legendary taxidermist.

- Everybody said you gotta go up to  this guy up by Big Bend.

He's a great guy.

He loves hearing stories.

He'll do a great job for you.

- [Bret] Who's been swapping stories and  making magical mounts for almost 70 years.

- I don't have that many mounts  of my own.

I gotta do something.

- We always have to budget  some time to go get the deer.

- [Bret] Then, we're in the Willmar Lakes area.

- It doesn't hurt sitting in the  water.

It's already in the water.

We're not gonna go out and work until we're safe.

- [Bret] To get a behind the scenes look at  what it takes to recover a sunken vehicle.

- [Josh] If it's all the way submerged, we typically mark it and wait  for that good ice to work off of.

- [Bret] It is 11:53 right now,  and the truck is on top of the ice.

- It's not cheap.

If we need a diver  in the water, how many guys we got, how much equipment we have to bring out here.

- Welcome to "Prairie Sportsman."

I'm Bret  Amundson, And on this show we try to show you all the outdoor opportunities Minnesota  has to offer.

Along with all the science, conservation, and management behind all  these activities that we love to do.

We got another great show for you starting right now.

- [Announcer] Funding for "Prairie Sportsman" is provided by.

The Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.

As recommended by the Legislative  Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources.

And by Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf  of Shalom Hill Farm.

A retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Windham,  Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org - Hunters in Minnesota love their deer.

There's  just something about sitting in the woods, chasing those big racks, or trying to put  meat in the freezer.

Sometimes we take trips though and go to other legendary whitetail  destinations around the world.

Last fall, I had the chance to go up to Saskatchewan  and target some of those big-bodied dark rack bucks.

After a few quiet days of sitting  amongst those tall trees the buck I was after presented himself.

And just like that, my hunt was  over.

I put a message out on social media asking for some recommendations on taxidermists.

And one name kept coming up over and over.

- I was raised by my grandfather here in  this house.

Since I was 10 years old.

And he taught me everything I know about hunting,  about ethics, and safety, and the enjoyment of it.

Then in spring of 2011 we lost him to cancer.

Cut to that fall, deer hunting.

I just really was not in the mood for it.

I missed my grandpa.

I  missed telling him the stories about the hunts.

Sitting in the stand that morning, this deer  walks by, and it's just a nice quality deer.

Nothing usually people would hang on the wall,  but it's a great deer.

And I took a good shot, and it dropped.

When I climbed down then to check it  out, I did what my grandpa taught me every year.

Just put your hands on the deer, and you thank  the deer for its sacrifice.

For what it's gonna provide for you.

And as I did that, I kid you  not, I felt my grandpa there with me.

He gave me a hug.

And I felt so much better about the whole  situation.

It got me back in the mood to hunt again.

So I wanted to hang it on the wall somehow  and I just imagined it'd be a European mount, but everybody said you gotta go up to this guy  up by Big Bend.

Carl Ahrndt, he's a great guy.

He loves hearing stories.

And he'll do a great  job for you.

So I brought it up to Carl.

Told him that same story.

And he said, "No, I'm not  gonna "European mount that for you.

"That needs to hang on your wall "That's a story you need to  tell your kids, your grandkids.

"Keep hunting, you know, enjoyable like that."

And  so he did, and it's my proudest dear.

- [Bret] You didn't hesitate  recommending him when I asked.

- Not at all.

Nope.

He's the only  one I'll bring any of my stuff to.

- [Bret] How old are you, Carl?

- Ooh.

Just about 84.

It's something I really  enjoy.

I enjoy hunting deer.

You know how it is when you hunt those things, you know, they can  be pretty crafty, you know.

Well I started out, my first deer I ever shot, like I say, I was 23  years old when I shot my first deer and I got him with a whole recurved bow, bought homemade wooden  arrows from a guy, and after that.

I've been a dedicated deer hunter.

There's no two deer alike,  you know.

They're not all record book bucks, you know, but there's no two alike, you know.

You  look at the horns and... Eights, tens, twelves, you know, abnormal points.

You look at 'em,  you know, some different angles that they come out of the head, and different lengths of brow  tines, and it just...

I don't know.

As far as the taxidermy thing, I really got interested  when I was in 10th grade in high school.

We had a biology teacher at a science club.

Yeah,  part of the extracurriculars there.

There was a guy that was a very good bird taxidermist  there and I really got interested in that.

- So how many years have you been doing this then?

- Been doing it since 1956.

However many of those years.

- 1956?

- Yes.

- Wow.

- 67 years or something like that.

- Holy smokes.

- So.

- He's done five shoulder mounts for me for white  tails.

And I have one antelope that I shot out in Eastern Montana that he did.

And I want to say a  dozen European mounts.

This year my daughter shot a nice 10-pointer, and it had a broken brow tine  on it.

It was just a European mount, but I brought it up to him middle of November.

I said, "Carl, is  there any way you can get this done "so I can give it to my daughter for Christmas?"

Both European  mounting it and fixing that brow tine.

Said, "I got you."

He took care of it and three weeks later  it was done.

I picked it up.

But that's not real.

- [Bret] Oh wow.

- [Dustin] He's just an artist.

- Well that's what a lot of customers say.

They  like my mounts.

I've had that compliment many times.

People appreciate the detail that goes into  it.

There's more than just pulling the hide over a form.

Once it's brought here, then I have to  cape it out, take the skin off the skull then and then we have to do the fleshing process and  that.

That's almost half of my time involved in a mount is fleshing and thinning the hide.

Getting  the hide thinned down.

When I get 'em fleshed out, then I usually salt them down and then I let 'em  dry out.

And then when I get ready to tan 'em I put them in a solution where they're regenerated  again.

There's things we have to do to get the form ready.

You know, we gotta cut the molds  locked in and drill out the nostrils and.

Then it's set the eyes.

Well the ears are turned inside  out, and the cartilage is totally taken out of them too, so.

Being we use plastic earliners,  then, you know, they get inserted in there, so.

I mix up some epoxy and I put a little  bit of red tempera paint in there to get it a pink color.

And it eliminates, I don't  have to paint the ear when it's done.

- [Bret] Basically It's gonna look like  this once you get it on essentially?

- [Carl] Yep, that's the same form.

- [Bret] What's the purpose of this then?

- [Carl] It makes a little... Not such a sharp bend right in the neck  there.

No special reason I guess, but I... - [Bret] makes it look a little more natural.

- Then it gets a coat in the hide  paste.

I'm making myself a mount.

- [Bret] Oh, are you?

- On one of these.

I don't have that  many mounts of my own.

I gotta do some.

Hold the hide on the form, set  the antlers, and.

Go from there.

- [Bret] When somebody brings in a  deer head, what's your goal with that?

- [Carl] Do it just as good or better  than the last one I did.

Whether I'm doing it for somebody else or for myself.

Just.

I try to do the best I can I guess.

Once it's totally dried down where the pins,  we'd be taking pins out as it's drying then.

We do a small amount of epoxy around the eyes.

We  try to get the little deal right in the corner of the front of the eye.

The nose pad on the deer  is fleshed very very thin.

When it dries onto the form you lose all, I mean it dries smooth,  there's no texture there.

If you look at the deer, you see the little bumps?

We'll replace those  bumps.

And then I usually go with a little row of bumps all around the bottom of the eye  here too.

I haven't really kept real accurate close deer, but got pretty close to 30 hours into  a deer head.

When you tuck them lips in there.

It should come hair to hair.

When you look at  some mounts, they don't tuck it in enough.

That takes care of that part for now.

- It's funny how you gotta get ahold  of him, but you only can call him at lunchtime.

Or after supper, you  know?

'Cause he's in that shop.

- [Bret] No cell phones and no internet.

- Nope, nope, it's all old school for  him.

It's amazing how he keeps all that stuff together.

His notebook's awesome.

You  know, he'll just ot your stuff down on this little spiral notebook and you wonder  how it's gonna get done and how he's gonna remember your deer, but it's your  deer every year, and it looks fantastic.

- We just got word from Carl that the  buck is finished which is great.

That was a really quick turnaround.

It's  just in time for the Minnesota Deer and Turkey Classic.

So let's go  over to Carl's and pick it up.

- He's awesome.

He is.

He loves hearing the  stories.

That's the first thing he asks me when I bring in a deer.

Which den was this one in?

Was your daughter with you this time or did your wife finally beat you?

You know, he's great at  remembering stuff from previous years, you know, from previous stories.

Yeah, he's funny.

And we  always have to budget some time to go get the deer, you know?

When I went to go get my deer this  year, my wife is like, "Well are you gonna be home for supper then?"

Like yeah, I should be back,  but.

He's always fun to talk to, that's for sure.

- So cool.

- I guess to get to the point where I'm  at as far as the quality of the mount, that's what.

That's what I enjoy.

- [Dustin] When you first put  that post out there that you were looking for somebody and I  recommended him, somebody said, "I heard Carl's retiring" and my heart sank.

I'm like no, we can't lose a guy like that.

- [Carl] I don't know who started that, but... - [Bret] You're not quitting any time soon.

- I ain't.

As long as I can still thread the  needle I think I'll be...

I got no intention to quitting.

Probably 'til the good Lord takes  me, I guess.

I'm just fascinated with deer.

- [Bret VO] Using taxidermy to preserve these  animals is more than just putting something on the wall.

It's preserving a memory.

And we  all have different ones from over the years.

- You know, the memories that we have as far as  growing up on the farm, and hunting and fishing, and the things that we've done.

It's  a... Memories.

Really good memories.

- It's winter in Minnesota.

What do Minnesotans  like to do this time of year?

Go ice fishing.

But you have to be safe about it.

Ice is never  a hundred percent safe, and today we're gonna show you what happens when a vehicle goes  through, and what it takes to get it out.

- We are doing an ice recovery on a  2006 Chevy three- quarter-ton pickup.

- Well we're in the Willmar Lakes  area.

We're not too far from town here.

And as you can see behind me there's  a truck about half submerged in the water, and City Line Towing's got all their gear  out here.

They're putting it all together, now this is a long process.

It's eight  guys.

It's gonna take a few hours just to get the gear assembled and put it together  because you have safety to consider.

And then you have a lot of factors at play here to be  able to hook that truck up and get it out.

- When we pull up on a lake.

We walk  out with an auger right away.

You can generally walk up from the direction  the vehicle was coming from.

You know, the ice held it to that point.

And we'll  check around the back of the vehicle, and we'll check around the front of the vehicle.

It's generally, you know, you have your good ice.

And then from there forward it might be bad  ice for a ways, and it builds back up again.

- [Bret VO] Most of the crew is assembling the  pontoon and the winch and all the gear there.

There's another guy in the water cutting the ice  around it and getting ready to hook up the truck.

- Nope.

- [Worker] Careful.

- God, you're heavier than Mike, man!

Hanging on?

- Just so you know, this isn't  how we normally do it.

But today, since you're here, we'll put on a show.

- [Worker 1] Go ahead, unhook the winch.

- [Worker 2] Just unhook the  winch.

Leave the shackle.

- [Worker 1] I'll grab his back.

- [Worker 2] I'll help add on weight now.

- [Worker 3] Come on, go this way.

- [Jason] It's the same process if  it's where it's at now or if it's 30 feet deep in the water.

Once the pontoon  is erected we get it over the casualty.

- The soonest we can get out there is... We  can do 'em right away, but the main thing is to have suitable ice around the casualty to  be able to work off stable area.

It can be done either way.

If it's all the way submerged,  we typically mark it and wait for that good ice to work off of.

The DNR does give you 30 days.

If  you report it, they know where it's at.

We work off of those terms with the DNR and communicate  with local law enforcement to extract it usually.

- Law enforcement called us roughly about  7 o'clock last night.

I believe they sent rescue squad out here, but everybody  was out by the time they got out.

We like to see it as soon as possible.

I mean it doesn't hurt sitting in the water.

It's already in the water.

We're  not gonna go out and work until we're safe.

- Once they've got the pontoon over the hole it's  time to hook up the vehicle.

If it's too deep, they'll send a diver down to hook  up.

In this case they didn't have to, and Jason was able to hook it up himself.

- [Jason] Wheels suck, Josh!

- [Josh] Yeah, I know.

- [Jason] I can't get my fingers in there.

- [Bret] When you're down there,  what are you trying to hook onto?

- I like to go for wheels.

It's the  most outward point of the vehicle.

So when we're winching up, we're not pulling  into fenders and doing any more damage.

- So these are hooks that go like this.

- [Bret] Yep.

- So we're gonna be pulling - - [Bret] They're not a full loop  You're pulling on that gear.

- [Worker] If it goes down, it goes  down.

It ain't going down to the bottom.

- [Jason] I blame this all on  my father.

He should have told me to go be a doctor or a lawyer or something.

- You should have learned how to listen.

This winter has been very unpredictable.

I mean we've had the cold, we've had good ice  making conditions, but every one we've done, you talk to the locals on the lakes, and they've  never seen ice like this.

Just this year alone, I believe this is our seventh or eighth one that  I've been a part of.

If you're in a vehicle on the lake, have your windows down.

I've never  seen a vehicle go from the top of the ice to the bottom of the ice fast enough that you  can't get out.

Generally if they go through, the front goes down first.

And they'll  sit.

And that gives you your chance to get out.

And eventually they'll slide  in the rest of the way.

Pay attention to the ice.

Basically it's...the ice will  talk to you when you're driving across it.

- One thing to consider when you come driving  out on the ice is to set yourself a track on your GPS.

That way you've got a safe track  back.

Particularly if you're coming out in the dark.

But if something bad were to happen,  you can mark where your vehicle goes through.

- I thought I was on the shoreline.

It was that  peninsula there, as you saw, and.

Well I started getting farther.

Oh, that's the other side of  the lake.

I knew where I was at.

I looked over, I saw the landing I went to start turning and  then ice started flying up from my tires.

I was in four-wheel drive, so it was kicking up, and then I  just kind of knew what was happening.

It was like slow motion.

I mean I was only moving 10, 12 miles  an hour.

Just slowly sink in.

I hit the bottom.

- [Bret] And once it goes down,  what do you tell 'em?

Call you guys, call insurance, call DNR?

What do  you think?

Sheriff's department?

- Usually they call the sheriff's department.

Yep, and the sheriff's department will reach out to us.

The DNR, they'll get the  proper authorities involved.

Yep.

Big thing is keep track of where you're at if  you can, or where the vehicle is.

You know, this one obviously you could walk to  the access and see it.

Most of 'em, if they go all the way under?

On a day like today,  that hole will freeze over.

You won't even know.

- All right, so I got one here.

- We went off the tow hooks on the front and  a hitch on the back, that's good.

It's not as stable, but it works well if you can't get through  wheels.

Jason couldn't get through wheels with his thick gloves, but wheels are the strongest point  of a vehicle, so that's what we go for normally.

- [Bret] So when you see a truck that's half out of the water like today are  you like pfft, piece of cake - I was kind of bummed.

I wanted to get in.

If  it was 20 feet down I would've been pretty happy.

- Okay.

We got that hooked.

Pull that one in little bit.

- [Worker 1] You want a lift back now or what?

- [Worker 2] If the front will  stay put, then it'll be fine.

- [Worker 1] Okay, yeah, let's lift the back.

- [Worker 1] We can get the bumper above the ice.

- [Worker 2] Yep.

Lift the back up.

- [Worker 1] Keep dead-manning.

- That's a matter of cutting a hole.

And throwing  a big timber down there like that and running a couple winches.

A dead man system is what we  call it.

Sometimes we do two holes, and then do a bridge across.

To get more depending on the  ice conditions.

We're in good ice here today where we're standing.

And we were able to use one 8x8  post as our anchor point to extract it back out.

- [Worker 1] Dead man!

- [Worker 2] He didn't go at all  Keep pulling, the truck's in ice.

- [Worker 1] Okay, hold!

- Today was a good one.

There was good ice  in back of us.

Sometimes we don't have that.

I mean sometimes we're winching it 200,  300 yards before we can unload the truck.

- We've had some very difficult rescues  this year.

We had a Snow Bear fall through Lake Sarah down in Southwest Minnesota.

And with the tracks and the situation, they were traveling across the lake at night and  ended up entering open water.

And they're meant to float.

In this case they had a hole open in the  bottom.

And then when they exited they didn't go through the roof hatch.

They went through the  rear door.

So the unit took on water, and it wasn't buoyant anymore.

We probably should have  waited to do that one to have better ice to get it up onto 'cause we had to break through about  150 yards of bad ice to extract the casualty.

- [Jason] When we design that  pontoon, we are able to float 53,000 pounds with the buoyancy of the  pontoon and we can lift 40,000 pounds.

- [Worker 1] Again, pull!

- [Worker 2] The wheel should  roll up over that edge!

- That's quite the process right there.

We got to  the shop at 9:30, followed the guys out here.

It is 11:53 right now, and the truck is on top of  the ice.

So once you have everything hooked up, the process goes fairly easily I guess, but  it's a lot of work, and a lot of effort, and a lot of time put into how that  process works to get this job done.

- It's not cheap.

Side by side is different  than a pickup is on time.

If we need a diver in the water, how many guys we got,  how much equipment we have to bring out here.

We've done some as small as 4500  bucks.

We've had 'em reach up to 35, 40, sometimes even $50,000 depending  on how long we're out there.

- This year alone I think I have $1500 just in  upgrades and we gotta keep up on that stuff.

You know, with cold water conditions you need  special regulators, and then the new ice suit.

- The biggest thing is when you're planning  on entering onto frozen lakes, know what you have for insurance coverages.

We ran into a few  cases this year.

Where they assumed that they had coverages to recover their vehicle when it  falls through.

Mainly on the UTVs.

So if you're riding those things on an inland marine, or a  farm policy, in those cases there's exemptions and exclusions on what is covered because it was  intended to use for a different purpose.

So if you plan on taking your new side by side, or even  your used ones, or whatever you're gonna take out on the lake to go enjoy a day of fishing,  you might want to check with your insurance agent.

Make sure you have the proper coverages.

If you end up in a situation like this guy did.

- Once the vehicle's on the ice, it's up to the  owner to decide what to do next.

Depending on what your insurance is, the tow company might bring it  to their salvage yard and then you don't have to deal with it again.

If you're gonna try to save  the vehicle, it can become your responsibility to get it to a place to get fixed.

Or you can hire  the towing company to bring it there for you.

- We're gonna tow it out, I got a buddy  with a shop about 15 minutes from here, and get it warm.

I'll do the things I need  to do that.

Try to get something out of it.

- While there are companies like  this that can rescue your vehicle, it's up to you to be responsible on the ice.

Be safe, and enjoy another Minnesota winter.

- [Bret] Catch "Prairie Sportsman" on demand.

Watch anytime at prairiesportsman.org, on the free PBS app, or subscribe to our YouTube channel @PrairieSportsman.

Don't miss  an episode.

Watch on demand today.

- [Announcer] Funding for "Prairie Sportsman" is provided by.

The Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.

As recommended by the Legislative  Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources.

And by Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf  of Shalom Hill Farm.

A retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Windham,  Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org