Author: Staff
Christmas Gifts
Try something refreshing and creative this Christmas season with a gift from Longhorns Head To Tail!
Fakes Frauds, and Deceptive Skulls
How to know if a valuable cattle skull is genuine
Recently we have had numerous people contact us and ask why they should purchase a “Longhorns Head to Tail” Genuine Texas Longhorn Skull from when they can find one elsewhere on the internet for less money. If there is a skull that appears to be the same quality for less money, it possibly makes sense for you to purchase there. However, many of the skulls on other sites for much less money are not Genuine Texas Longhorn Skulls, in fact many of the skulls that can be found on the internet that are identified as Genuine Longhorn Skulls were from cattle that didn’t even have horns when alive. This page is to help anyone positively identify the real ones from the fakes. The Number one giveaway that the skull is a fake, is rope wrapped around the base of the horns. The rope may look “rustic”, “rugged”, or “western”, but the rope is not there merely for effect alone. The rope is there to disguise the fact that the skull is attached to the horns with plaster. 99% of the skulls with rope base wraps are not Genuine Texas Longhorn skulls. Lets start with some examples. | ||
Here is a small example of a “Genuine longhorn skull.” “Longhorns have horns” – and the top of their head is straight across or mostly so, with bones that extend out both sides into the horn shell. The top of the horns are pretty much level with the top of the skull. | Many other breeds of cattle are born “POLLED”. Polled means that they are born without horns. The shape of their head is rounded or pointed. The foundation bones that would normally extend out the side of the skull to support large horns are nonexistent. | |
So, what does someone do to make a “Fake” Texas Longhorn skull? They take a skull without horns and add horns to it. There isn’t a place to attach the horns, so they use a little plaster or glue and build a place to attach the horns. See the example below. The horns are not level with the top of the skull. | ||
So, now you have an ugly mess of plaster, what to you do? You use 50 cents worth of rope to hide it. See example below: | ||
Here is an example of a genuine Texas Longhorn skull that measures 56″ tip to tip. A Longhorn Skull should be Triangular in shape. | Here is an example of a “Fake” Longhorn that measures 56″ – Notice the narrow upper skull and the cover up rope? | |
| If you are searching for a genuine Texas Longhorn Skull, there are many available to choose from at Longhorns Head to Tail. If you are looking for a generic skull with horns plastered on, then you can take your chances on some of the other sites. Below are some examples of real and fake longhorn skulls that are typical of those available on other sites. | ||
 The skull below is a genuine longhorn skull, but hasn’t been properly prepared. It still has skin on part of it. Don’t hang one like this in your kitchen unless you like the smell of road kill with your breakfast.  |   | |
| Many of the other sites appear to be selling Longhorn Skulls, but their language is deceptive. Here is an example of one found on a well known auction site. It says: “Texas Western BULL – Longhorn Polished horns and Skull“ THIS DECORATION CONTAINS REAL HORNS AND SKULL That heading and description leads you to believe that the skull is a longhorn skull, but doesn’t actually say so. There isn’t a lie, but there is deception involved. | ||
Real skulls come straight from the processing plants. Not every person has the “desire” to tackle this project. To take something no one wants to even touch or smell, and make a work of art is absolutely a miracle. The LHTT sanitation process of “house-breaking” a raw skull takes talent, tools and time. Many fake skulls are an effort to short-cut the perfect process and use a paint “cover-up” or just “half-way” do the job–it is not a fun job. Tools used at LHTT include a huge cooking tank with propane blaster, high pressure power washer, sanders, grinders, drills, hip boots, plastic gloves, jewelry polishing heads, and hours of skilled labor. All the time skulls must be protected from dogs and coyotes who “love to chew bones.” The western-polishing of skulls is not a job for Amway Ladies, computer gurus, dozer drivers or government postal employees.
The famous process has taken 42 years to develop, but is the best in the osteology industry.
Handling the big skulls up to and over 100″ tip to tip is no easy task. Eight to 15 hours of skilled hand work goes into every LHTT skull.
No yellowing will come with age due to the natural horn finish with no horn varnish of any kind at LHTT. Skulls are boiled in the big LHTT tank for many hours to disinfect and remove unwanted things.
The exact amount of chemical bleaching and de-greasing is done to create a permanent hard finish without overdoing the process to create soft chalky bones.
Most professional taxidermists charge $125 to $250 to polish a skull. If skulls are priced under the cost of professional polishing, they are probably fake or done by amateurs.
Don’t ask for a list of the 26 step professional processes. It is like indecency, probably not easy to describe, but when you see it you will know it.
HORN STEW – Hot Off The Stove
Barnesville, OH — HORN STEW, the book, contains 42 moving histories about people who loved their cattle and horses way beyond normal sensibility — enough that a level-headed psychotherapist could go bonkers trying to straighten them out. You will find personalities with bold enchantment and die-for devotion to breed extraordinary genetics — folks like Walter Merrick, Carl Miles, Hank Wiescamp, Frank Vessels, Johnny Cash, Sam Partlow, F.M. Graves, Audie Murphy, Sid Vail, Charlie Dees, Cecil Dobbin, Frank Doherty, Michael Mulberger, and Fennel “Impressive” Brown.
HORN STEW is exactly like the earlier Dickinson book FILLET OF HORN, except totally different. HORN STEW doesn’t have a semi-load of cattle rustlers and crooks, but replaces them with some bigger-than-life, colorful, business tycoons. These interesting actors had certain things in common: drive-your-wife-crazy chance-taking, the $317 bull that sold for $1,000,000, and such a love for great livestock that multi-millionaires even slept in the barn for years, with their livestock, to protect their investments.
You will picture the excitement of finding semi-coherent, famished swamp cattle with million-dollar genetics — unknowingly wanting to be rescued, become pampered and highly appreciated. Sense the thrill as they are acquired by risk and stealth. Watch them step off the truck, at home, forever admired, and soon to be highly valuable.
Study the inner workings of a conniving Tulsa police detective apply his most devious brilliance to win Quarter Horse Championships at the highest levels.
Watch my dad fulfill his dreams, from a little boy picking cotton on a sharecropper’s farm to building the first railroad tracks across the Mojave desert, to breeding and exhibiting a pasture full of World Champions.
Learn to understand the legendary horseman Henry J. Wiescamp, a personal side combined with an energetic business mind of unbelievable depth and chicanery.
In the end, learn the three ingenious common denominators of every great and highly successful livestock producer — by just reading on to the next chapter.
HORN STEW, 215 pages, 152 illustrations, available from Fillet Of Horn Publishing, 35000 Muskrat Pike, Barnesville, OH 43713. Mail orders $24.95 plus $3 for postage. On line click https://head2tail.com/product/horn-stew/.
Cooked horn will make your binoculars steam over — come and get it.
Beef Tearoff Flyer
If you like our beef, please print some of these and hang them on public bulletin boards at work, government offices, churches, and pool halls.
We need to get out the good word on our beef to other folks that love the taste of real beef, but don’t know where to get it.
Here is a download of the PDF flyer. https://head2tail.com/files/Beef-Tearoff.pdf
Saving Money On Food Is A Good Thing
From: Longhorns Head to Tail Store, Barnesville, Ohio 740 758 5050
SAVING MONEY ON FOOD IS A REALLY GOOD THING. Owning your own thrifty storage freezer is the key to serious savings. Many people are buying bulk to get the good prices for real savings. Clients who check beef prices say buying bulk at Longhorns Head To Tail Store saves them about 20% rather than buying one package at a time. The freezer below can be purchased at Walmart, Sams, Lowes, etc, in about the same price range. It appears Sams Club offers the best price.
This is the label on a Sams Club freezer that has an estimated energy use cost per year of $24. A chest freezer always holds more than the same cubic feet up-right. The savings on one freezer of beef will pay for the freezer purchase and one year’s energy use.
Halves of beef cut and wrapped at the LHTT store are still just $3.95 per lb hanging weight. If quarters are desired there would be remaining freezer room for USA grown fish, special LHTT pet food, mountain oysters and Oregon delicacy, fillet of spotted owl.
A 50 lb box of vacuwrap beef is 1.4 cu ft. Average LHTT halves are 5 boxes.
Store hours 10 AM to 5 PM every day but the Lord’s day, Sunday. Buy a freezer and call LHTT at 740 758 5050 — www.head2tail.com
Education: BETTER THAN ORGANIC read how this can be https://head2tail.com/better-than-organic/
The Beauty of a Western Polished Skull
It is just in time! Place orders today for Longhorns Head to Tail products. Check on line for all types of decor, beef products, polished house-broke skulls, calendars, horn jewelry, tanned hair-on hides — everything horn or Texas Longhorn. Check it out. Avoid shoot-outs and stampedes in the malls. https://www.thelonghornstore.com
2017 Calendar pp $12.
Fillet Of Horn, hard bound $29.
Tanned hair on full hide $275.
Real Horn Bowl 8″x 8″ $39.50
Heat & Serve grass fed TL Roast Beef case of 12, $138.20
Polished skull 90″ tip to tip. Bring a cattle trailer to haul this one.
If you are a little tired of on-line ordering, call the ranch store at 740 758 5050, or better yet come to 35000 Muskrat Pike, Barnesville, Oh and make your own choices. Pinch the horn, kick the can, feel the tanned hides, or try on the horn jewelry. Make sure it is perfect. Give steaks for Christmas. One size fits all – if not save it for breakfast. Store hours 10 AM to 5 PM. Think of LHTT for gifts you can’t find in Walmart, hock shops, Good Will, or the Army Surplus stores. Closed Dec 25 & 26.
Darol
Favorite Items
A sneak peak at some of our favorite items at Longhorns Head To Tail! What are your favorites?
Hey all. Just in time for some last minute shopping. Head on out to Longhorns Head to Tail and give that special gift for your perfect someone. Monday-Saturday 10-5. 740-758-5050. Consider all the really cool items posted here especially our gift certificates, good to give for any holiday, birthday, just because it’s Tuesday 
☺️ And of course, our All Natural Pasture raised lean beef is the perfect Meat Gift,,,, nutritious and delicious!!!! Blessings ya’ll. The cast and crew from LHTT want to wish you and yours a healthy and safe Holiday Season. Merry Christmas friends.
Chaps
Our Western Chaps are best suited to your needs, whether you’re bull riding, staying warm, or just dressing to impress! Stop by or check out our selection.
Queen’s new crown
Chili is Dairy Queen’s dressing — make that crown — for its latest iteration of the GrillBurger. The Chili Meltdown tops a -half-pound cheeseburger with spicy, meaty sauce, showcasing the product’s versatility and enduring appeal.
Dairy Queen VP Lane Schmiesing, who handles brand marketing for the fast fooder, says the product makes “a pretty strong appeal to a pretty important demographic for us, which is 18- to 34-year-old men.”
The Meltdown also is cost-effective, he says. “Sauce is inherent in chili, so we don’t necessarily have to condiment it with other types of sauces.”
Launched in September with the help of TV spots and newspaper inserts, as well as in-store promotions, DQ’s chili burger immediately shot up the popularity charts, where it occupied a spot next to other chain fixtures, including DQ’s cheeseburger and bacon cheeseburger. Sales have since settled down, but Schmiesing says the Meltdown remains a popular item.
“Our whole strategic focus for menu development is to create unique, crave-able flavors featuring products people associate with fast food but may not be able to get at every fast-food restaurant,”
Schmiesing says. Turns out DQ didn’t have to look too far for inspiration. The chain has used chili to top off hot dogs for nearly 50 years, so ladling a little of it over burgers was “a natural,” Schmiesing says.
DQ also serves chili soup-style, but the burger topping is more viscous, lest it compromise the integrity of the bun.
“It’s an indulgence item,” Schmiesing says. “It’s meat on top of meat. What more could a guy want?”
Article courtesy of meatingplace.com March 2007
“Good farming is the greatest form of artistic expression. Farmers create the bridge between nature and human nourishment. Food as the product of the agricultural arts goes beyond any image on the wall of a gallery or museum. Good eating, in that sense, could be considered one of the most integrated forms of art appreciation.”