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Taxidermy, More to it than Good Price and Speedy Service

Where did it all begin? Last thing you remember was reading an article by Dick Idol telling you the phases of the rut. Gene Wensel was explaining the primary scrape. Peter Fiduccia was on the video rattling up bucks while Bob McGuire explored the pheromone phenomena. Throw in a local big buck sighting and a few days off work, and the next thing you know you’ve shot a real trophy, just like the one on the magazine cover.

Well, things started happening fast after that. First you take it to the gun shop to weigh it in for the deer contest. Then it is over to the bowling alley to count the points for their contest. Next morning you go back out to the woods so you can photograph it in a natural setting. A buddy suggests you get it mounted and gives you a name of someone he’s heard of. It’s warm out, so you bring the deer down to the butcher, who says you should mount the head. He gives you a business card that someone left on the wall by the phone. When you get home, your wife gives you her friend at work’s husband’s name. He does taxidermy, too.

So you call them up. How much, how soon, and how much down. You decide to call around some more. Grabbing the yellow pages, you find the column you’re looking for just after “taxicabs.” Best quality, reasonable prices, quick turn around time, awards, etc. You stop by the one nearest to you. The stuff looks ok, and he’s got some ribbons over by the desk so you leave the head there.

A few weeks later you visit a friend who shot a good buck the year before. You ask to see the antlers and he says he had the head mounted. So he takes you through the family room, down to the basement, past the newly remodeled game room and bar, and into the laundry room. Digging through some old waders and the remains of this falls’ garage sale he comes to a closet door. Opening it up you can see a set of antlers sticking up. After counting the number of eyes and ears, you barely identify it as a deer. That bad. Your friend admits that although he’s proud of the rack, he doesn’t think it belongs in his newly remodeled room.

When you tell him you’re getting your head mounted, he asks you where. When you tell him, he shuts the door and laughs.

He tells you to make sure to make room in your closet.

Sure enough, when you pick up your deer, it’s a candidate for the closet all right. The head wasn’t what you had pictured at all.

Let’s go back and try to correct this situation so that we might prevent this from happening to others. We will back up this story to about the time you were relaxing, watching how-to videos. While watching them, look at the live deer. Pay close attention to details such as eyes, ear angels, nostrils and the nose. Look at the deer’s attitude and how everything reacts. While looking at magazines, see what bucks really look like.

Your next step is to visit the taxidermist shops in your area. There are a lot of them. Try to visit them before the busy season.

Look at their most recent work. Let them explain their procedure and point out their good points and what they feel makes them worth dealing with.

Cost is a factor in choosing a good taxidermist. So is turn around time. Quality is just as important if not more so than the other two. You must justify spending x number of dollars for the work. Make sure you’re being dealt with honestly. Ask for references. Then use them. Any good taxidermist will have people to call as reference to their work.

You cannot pick a quality taxidermist just by shopping by telephone. Without seeing the work, anyone can sound good on the phone. When a taxidermist lists his credentials, he may mention the fact that he has won ribbons with his work. Ask him what ribbons in which division and category. Maybe this sounds complicated, but when you’re spending $200 or so on a pice of art work, its well worth the effort spent.

Next month we will take a closer look at all those ribbons and see what taxidermy competitions are all about. In doing so, I’ll attempt to take taxidermy out of the dark ages of arsenic, tanning powders and marble eyes.

(Published in “The Complete Outdoorsman,” Victor, NY, December 1988)
Taxidermy, More to it than Good Price and Speedy Service
By Bill Yox