i am just curious as too who here knows who does good big game mounts. mainly deer and elk. i would not be looking for a european mount. but a full mount prolly shoulders forward. pics would be nice also. much apriciated thanks

I think I just might be able to help you.

Warning....

Quality costs.

Some Antlered game.

Rick Leach of Trophy Taxidery in Portland Oregon. He's done 2 deer heads for me plus a wood duck drake, his work is simply amazing... He's a bit pricey but worth every penny. He's currently doing my 29 pound steelhead mount as we speak!

Keith

If you have the tanned cape I would be willing to do it for you, but I can't promise I would do it any cheaper than someone like Buzz Cook at Olympic Taxidermy in North Bend. It's allot of work to do a head right, and I'm a perfectionist. I've done almost a dozen heads in the past, but only have two of those at home. You can swing by my place if your ever down Silverdale way and see the Blacktail and Whitetail I did.

thanks for all the info. more or less i guess what i am wondering as hunting season is starting for me. and hopefuly i do shoot a animal that is of mounting quality, i was wanting to have something lined up as i don't know how to tan a hide. and would be looking for somewhere to drop the head and cape off to have done. also i am wanting a wall mount although the whole body stuff is killer. also i have never done more than a european mount myself. but would like to have a real head mount done

I can cape the head if you get one and don't know how to do it. After that, I always send my capes out to be professionally tanned. The quick cure tanning methods are a joke. Or, just take the whole head and cape to a reputable taxidermist and plunk down your $500. Again, Buzz Cook is about as good as you will find if you go that route.

thanks sol. i apriciate the info, and offer. i might take you up on your offer if not i will use the guy you mentiond. as i drive through silverdale about 3 times a month on my way back to sequim. thanks again.

Here's my one and only whitetail to date. I plan on "upgrading" him real soon. I believe he was the last buck I mounted before I went full-blown steelhead stuntman. The full-body bear mount is one I did with the guy that taught me how to do taxidermy, who has since moved to Montana.

I didn't realize you did that bear yourself Tim. Nice job!

The funnest part of doing that bear was arrowing him from the ground at 10 yards. The arrow went though both lungs and heart and it was stone dead within 3 yards and 45 seconds. Biggest adrenalene rush I have ever felt.

very cool Tim takes alot of talent & patience approx how many hours went into the bear project?

You're going to test my memory, Frank, I did that back in 1992.

Realistically, I think it took about 12 hours to skin the bear all the way out, body, head, legs and feet. Skinning to the end of each toe to clip the claws is a biotch. A couple more hours to flesh the hyde and prep it to send out for tanning. The tanning bill wasn't cheap as I recall, probably $400 back then. The foam body was probably $300, open mouth and eyes another $150. The modifications to the form took half a day, pasting, fitting and stiching took a full day. Detail work on the mouth took a couple hours and then there is the couple hours of misc. time in detail work as it drys over the following couple of days. The base work took about 10 hours.

I would say approximately 40 hours of labor and $850 to $950 in materials. At $100 an hour, which is what you will pay a *talented* taxidermist, your looking at about $5000 for a full body bear mount.

I paid $4500 for my lifesize brown bear mount back in 2001.

Thanks for the education Tim was curious as to time spent on such a project.As I had no fricken clue I have always admired mounts of big game & birds.Sal that thing is huge .


Frank

If I was going to miss I'm glad I missed on the high side. People in the art trades have been getting finacially tooled for years, and taxidermy isn't the place for a sportsman to scrimp. They should be looking around for the highest bid they can find, not the lowest. You can only mount something once, but you have to look at it for the rest of your life.

Just like finish carpentry, right Bucket?

Dang Tim.. That's some good work you did.

You ever try painting a steelhead mount?

Keith

I've done a few skin mounted fish, including steelhead. Realistically, I am more comfortable doing animals than aquatic species, which is why when I got my 29-pound steelhead I hired the most expensive artist I could find. Game heads are another matter. I feel like I can put as good or better detail into them as the best artists out there.

It shows in your pictures of your deer and bear...

Keith

Here's a skin-mounted king I did a few years back. It's "almost" a Campbell quality mount, but not quite, which is why I went to "the man" when I got my biggest steelhead.

This is what Campbell does with nookies....



I'd love to show you what he did with my steelhead, but that's gotta wait for another 6 months of so.

In the meantime, here's Sol's steelhead.

I can't wait for my steelhead to get done... It shouldn't be too much longer. I had one of the best B-day presents in my life when the buddies got together and finished off the $700 bill of the $1400 total.. The mount was supposed to be done in June as he was going to rush and have it done for my Bday but it's still there waiting to get painted...

Keith

www.trutolifetaxidermy.com

Jeff does great work on Waterfowl and Big Game.

But, like it was mentioned before. Quality does cost a little more and take a little longer.

I did taxidermy for about five years till my first wife & I divorced.
My last animal was this 16" antelope that I shot in eastern Montana.




Having a little experience, makes me truly appreciate the masters.

I've been kicking around the idea of taking on a few special projects for friends and what not. I scored this set of Idaho mule deer antlers for my collection. It's probably a 130-140 class buck with practically PERFECT symmetry and high G2's. I'll put the word out for getting a replacement cape for it come late deer season and order up a mannikin and take sequential pictures of the mounting process to post for those who are interested in seeing how much work goes into one. Look for the post sometime after late season.

Any of the ladies in the bikini threads will do just fine.

My vote goes to Charlies Taxidermy in Tenino. He does the best work I've seen and since he is still new and getting things going his prices are still not crazy.
To be honest you can't really tell by looking at pics. to really see the details a person should look at the work of the Taxidermist in person. If the animal don't look alive then walk away. after looking at allot of different taxidermist you will know when you find the right one.


After doing a few of the puyallup shows charlie has had guys go get their stuff from some of the big name guys and have him do their heads as they felt he did the same or better work for allot less money.

Kris

One of the guys I use is probably one of the best in the nation.

Predators and cats in particular are the most difficult animal for taxidermists to get right.

This lion won the taxidermy world championships a few years ago.

You will not find a more well done cat that this anywhere.

He went to such extrenes as to skin the lion's tongue and custom tan it as to acheive anitomical perfection as opposed to using the run of the mill plastic ones used by commercial taxidermists.



Two years ago I had him do this Monster Lynx, he had to alter a small mountain lion form to fit as no one makes a Lynx form that was big enough.
Being such a spectacular specimen, he decided to make a competition piece of it.
The mount took second place at the Championship in Reno that year.
It truly looks like a live cat, near perfection.



He won this division with this gorgeous Stone Sheep.



His prices may run off the average Joe, but when you demand true excellence there are few options.

There is good taxidermy, then there is world class taxidermy.
Top judges going over the entire piece with a magnifying glass.



Sol,
Is there anyone else that you would have mount that monster steelhead than Dave?
I don't think so.

Out of loyalty to Dave I won't mention his name, but there's a guy out of Seaside, OR that would be my second choice.

That old boy outta Anchorage might be a third when it comes to salmonids?

I had some time this weekend so I took a few detail shots of some of my work. The devil is in the details. The first is the eye on my blacktail. Notice I used glass eyes with whites, and I exposed the white at the back. This looks killer up close. The next is a standard eye on my whitetail. When modeling facial features it's important to study the species you are depicting and to make sure you model in the appropriote detail. Last deer picture is a mouth and nose detail. Tight lips with no visible clay pressed in to cover mistakes is something to look for in a quality mount. Also, making sure the nasal septum is rolled in correctly is key. Allot of "pretty good" taxidermists don't seem to have a good grasp of this detail.

We were talking about full body bear mounts. Don't overlook the cost of base work, as I probably had $1000 of time wrapped up in the base alone. The rocks are foam, spackle painted with zolatone, and the leaves are just plastic leaves from the craft store glued down with heat glue. The base insert itself is foam, coated in resin and then covered in dry sand. Notice, before the resin and sand coats, I used a Dremel Tool to carve out a couple of bear tracks in back. This is a time consuming detail, but it adds tremendous visual appeal to the finished product.

not to change the subject but does anybody know what happened to Craig Archer from N.W. creative taxidermy he disappeared with a bear and $

Thanks

sol your work looks great .