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 .