To travel or not travel with a mount

Do a skull mount yourself and save that 1000 dollars. I know good taxidermy is usually expensive but that is a lot to pay for a mount that in 10 years or more will probably be dusty. I would say I have done a lot of skull mounts and my wife really doesn't mind them anywhere in the house, however a big game shoulder mount is another story! You will remember that hunt either way.

Millsworks said:

I am a professional taxidermist in Augusta WV.
I tan all my own skins, and they are wet tanned not dry preserve.
Deer shoulder is $200.00 and I do elk for $500.00.
Taxidermy cost is what guys want to charge.
Been doin it for 18+ years, 150+ animals a year.
Purchase my manicans in bulk to save and I pass the savings on to my customers.
Average deer mount price here is $300.00 , but they send out the tanning.
Sorry for you guys that pay double, but that's how it goes.

Click to expand...

Just curious. How many hours does it take you to do a deer head?

Jakedjones said:

Put in for some elk units in WYO. trying to decide if I should attempt to travel back to South Georgia with an elk mount to have it done locally or if I should leave it in wyoming with a taxidermist and have it shipped when it’s done. Suggestions???

Click to expand...

If you can find a guy in south Georgia who does great elk mounts, then by all means go for it. Or, if you want a taxidermist whose main focus is whitetail deer, but is willing to take a stab at an elk for $500-600, well, it's your elk. As far as travel, I'd suggest leaving the skull plate whole and cleaning it per CWD rules of whatever states you're driving through...

Why not make this an annual trip. Leave things with a taxi in WY and pick them up next year. No shipping charges required.

My dad has been doing taxidermy for over 50 years, many mounts for professional hunters, magazine covers, and even some for ODNR for display. He charges $350 for a deer shoulder mount. When he was doing elk, I think he charged around $750-$800. Now since he is semi-retired, he does whitetail only. He knows he's on the low end and could potentially charge more, but we live in a relatively poor area of the state and he doesn't want to be out of reach, price-wise, for the average customer. I think demographics might play in to what you can get a mount done for in your particular area.

To the OP, I'd learn how to cape and how to cut off a skull cap correctly. Clean all of the membranes/brains/flesh that you can off of the skull cape. Also learn how to properly wrap a cape. If you are going to have your meat processed somewhere, see if they wouldn't be willing to freeze and store the cape for you until you are ready to come home. The ones we have used have had no problem doing this for us. If you are going to cape it yourself, also learn what measurements your local taxidermist will need and how to take them. It's way easier to measure before caping than after. Just my two cents.

My first concern is if am doing a shoulder mount or euro. Euro cost less, easy to ship and never get infested with bugs. Is rare I opt for anything but a euro.

If am doing a shoulder mount and drove to the hunt then I have a fantastic taxidermist in Flagstaff so I drop off the hide and antlers or horn there.

If am doing a shoulder mount and flew to the hunt then I will have a taxidermist near the hunt do the mount if have good references for them. A taxidermist out East probably can do a fantastic whitetail mount and maybe an alligator but not sure they have gotten up the learning curve on elk or pronghorn so that is always a concern for me.

As a last resort I try to arrange shipping of the hide and antlers from the hunt or put in the belly of the plane. Getting the hide dry and yet keeping cold is not easy and things go missing and when are found, if found, have warmed up so the hide is a loss. Hides can be replaced but that changes how I view the mount as recall the memories of the hunt.

Flatrock said:

Just curious. How many hours does it take you to do a deer head?

Click to expand...

A deer head takes around 4-6 hours of actual time and labor, at least for me. The foam form is around 35-40 bucks if bought in bulk, eyes cost around $9.00-$13.00, and wet tanning myself cost around 18- 22 bucks.
The tanning process involves a lot of soaking time in tubs of solution, and washings. That tanning type takes around 4-5 days before I can actually mount the skin.
It would cost me around $80-$120.00 if I sent a deer cape off to be tanned. So if you add a hundred bucks to my deer shoulder mount price, that's what most charge in my area.
Elk manikin cost me around $150.00 and $35.00 in material to tan the cape. The rest is labor.
I ,like most honest taxidermist ain't getting rich on it, but it pays my bills.

Here in PA the average is $450-600 for a deer shoulder mount. $650-750 for an elk. There are guys that do them for $250 but they aren't the kind of guys you'd want to trust

I would bring it home to be mounted, even if you pay a western taxidermist to cape and freeze it still has to be cheaper than shipping an elk size crate across the country.

Bring it home with you and pay someone to do it. I know too many guys who have had issues with leaving their animals out west to have mounted. Then the taxidermist just disapears. Happened to one of my buddies twice in his lifetime both on B&C animals and none were recovered.

If its at home you can chase somebody down to recover money or check on how things are going...

Jt13 said:

Here in PA the average is $450-600 for a deer shoulder mount. $650-750 for an elk. There are guys that do them for $250 but they aren't the kind of guys you'd want to trust
I would bring it home to be mounted, even if you pay a western taxidermist to cape and freeze it still has to be cheaper than shipping an elk size crate across the country.

Click to expand...

$250, holy crap... you would be hard pressed to find a shop in CO that would do a elk Euro for that price. I know Jonas Brother's is charging $550 for an elk euro.

wllm1313 said:

I know Jonas Brother's is charging $550 for an elk euro.

Click to expand...

That's just ridiculous...

If you guys want to see sticker shock, look up Alaska taxidermy prices. Its the "shipping" that costs so much, that and to be competitive they all reach for the ceiling as to what people will pay. A sheep shoulder mount is now $1100 on average... Deer will run you $700-800 for instance... sitka or otherwise. Oh and did I mention that most of them will charge you $100 for fleshing/turning on top of the mounting? Most don't charge for the tanning though. haha Most of the "best" ones here are average at best. So if you get an animal in Alaska, take it home with you. The cost to pay someone here because they are "familiar" with the animal, and paying shipping on top of that (which would be more than you'll pay to have it mounted in the L48) is not worth it.

I had last year’s mule deer mounted as my first shoulder mount. I called around and poked around the internet for someone in my state with good reviews. I settled on a fellow who came highly recommend and had a few awards. He was the highest priced taxi I called. He was a 2.5hr drive from home. When I dropped it off he was friendly, helpful, personable and really inspired confidence. The mounted animals in his shop looked good from where I was standing. I left knowing I’d made the right decision and placed it in good hands. After taxes I paid $812. When I got it home last month I discovered that his stunning white face had faded to grey and was splotchy, his head looks smaller and sleeker, if I looked closely I could see the Y where he was caped, again, if I look closely I can see imperfections where his cape meets the base of the antlers, his antlers are lighter and less glossy than before, and the taxi forgot to recolor the bases after bleaching the skull plate. It took quite a while to convince myself that it was even my cape! Eventually I found some identifying markings, and it is mine. It makes me wonder if the employee he pays to cape his animals did the whole mount and the award winning taxi who I made the check out to never even looked at it. When he called me and said it was ready he told me about how beautiful it turned out, and then it sat in his shop for a month before I could pick it up and he never noticed the 1” wide white rings around the base of the antlers? I love the pose and what he did with the ears, and I love the deer itself, but I don’t believe for a second that I got an award winning taxi job. I have since talked to a fellow with quite a few mounted heads who says he has paid $400 for deer and $800 for deer and had just any many excellent jobs at the $400 price point as at the $800 price point. He said it primarily depends on the going rate in the area, and little else. I got some $400 quotes when I was shopping around and called folks around where my in-laws live. It was my first shoulder mount, and perhaps the Y cut and the issues where the cape meats the antler bases is pretty standard. You do have to looks quite closely, and you would never notice it if you were admiring someone’s mounted deer. The same for the cape color issues. Perhaps the tanning process causes them to loose some vibrance and change color a little bit. Still, $812 and you don’t take you job seriously enough to notice that you bleached the antler bases and didn’t recolor them? What else did he half@$$?

The next MD I have mounted is going to a $400 taxi. If I get a $400 taxi job I just might be thrilled. If I get an “$812 taxi job”(what I just got back), then at least it only cost me $400.

Millsworks said:

A deer head takes around 4-6 hours of actual time and labor, at least for me. The foam form is around 35-40 bucks if bought in bulk, eyes cost around $9.00-$13.00, and wet tanning myself cost around 18- 22 bucks.
The tanning process involves a lot of soaking time in tubs of solution, and washings. That tanning type takes around 4-5 days before I can actually mount the skin.
It would cost me around $80-$120.00 if I sent a deer cape off to be tanned. So if you add a hundred bucks to my deer shoulder mount price, that's what most charge in my area.
Elk manikin cost me around $150.00 and $35.00 in material to tan the cape. The rest is labor.
I ,like most honest taxidermist ain't getting rich on it, but it pays my bills.

Click to expand...

I mean this from the bottom of my heart, it’s time to raise your prices. At least make some money off of your tanning too. You’re doing the labor. If others are charging $300 in your area you should charge a similar price and consider that you make money on both the tan and the taxi.

Jt13 said:

Here in PA the average is $450-600 for a deer shoulder mount. $650-750 for an elk. There are guys that do them for $250 but they aren't the kind of guys you'd want to trust

I would bring it home to be mounted, even if you pay a western taxidermist to cape and freeze it still has to be cheaper than shipping an elk size crate across the country.

Click to expand...

I get the feeling the $250 guys are brand new and just covering their materials while they learn.

ImBillT said:

I get the feeling the $250 guys are brand new and just covering their materials while they learn.

Click to expand...

Or they're unlicensed, using subpar materials, and/or not properly preserving the hides. The "$250 shoulder mount" is what you see handwritten on a piece of copy paper and pinned up on the local community board at the gas station around here

Our hunting trip as planned will include myself, my father and 2 brothers and a close friend, 4 of us are hunting. What I’ve recently learned through my half brother is that he has a cousin on his father side that I a well established taxidermist outside of park city Utah which is a couple hour ride from where we plan to hunt. We will perhaps send whatever we intend to mount to his cousin with the safety and security that even though it is out of state is in safe hands and after talking to her she’s agreed to afford us the most savings possible on shipping. We lived in Wyoming many years ago and are unfortunately paying the price for nonresident hunting draws. My brothers dad lives in Missoula Montana and agreed to pick our mounts up and store them for us when they are completely if we choose to use family. I have no blood relation but do have a good friendship with my brothers family on his fathers side and the fact his cousin is a taxidermist slipped both of ours minds until he had is epiphany

If you're planning to let the cousin mount an elk you shoot, at least look at their work ahead of time instead of taking someone's word for it that they do good taxidermy. Just because they are "established" doesn't mean anything. They might be good, but they might suck. The ones that are good, usually charge more, but not always. It really comes down to you doing your homework to make sure you get what you want at the price you want. Good mounts look like the live animal.

For you and anyone else hunting out of state, I recommend learning to cape whatever big game animal you hunt. Then you can freeze the cape and bring it home with you to a local taxidermist that does work that meets your standards and price. You might even want to learn to split/turn eyes, ears, lips, nose, mouth, and salt it. Then you don't have to worry about freezing or shipping. It's not hard to do, but it does take some practice.

For those that think eastern taxidermists can't do a good job mounting western game that's a bunch of BS. In general, all game heads get put together the same way. What separates the good taxidermists from the bad taxidermists, no matter where they are located, is how well they have studied their reference and learned the shapes and anatomy of the different animals. When a taxidermist knows how to read their reference material and apply it to mounting any animal, the mount should look like a live animal.

LuketheDog said:

That's just ridiculous...

Click to expand...

Hey, that’s what it costs to have a famous boy band do your taxidermy.

I had a bull mounted in ID and shipped to IN. IIRC, the shipping was $700. At the time, I did not know any taxidermists here in IN that had done many elk and the ones that had examples of elk for me to see were not something I would pay for.