Bad taxidermy or high expectations?

[whoami-72]

Every Instagram model: its all about the angles
Me: how does this camera work again?

 

[johnnycake]

It's not horrible. It's not great. It's ok-ish. But the hide is not properly stretched/fitted to the form which is why I think the seam looks so bad. It needs more clay molding or a larger form

 

[whoami-72]

For reference, we asked for a mount like what is my "reference buck" aka the buck from the 40s or 50s i mentioned in the original post. They even had us text them photos of it. Very vertical, my wife was very specific that she wants it to stop at the neck the dude said its old school buy could be done, and that it's straight on. It my be hard to see in the last photos i sent of my buck but they got close but didn't hit any of those. Mine is turned slightly to the side, has what she calls the gross legs, and is kinda pointed out instead od being vertical. After dropping it off, I was pretty worried we weren't going to get what we wanted style wise but over the last 10 months we kept saying as long as it was good quality we'd be ok with it. Hence why I'm wondering if it's even good quality lol.

 

[whoami-72]

It's not horrible. It's not great. It's ok-ish. But the hide is not properly stretched/fitted to the form which is why I think the seam looks so bad. It needs more clay molding or a larger form

Interesting, how would you know that?

I looked at the seam a bit more in the back after everyone commented and found out that it was even rougher than expected. There was parts that had some sort of brown putty or clay out over the seam under the hair to try and make it look less bad.

 

[whoami-72]

If anyone knows how to fix the parts of the ears missing hair let me know. Im.hopping the taxidermist is willing to try and fix them. Everything else about the mount I'm willing to live with. I was thinking I might just try cutting some hair off of this year's deer and gluing it in place. However, I also see a lot of room to ruin everything by doing that lol.

 

[Silveroddo]

A couple years ago I got a white tail done by one of the better local guys, at the time he was $650 while everyone else was $550 and it was a 2 year wait. My buddy couldn't figure out why I didn't go to the $400 guy that got them done in 10 months.
Not to insult your deer, but thats about what the $400 deer looked like.
I'm thinking you can try to get that guy to fix it, but I dunno if he's capable.
1)The 3 options I see are take it back and see if he can tune it up, but temper your expectations
2)If the deer has sentimental value and you really want something quality out of it, give up on this guy, take it to another taxidermist and see if he can salvage it, and maybe be prepared to buy another cape
3) if you can't stand to look at it, take a picture, take the horns out, mount them on a plaque, throw the rest away, frame the picture and hang it next to the horns and chock it up as a lesson learned.
Its not great and its not terrible. Just depends on what a guy personally wants to feel when you look at it.

 

[87TT]

Should have seen the only deer I mounted! He looked like Yoda.

 

[SW hunter]

It looks totally fine. Its sure not a competition winner but I think you're being a little picky. That sucks it didn't meet your expectations. Thats disappointing. Its like gunsmiths and engine builders there's plenty of crappy ones out there that want to learn at your expense. And usually you don't find out until after you spent a bunch of money.

I think nobody but you is ever going to get up close and inspect it. Nobody will notice that ugly seam or the ears being off. People are going to glance at it for 2 seconds from across the room and never give it another thought.

 

[johnnycake]

Interesting, how would you know that?

I looked at the seam a bit more in the back after everyone commented and found out that it was even rougher than expected. There was parts that had some sort of brown putty or clay out over the seam under the hair to try and make it look less bad.

There are visible wrinkles in the neck/shoulder and that combined with the thicker ridging along the seam makes me think he didn't fit the hide to the form correctly. That could be a stretching issue, or it could be a form size issue, or a bit of both.

 

[MallardSX2]

I shot an early season deer in Nebraska, and the ear hairs slipped pretty bad. The taxidermist decided to then airbrush the ears pink. I wish I had a picture of it still…… To say I was disappointing would be an understatement lol.

I never used the guy again.

 

[BWlongbow]

I used a well know local guy to do my taxidermy work for many years, until I started noticing the same kind of this that you did with your mount.
The quality of the work just kept getting worse.
The last mounts that I had him do were absolutely terrible, I could have done better myself and I have never done any taxidermy work.
Ironically, his prices kept increasing too.
Then I found out why his work had gotten so bad. He finally admitted that he had gotten tired of doing the work. so, he would hire high school kids or kids on summer break from college to do the work.

So, I took the next animals to a guy that had a bunch of taxidermy awards that his had won for the past 10 years and was well known in my area. He had lots of pictures of some really nice mounts.
His prices were even higher than the previous guy,
When I got the mounts back, I was so disappointed, the mounts were terrible. When I confronted him about the terrible job his did on the mounts. he admitted that he didn't do the work, that he had hire a recent high school graduate to do all of the mounts.
So, to say the least I had not had another animal mount done.

 

[elkyinzer]

One of the reasons I don't get shoulder mounts anymore if it's not blue ribbon quality all I notice are the flaws.

 

[fatlander]

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[MallardSX2]

Looks great to me.

 

[mike.adams.467]

If anyone knows how to fix the parts of the ears missing hair let me know. Im.hopping the taxidermist is willing to try and fix them. Everything else about the mount I'm willing to live with. I was thinking I might just try cutting some hair off of this year's deer and gluing it in place. However, I also see a lot of room to ruin everything by doing that lol.

I would buy a cape and have it redone before I tried your ideas.

 

[JoeB]

Most issues I see are skin placement and that affects hair patterns. The area between the antler base and ear in your one picture shows to me, there are issues with the ear placement and mostly ear muscle anatomy isn't correct. That is affecting how the hair lays and hair patterns. Some of this can possibly be grooming related during mounting and drying time. I'm a Taxidermist for over 25 years but don't claim to be an expert, just sharing opinion like others have. In my opinion it isn't a horrible mount, most likely middle of the road quality that matches your comment on middle of the road cost for your area. I always recommend people look at mounts from these people that recommend a taxidermist, then go to the shop and look at the work. If all looks good and you like the price and the finished products, then you have your choice made. Not everyone has the same level or ideas of good or acceptable taxidermy. Yours is obviously different than those that gave you the recommendation.

 

[Mojave]

Taxidermy supplies and tanning are $250 ish. Generally takes 5 hours of initial work and another 3 or 4 hours of finish work a month later.

Hide slippage is not something that can ALWAYS be controlled, so that is unfortunate.

Old school mounts do not look natural to me.

I don't think it is a terrible looking mount, I just think it is ok.

My guy charges $850-1100 for a shoulder mount deer. Days of $400 deer are over at least where I live.

You are being anal retentive about the neckline and ear slippage.

My guy charges what he charges. You pay for the mount in full or he doesn't start on it. There are no guarantees, he produces excellent work. If you don't like it, he says art is subjective.

 

[Jimmy]

What the one guy said, if you don't like it, get a new cape and go to a new taxidermist. Some people's skill level only goes so high. That being said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 

[fatlander]

In all seriousness, the one good thing about horned and antlered ungulates is they have the head gear, regardless of the mount quality. That gets a lot of mediocre taxidermy by. You’ll probably notice the imperfections more than anyone else walking in and seeing the mount. They’re going to look at the antlers. That’s about it. If it’s going to bother you a lot, get another taxi to redo it with a fresh cape.

Birds, bears, cats, and canines are the great equalizers. As a general rule, if your guy can turn out great work for stuff without head gear, you’ll get top notch stuff. If he can’t, well. . .


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[Weldor]

I learned my lesson in the late 80's. Had a nice velvet buck from the Kiabab done by a recommened Taxidermist, when I picked it up a year later it was trash. The velvet was gone looked like it was left out in the sun for a month. You name it it was crap, ears , nose, eyes. The had a great rep. apparently it ia perishable skill. The second one was a late season 4x4 in the rut, all bulled up. had taken all the measurements and gave the to a different taxidermist. When I went to pick it up he insisted on putting it in the back seat of my truck. I thought it was a little weird but? Got home and both ears are split on the seams. Neither one would own up to the shoddy work, but offered to redo them for full price. Sorry for the long story, but that is why I do everything European. Those 2 reside in my garage.