How much $$$ do Taxidermists Make per year?

[MallardSX2]

Some of them are extorting people to get to their millionaire status.

I got quoted $4000 do do a half mount bear in Colorado...lol

Same mount at my house cost me $900......

Same guy quoted $3500 to do a shoulder mount elk.

I had it done for $1200 at my house......

 

[go_deep]

Some of them are extorting people to get to their millionaire status.

I got quoted $4000 do do a half mount bear in Colorado...lol

Same mount at my house cost me $900......

Same guy quoted $3500 to do a shoulder mount elk.

I had it done for $1200 at my house......

Seems reasonable actually once you consider the time, materials, taxes, that guy wasn't hardly making $100 an hour at a job that he had to provide his own health insurance, benefits, and retirement for.

Everyone wants a deal, but if the taxidermists doesn't make enough money to justify staying in business what's the point of them being there?

 

[MallardSX2]

Seems reasonable actually once you consider the time, materials, taxes, that guy wasn't hardly making $100 an hour at a job that he had to provide his own health insurance, benefits, and retirement for.

Everyone wants a deal, but if the taxidermists doesn't make enough money to justify staying in business what's the point of them being there?

However you have to justify it. Your welcome to pay the high prices if you want. I'm not.

 

[go_deep]

However you have to justify it. Your welcome to pay the high prices if you want. I'm not.

What's a justifiable price per hour for a taxidermists to make pre taxes, and including operational costs?
You said Colorado, so about 30% off the top is federal and state tax, plus insurance on the business, plus health insurance, plus a little for savings, and you need to actually make a little for yourself.

 

[MallardSX2]

What's a justifiable price per hour for a taxidermists to make pre taxes, and including operational costs?
You said Colorado, so about 30% off the top is federal and state tax, plus insurance on the business, plus health insurance, plus a little for savings, and you need to actually make a little for yourself.

I don't know what prices they should be charging to make a living. I just know what my local guy charges and he does pretty well for himself at those rates. (He is not in Colorado)

If guys can charge that and get it, I say let them get it and good for them if they can. That's capitalism. They deserve to make good money to do something that most cannot do themselves.

With everyone doing European mounts nowadays, that is very telling that the costs have reached a breaking point for most blue collar hunters. I just refuse to pay those high prices if I don't have to. If I paid triple for all of the taxidermy that I have in my house, I would be divorced. For sure. lol

 

[go_deep]

I don't know what prices they should be charging to make a living. I just know what my local guy charges and he does pretty well for himself at those rates. (He is not in Colorado)

If guys can charge that and get it, I say let them get it and good for them if they can. That's capitalism. They deserve to make good money to do something that most cannot do themselves.

With everyone doing European mounts nowadays, that is very telling that the costs have reached a breaking point for most blue collar hunters. I just refuse to pay those high prices if I don't have to. If I paid triple for all of the taxidermy that I have in my house, I would be divorced. For sure. lol

You paid someone $900 to do that bear?? Or you mounted the bear yourself for $900??

 

[plebe]

However you have to justify it. Your welcome to pay the high prices if you want. I'm not.

Usually, it justifies itself in the quality of what you get.



But by the numbers a half bear mannequin, just the foam, is about $400 without tax and shipping. Shipping is outrageous now, and I’m not talking pirate ship pricing or SpeeDee. McKenzie taxidermy has a monopoly on a lot of forms and are using S&H markup to line their pockets. A big form like a half bear, cut into parts even, could cost hundreds to ship the way they are doing it. So at about a best case scenario, for that $900 mount the taxidermist is easily out over 60% between form, eyes, and jaw set. With zero hours of work done and zero dollars for tanning and mounting supplies, overhead, etc, there’s only like $350 to cover.

You sound happy with your taxidermist, and he/she is damn cheap. Maybe consider giving him/her a nice tip.

 

[taxidermybycam]

An elk shoulder form from McKenzie is 300 bucks without shipping. Shipping is gonna be at least 150 . Even if you drive to the warehouse you gotta pay gas and truck expenses. You got hide paste, eyes , tanning ,mounting stands ,needles thread pins, epoxy,paint. Let's say being extremely conservative that costs 300 bucks . Now he's left with 450 . Not counting electric heating cooling mortgage on the shop . Which even if your in the basement working your still using part of your house as income and can't use it for living .
Start to finish from dead elk in the driveway to finished mount going home all ready is at minimum 25 hours. But probably more with wildcards and unexpected things and talking to customer and other little stuff that takes up time. So it's gonna be even more than that. A lot of taxidermy isn't straight work,your doing three hours here one hour here.
So without any overhead what so ever,insurance etc. the guy made 18 bucks an hour BEFORE tax. When you do overhead and all that ,he's likely at 11 bucks an hour. Some people are content with that. And that's with zero benefits at all. And hey if you can take advantage of someone that's not smart go for it . As long as your happy with what you got.
Some guys hunt with whatever cheapest at Walmart some people go for kuiu or Sitka .

 

[go_deep]

Usually, it justifies itself in the quality of what you get.

View attachment 923672View attachment 923673

But by the numbers a half bear mannequin, just the foam, is about $400 without tax and shipping. Shipping is outrageous now, and I’m not talking pirate ship pricing or SpeeDee. McKenzie taxidermy has a monopoly on a lot of forms and are using S&H markup to line their pockets. A big form like a half bear, cut into parts even, could cost hundreds to ship the way they are doing it. So at about a best case scenario, for that $900 mount the taxidermist is easily out over 60% between form, eyes, and jaw set. With zero hours of work done and zero dollars for tanning and mounting supplies, overhead, etc, there’s only $350 to cover.

You sound happy with your taxidermist, and he/she is damn cheap. Maybe consider giving him/her a nice tip.

It sounds like they work for free!!?!!
With everything you said, plus tanning, and all the randoms, the true full material costs and shipping would be about $900, and then basically $0 for better part of 20ish hours of labor.
I'd like the taxidermists number, I'll just sub my work out to them and mark my stuff up accordingly....

 

[taxidermybycam]

It sounds like they work for free!!?!!
With everything you said, plus tanning, and all the randoms, the true full material costs and shipping would be about $900, and then basically $0 for better part of 20ish hours of labor.
I'd like the taxidermists number, I'll just sub my work out to them and mark my stuff up accordingly....

You could start a drop shipping taxidermy business . Not even touch the animal . Almost the same as some "taxidermy supply companies" out there. Just make a website and a address and do a little paperwork and collect profit . Lol . It's bound to happen one of these days. Sort of like the ghost restaurants out there.

 

[go_deep]

You could start a drop shipping taxidermy business . Not even touch the animal . Almost the same as some "taxidermy supply companies" out there. Just make a website and a address and do a little paperwork and collect profit . Lol . It's bound to happen one of these days. Sort of like the ghost restaurants out there.

I think we both know those prices aren't correct, nobody is working for free, we're all getting smoke blown up are.... It's kind of funny.
But, if he's for real, give me his number, I'll give him all the work he wants at those prices, and I'll even tip him well.

 

[KenLee]

What's a justifiable price per hour for a taxidermists to make pre taxes, and including operational costs?
You said Colorado, so about 30% off the top is federal and state tax, plus insurance on the business, plus health insurance, plus a little for savings, and you need to actually make a little for yourself.

You actually as though they pay correct amount of taxes. Doesn't happen. Most keep shown income low, use Obamacare for adult and medicaid for kids.

 

[taxidermybycam]

I think we both know those prices aren't correct, nobody is working for free, we're all getting smoke blown up are.... It's kind of funny.
But, if he's for real, give me his number, I'll give him all the work he wants at those prices, and I'll even tip him well.

Yup . Not unless they pull some real shithead moves like dry preserve and wax instead of epoxy but even then it doesn't make it much much cheaper.
How many months or years until we see a post. "Anyone have contact info on "buck wild" or insert real trashy name taxidermy " skipped town ,took the horns and skins and deposit money? I'd give it a year or so .

 

[go_deep]

You actually as though they pay correct amount of taxes. Doesn't happen. Most keep shown income low, use Obamacare for adult and medicaid for kids.

Tell me that you personally know 2 or 3 taxidermist's well enough that you see their financials to say with certainty that they do this and I'll walk away from this conversation.
I know several, very personally as friends, none do this. They run a legitimate business and are all upstanding individuals, they have no desire to be audited by the IRS, or be given any reason to be questioned. They're livelihood depends on it.

 

[plebe]

You actually as though they pay correct amount of taxes. Doesn't happen. Most keep shown income low, use Obamacare for adult and medicaid for kids.

It absolutely happens. Some of these shops are run squeaky clean. And some pay medical for their employees too.

There are surely hustlers as well. It’s not a taxidermy thing. It’s just a some people thing.

 

[taxidermybycam]

It absolutely happens. Some of these shops are run squeaky clean. And some pay medical for their employees too.

There are surely hustlers as well. It’s not a taxidermy thing. It’s just a some people thing.

I've only ever heard of one shop that paid for medical ,and I worked there. He never paid for medical. He took it out of our pay checks though. A guy I worked with went to the hospital and have his "insurance card" the boss gave us , it was fake and he had to pay out of pocket. He took money out of the "w-2" he gave us and used to to buy boat,cabin, land etc. everyone I know that works somewhere is a 1099 employee. Not saying they aren't out there ,I've never heard of them .

 

[plebe]

I've only ever heard of one shop that paid for medical ,and I worked there. He never paid for medical. He took it out of our pay checks though. A guy I worked with went to the hospital and have his "insurance card" the boss gave us , it was fake and he had to pay out of pocket. He took money out of the "w-2" he gave us and used to to buy boat,cabin, land etc. everyone I know that works somewhere is a 1099 employee. Not saying they aren't out there ,I've never heard of them .

Well, that’s scummy. But I know several that do it right.

 

[Harvey_NW]

Now add in a full time meat plant and see how your stress level rises even higher! it worked out fairly well when I processed wildgame. Drop off the meat, head/antlers and cape at the same time. I did tan my own stuff for a little bit but soon realized I didn’t have the time and was terrible at shaving capes. I used big tanneries till they messed up a few things. Found a local tannery two hours away that did outstanding work. For a tank of gas I could drop everything off and come home with a lot of tanned capes. He is a one man shop and really busy. When I stopped processing wildgame after 30 years I stopped taxidermy as well.

People also think meat processors make big bucks as well and we don’t. We also have to deal with the constant accusations of stealing meat, somehow making it taste bad, price gouging, etc.

I'm pretty artistic and have always butchered my own game animals (borderline hate it now) and my good buddy tried to talk me into this idea around a campfire one night, I politely told him "F**K NO"

But by the numbers a half bear mannequin, just the foam, is about $400 without tax and shipping. Shipping is outrageous now, and I’m not talking pirate ship pricing or SpeeDee. McKenzie taxidermy has a monopoly on a lot of forms and are using S&H markup to line their pockets. A big form like a half bear, cut into parts even, could cost hundreds to ship the way they are doing it. So at about a best case scenario, for that $900 mount the taxidermist is easily out over 60% between form, eyes, and jaw set. With zero hours of work done and zero dollars for tanning and mounting supplies, overhead, etc, there’s only like $350 to cover.

You sound happy with your taxidermist, and he/she is damn cheap. Maybe consider giving him/her a nice tip.

This got crazy during the covid frenzy, my taxidermist called and explained that if I could give him a couple months leeway he could cut the cost significantly and charge his regular quoted rate for my mounts by waiting for a container to fill and ship, which I absolutely understood. So there is ways to keep it down, if you can be honest with your customer base. The problem is most taxidermists like to quote 1 year, and when you call them on year 2 or 3 they're still "waiting on the tannery", or they start ghosting you. It's like an industry standard for gunsmiths and taxidermists, when you find one that does good work and actually gets shit done in the amount of time they say they will, just pay them for their craft and be happy, lol.

 

[plebe]

This got crazy during the covid frenzy, my taxidermist called and explained that if I could give him a couple months leeway he could cut the cost significantly and charge his regular quoted rate for my mounts by waiting for a container to fill and ship, which I absolutely understood. So there is ways to keep it down, if you can be honest with your customer base. The problem is most taxidermists like to quote 1 year, and when you call them on year 2 or 3 they're still "waiting on the tannery", or they start ghosting you. It's like an industry standard for gunsmiths and taxidermists, when you find one that does good work and actually gets shit done in the amount of time they say they will, just pay them for their craft and be happy, lol.

Nah, this represents an enormous oversimplification.

 

[Longrifle]

It seems to be the best of times for a taxidermy business, especially here in Tennessee. There are more taxis around my area now than there's ever been. There used to be maybe one or two covering 3 counties or more. Now there are 2-3 taxis in some counties. 5 years ago, an ordinary halfway job of a whitetail shoulder mount would run around $350 dollars. Now, young guys that have a whole 2 years of experience are charging $700. I saw where a newbie taxi is charging $2000 for a bobcat and his showpieces looked rough. How? because they're so backed up that they can charge whatever they want and people are paying it. Local taxis were doing 30 heads/yr before Covid. Now they're doing 250-300 heads per year and wait times are 16-18 months turnaround. It have absolutely exploded.