Self Taxidermy?

[RandomShuffler]

Is anybody out there doing their own taxidermy work that does not do it in a professional capacity? I tend to be a creative hobby kind of guy (leatherwork, bookbinding, painting, etc.) and have considered that it would be 1) a cool hobby and 2) a real money saver on having mounts done. This is not to say that its too expensive for what people are doing, but to say that every penny saved counts these days. All that to say, the cost of the forms seems to pale in comparison to having mounts done on say a whitetail deer. So, is this beyond standard ability? does it require a bunch of specialty tools? or do you have recommendation on how to begin?
-Thanks!

 

[sbaker0029]

I did a duck about 20yrs ago and it turned out decent but nowhere near what a professionally done bird looks like.

You can definitely save some money but you're also going to have to invest a lot of time if you want your stuff to look presentable for an over the hearth mount.

My suggestion would be to do a few big fox squirrels, rabbits, or birds to get a feel for it and not have to invest a lot of money into a big mount.

As far as tools go, I don't remember having to buy anything special and was able to do everything with pretty much what I had at home.

 

[TaperPin]

One of my favorite past times in my 20’s was hanging out at a local taxidermy shop watching and chatting. After watching a dozen antelope and deer go from nothing to so lifelike they could blink and turn their heads, it’s obvious there’s a lot of art as well as technique.

If it sounds like fun you should do it, Sometimes the idea is more fun than the hands on act. The tools are basic - molded foam forms are easy to work with and cut easily with a hand saw, taxidermy adhesives, fillers, paints are easy to work with and don’t require anything expensive until you get into air brushing. Needle and thread stitching is easy to learn and inexpensive.

You can buy capes from tanneries to practice on or do your own - some good taxidermists tan and some don’t - tanneries buy capes every year from hunters to sell to taxidermists.

The nose, lips, eyes and ears will make or break a good mount. Then making the form match the cape is another level, or modifying the form for a slightly different look. You can’t learn it by just watching, so I say go for it and the worst thing that can happen is you’ll learn a lot.

 

[LCsmith]

If you're looking to just mount deer, I've had luck buying mounts and replacing the rack

 

[butcherboy]

I used to do it commercially but now it’s a hobby or mounting one here and there for a little extra cash. There is a lot to it if you want a nice mount.
Tools:
Ear turner, lip tucker, scalpel, scalpel blades, small knife , fleshing knife, fleshing beam, fleshing ball, baseball bat, leather sewing needles of various sizes and shapes, best thread is fireline fishing line in various sizes, hide paste, critter clay, bondo, sawzall, electric belt sander, cordless drill and bits, wood screws and bolts of various sizes and lengths, dryer sheets, paint brushes of various sizes and softness, small pins, t-pins. Lots of things you probably already have on hand. Some things you collect as you go. I could list a whole lot more but no need if you are just going to do your own. The two biggest things I learned was to use a power washer for hide fleshing and a Dremel tool with a round sanding disc to thin everything down after tanning. I also didn’t use critter clay. I liked a clay I bought from a company that specialized in self hardening, no shrink clay. It had a fiber in it they added. You will also need apoxie sculpt for finishing work. You don’t need an airbrush or paint but can use powder that brushes on instead. Good luck with it. It can be enjoyable at times and extremely frustrating.

 

[30338]

I've gone Euro on about 95% of everything we kill these days. You can always match up a cape later but I like the look of a wall full of clean Euro stuff.

Be a cool skill set to have though and good luck if you attempt it.

 

[MOwhitetail]

I had this same question earlier this year. A friend of mine used to do taxidermy for a living so I sought out his opinion on doing one myself. In fewer words, his opinion was “don’t”.

He said it’s not hard to do, but takes a lot of practice to do well. He said the first few mounts he did he ended up tossing because they weren’t good enough you’d want to hang.

In his opinion, a few a year aren’t enough to ever get down the hang of it. By the time you get something down that hunting season is over and you have to restart the next year. I ended up having the deer I talked to him about mounted and am glad I did. I still think it would be a cool thing to do, but probably best left to the pros.

 

[idelkslayer]

I've never done it commercially but I've done my own taxidermy for about 15 years. I started with bear rugs and have since done several shoulder mounts of deer, pronghorn and moose. My inexperience is very evident in those first rugs. By the time I did the shoulder mounts I had a few more things figured out and was very pleased with the results.

I like to think that with all the resources available and easy to find online today, my first efforts would have been more successful, but even now there is a learning curve. I say go for it. However, be warned it is a very labor intensive and sometimes tedious hobby.

 

[MightyWhitey]

I’ve got to be pretty good friends with my taxidermist over the years and told him I wanted to learn how to do my own so he agreed to hold my hand through the process of two deer that I had taken him. It was harder than I thought it would be. He was right there the whole time and telling me how to do things and there were still a few times that I just backed up and let him do it. Mainly shaping eyes and tucking lips. I have a new appreciation for what those guys are able to do. It’s nothing I couldn’t get the hang of but it’ll take some time. Id say try to sweet talk a real taxidermist in to letting you hang around.

 

[Bigfeet]

Similar to you, I do some creative hobbies including fly tying, painting and taxidermy. I learnt through some Sally Dahmes WASCO videos and books. That was quite some time ago and now there are some good resources online to learn from, but it did take me quite a few heads to really understand what I was doing. McKenzie taxidermy supply (I believe they bought out WASCO 10 years, or so, ago), and there may be others, have quite a few good teaching resources. I do only a few a year for myself, family and friends and a fairly pleased with how most turn out.

 

[Birdithologist]

I've gone Euro on about 95% of everything we kill these days. You can always match up a cape later but I like the look of a wall full of clean Euro stuff.

Be a cool skill set to have though and good luck if you attempt it.

Same here. Really like the result and it can be fine without specialty equipment

 

[mi650]

I have a cousin who had ideas on doing taxidermy as a side business. He'd done a fair amount of small game by the time I killed my 1st buck with a bow, a spike. He offered to mount it for me at his cost, $40. Shoulder mounts were about $250-275 around here at the time. $750-800 seems to be the average now.

I have no idea how much materials have gone up in the last 25 years, but I'm sure you'd save a significant amount. The biggest cost is labor, by far.

 

[Lycanthorns]

I taxidermy all of my own hunting kills. I find it extends the hunt past even the cooking stage. Euro mount everything from turkeys to snapping turtles lol. It's not hard, I actually follow a YouTube video from Catman outdoors and adjust times for the size of each skull. Then for small parts like claws/tails/shells you can bury them in a bowl of borax for a month to dry and then brush them off with some corn meal to remove any smells. And if you're just after pelts you can braintan anything at least that I've encountered. I've braintanned a lot at this point, and seen success with everything from groundhog to bluegill skins. The hardest part is achieving a clean fleshing

 

[mitchell]

I have done my own taxidermy for the last 50 years. You will find out really quick who your best buddies are when they need something mounted up. All I can say is : Watch as many utube videos as you can. Learn the techniques. Collect as many reference pictures you can get about the animals you are intending to recreate. Close up pictures of their eyes, ears, mouth and poses. Learn how to shave those hides down super thin. You can get on the Taxidermy.net forum and spend all your time researching and learning what all is involved... Remember one thing, Patience ! The more you do, the better you get.

 

[Lil-Rokslider]

Ya, it's not hard! Here's my OIL moose. The tag was so expensive, that I needed to save some cash on the taxidermy side of things. Piece of cake!

 

[flathead#2]

I do my own Euros, but thats about it.

 

[TN Tyrant]

I have done my own euro's for years and am going to try my hand at a whitetail pack mount this spring.

 

[JEck]

I’ve done a fair amount for myself. I’m 100% sec taught. I’ve done about a dozen ducks and geese, and my wife’s whitetail. The birds look better with each one I do, and the whitetail looks like something I would get from a taxidermist. I learned how to do all of it by watching the videos on FreeTaxidermySchool.net…some very in depth videos on there. It’s really not hard, just time consuming. I didn’t really buy much for tools, for a bird flesher I just slapped an old corded drill in a vise with a wire wheel…be careful, it’ll eat skins lol. For fleshing the deer cape I used a pressure washer. Aside from that I had everything else laying around.

 

[mitchell]

There is a guy on YouTube that goes by the name of "ArtofTaxidermy". Watch his videos. This guy is spot on and does incredible work. When doing your own thick skinned animals, the hide needs to be thinned down with a circular fleshing blade while it is in the pickling stage. The head and neck especially. If you dont, a whole host of things will go wrong for you. Tanning chemical penetration, no detail in mount, shrinkage Etc ! Birds require very few tools. All ruminants need to be thinned and tanned properly to come out with excellent results. Tanning a hide requires total control of your ph while the hide is in solution. The right ph paper allows you to monitor those ph"s. If you go to "Pro1Performancechemicals.com" or "Trubondtanning.com" they will give you complete instructions through all stages as well as the tanning supplies. I tan all my fox, coyote, beaver, muskrat and deer hides using their products and they turn out like they were professionally tanned. Mind you, I did make myself a 6 ft tall by 4 ft wide tumbler that helps with the cleaning and breaking.

 

[mitchell]

Lil-rockslider, sorry about your moose looking like that.
Not the taxidermist fault. Dermistids eat anything and everything.
They were called carpet Beatles years ago, because they would eat a wool carpet from the bottom side.

Once the bugs have eaten the mount its impossible to stop hair loss.

Once you see hair starting to fall off you need to spray it down with permethrin and bag. Then another application of the same.. All mounts should be kept high up on the wall and definatly away from dog or cat food or any other type of food source.