Taxidermist (cougar)
- Thread starter cooper10
- Start date
MTbowhunter36
WKR
+1 for Rugged Edge.
Mike does great work. Granted, he hasn't done any mounts for me, but when I was there I saw his work and it's great. He did my bear and wolf rugs.
Heck, he even gave me a mountain lion back strap when I picked up my wolf.
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Fishn4eyes
Lil-Rokslider
Phil Soucy Studios for cats for sure!
Shaghickory
FNG
Shaghickory
FNG
Im looking for a cougar taxidermist....anyone else using Mike Ballard?
Congrats on a great looking bear. Mike is on my short list to life size an Alberta cougar...Im too far away to visit his shop so am trying to do from long distance. inputs such as yours are very valuable...thank you!I’ll update this with another bit of work from Mike at the Rugged Edge. Great work and communication as always.
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Shaghickory
FNG
Have you got your cougars back from Mike? i have one that Im considering asking Mike to do, but wanting to make aure Im making the right decision in going with him.
Where's Bruce?
WKR
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2013
- Messages
- 6,387
This guy is in Dairy, might be near you, does great lions! http://mitchcaintaxidermy.com/portfolio-items/cougar-with-deer/
roosiebull
WKR
Josh Bryan does the best cats in this state imo…. Tim Tuttle would be my second choice, but for real looking lions, Josh is the only one in the state I would pay to do it.... it's a lot of dough regardless, if i'm spending that much I want a realistic depiction, Josh's lion mounts are the only ones that "look alive" to me.
there are some others that I think do a good job, but they just don't have those realistic details that wow me.
roosiebull
WKR
he is a talent with cat mounts for sure!
Shaghickory
FNG
Thank you for your inputs. And agree that cats are tough to make real...thats why im asking for advice. Soucy does great work if youre able/then willing to dig deep in your pocket. I looked at Jeff Bryan...to my eye, his bobcats are as good as they get. ...and he is good on cougars...but I still Like Ballard too. its great to have options.
roosiebull
WKR
I will do a little recon tonight when I get out of the woods, I did some serious checking from every resource I could find on lion taxis, and had a lists of the best I could find, I’ll try to get you a couple more names to look into. I plan on a life size some day, but I want it to be the perfect cat. We have beautiful lions on the coast, even big toms have cool color contrast... some of the females are ridiculous colors.... when I kill that cat, whatever it is, I’ll know it
roosiebull
WKR
tim brown
cory wright
brian snyder
those are a few more names I came up with when looking into it.... when I get a life size, it will be Josh Bryan doing it, after I did some research I went to the sportsman's show and saw a lot of their work in person, and I liked Josh's lions the best for my taste.
in this scenario, it's not bad to have options, but very few make a lion look real. I had my first lion shoulder mounted by our local taxi, and wouldn't have him do another lion... wasn't terrible, but certainly didn't depict the animal well either... like most taxi'd lions you see.
keep us posted! I still have a big tom lion in the freezer, kind of indecisive on what to do with it, but I probably should do something or euro it and clear some freezer space
cory wright
brian snyder
those are a few more names I came up with when looking into it.... when I get a life size, it will be Josh Bryan doing it, after I did some research I went to the sportsman's show and saw a lot of their work in person, and I liked Josh's lions the best for my taste.
in this scenario, it's not bad to have options, but very few make a lion look real. I had my first lion shoulder mounted by our local taxi, and wouldn't have him do another lion... wasn't terrible, but certainly didn't depict the animal well either... like most taxi'd lions you see.
keep us posted! I still have a big tom lion in the freezer, kind of indecisive on what to do with it, but I probably should do something or euro it and clear some freezer space
Shaghickory
FNG
Thank you once again...and yes, will keep you posted.
zog
Lil-Rokslider
Did you ever get your mount?
I was very lucky and got my big tom on Vancouver Island a few years ago. I asked my go-to taxidermist about mounting it. He admirably told me he would love to mount one but might not be the guy because cat faces are so difficult to get right.
His advice to me was be sure you see real examples of the work done by the taxidermist before you commit. Everyone has to have a first time but not on YOUR cat!
I had never really looked at cat mounts until I had my own cat and my taxidermist said this to me. Oh man, was he right! Once I started looking, there are SO many lousy cat mounts! I very rarely see one that I like. It's kept me from doing anything with my tom except bronze the skull.
He mentioned a rug - I really don't like cat rugs with an open mouth because they look like they're being tortured. For some reason bears don't give me that reaction; I like bear rugs with full heads, like SLDMTN's above. Nice rug, man!!
The part I can't figure out is -if we only use taxidermists who have already done cats - how do taxidermists get started doing cats? At some point they have to do their first one! Maybe they have have in-born talent or they apprentice for a long time, or just do a few for free until they get them right?
I was very lucky and got my big tom on Vancouver Island a few years ago. I asked my go-to taxidermist about mounting it. He admirably told me he would love to mount one but might not be the guy because cat faces are so difficult to get right.
His advice to me was be sure you see real examples of the work done by the taxidermist before you commit. Everyone has to have a first time but not on YOUR cat!
I had never really looked at cat mounts until I had my own cat and my taxidermist said this to me. Oh man, was he right! Once I started looking, there are SO many lousy cat mounts! I very rarely see one that I like. It's kept me from doing anything with my tom except bronze the skull.
He mentioned a rug - I really don't like cat rugs with an open mouth because they look like they're being tortured. For some reason bears don't give me that reaction; I like bear rugs with full heads, like SLDMTN's above. Nice rug, man!!
The part I can't figure out is -if we only use taxidermists who have already done cats - how do taxidermists get started doing cats? At some point they have to do their first one! Maybe they have have in-born talent or they apprentice for a long time, or just do a few for free until they get them right?
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