I may have one of the worst taxidermy stories of them all. I almost cry thinking of it.
My son at 14 years old, with 4 bonus points beat the odds and drew a non resident Arizona desert sheep tag. He took a very nice 160 class ram. My son loved the looks of European mounts, so we left the ram with a reputable taxidermist in Arizona to do the European mount and my son sold the cape through the same taxidermist. That was December 2008. The sheep had sinusitis and was missing a chunk of horn near the base of the right horn. The taxidermist and I spoke many times and he was understandably having trouble pulling the horn off the core on the weakened horn.
After over 2 years, and many calls to the taxidermist, I said if the horn broke trying to pull it, we would just have to do that and then repair the horn, but we really needed to get the ram finished and to my son. I continued to make follow up calls.
Two weeks ago after 3.5 years the mount arrived. It was packed in a cardboard box which made me cringe when I saw it as I have always received mounts in wooden crates. I unpacked the box and the mount was sparsely wrapped in bubble pack. The weak horn was broken completely off and there were several large flakes of horn floating around in the box (it is clear the horn had been broken at the taxidermist and repaired because of the exposed metal all-thread inside the horn). Besides that the skull had been cut off down to the skull plate and wrapped in brown leather which is not a European mount. It was on an oak base and even not considering the broken horn, it looked terribly cheesy. The taxidermist has since told me he was unable to save the skull, yet never called me to see if it was okay to cut the skull off.
I have spent many hours over the last couple weeks on a local hunting forum and calling and emailing taxidermists in Oregon to find one who I felt comfortable could handle the repair. I chose one and got a quote.
I then contacted the original taxidermist and left a detailed and respectful message about the broken mount. He returned my call and said "what did you do to it". He said I could sent it back to him for repair. I told him I was very uncomfortable doing that considering the history. He understood, and has agreed to pay for the repair. I still have not said who the taxidermist is, as he has worked many years to build his reputation. That could change if he is unwilling to pay fully for the repair.
The guy I have located here in Oregon I understand is apparently one of the top sheep taxidermists in the state. He also does his own reproduction skulls, and from the photos I have seen, they look amazing. Tomorrow, a guy from his shop will be in my area to pick up the ram (taxidermist is 3 hours away). He has promised to be done before Christmas (6 months) which I greatly appreciate. That will be right at the 4 year mark since my son shot the sheep. He was a freshman in high school when he got the ram, and just graduated from high school.
