Taxidermy question

B

Bullwinkle

Active Member
Im hog hunting in SC and my son shot one that he wanted mounted. My brother took me to his taxidermist who always gets his deer done in 3 weeks. Mine take 6 months to a year

I was able to ask him how it does this. He said he doesn't tan the hides but sand dries them. He showed me his drier

I wonder why other taxidermists don't do this? Talk about improvement in cash flow

Are there any negatives with this process vs tanning.
 
Bullwinkle said:
Im hog hunting in SC and my son shot one that he wanted mounted. My brother took me to his taxidermist who always gets his deer done in 3 weeks. Mine take 6 months to a year

I was able to ask him how it does this. He said he doesn't tan the hides but sand dries them. He showed me his drier

I wonder why other taxidermists don't do this? Talk about improvement in cash flow

Are there any negatives with this process vs tanning.
Click to expand...
I have never heard of such a process.

Could I conventionally tan and get a deer back to a customer in under a month, yes. However, most taxidermists have a much longer list than just one piece to accomplish in a year. When you bring your work to me you get added to the end of the list, however long the list may be at that time. Tanning is not what keeps me from getting my customers their work back in under a month, when you do your own tanning it is just a small piece of the time required. I would be a lot more comfortable taking a deer to your taxidermist than your brothers just on the little information you have posted. Anything that is not tanned is just raw hide and bugs will eat it and if it gets humid enough it will absorb the moisture and potentially rot. I would certainly never mount a hog that had not been tanned and I send those to a commercial tannery that has techniques and chemicals to get ALL that grease out of the hide.
 
He's doing about 300 deer heads a year plus all the other critters. I have no idea how this compares to guys in WI. At $450 a piece he's breaking 6 figures nicely. Materials can't be that expensive and he's doing it all himself

He said the salt in the tanning process causes problems in the low country - humidity? His drying is a better way according to him

He's cash flowing and running his business a lot better than the guys 9 months out but their gun season runs from August-December vs 9 days in WI. His probably dribble in vs slug in at one time
 
The other step he skips is stitching. I don't know if I like this but the only way I know he can do this is cut off the horns. All of my brothers bucks don't have a stitch on them

I'm doing a hog with him. He invented some tool to scrape the fat off the hog.
 
cutman said:
Which taxidermist are you using?
Click to expand...
You guys got it pretty good down here Cut. My brother shot 32 deer and 13 hogs this year. About 15 bucks. I went to his club annual rules review on Sat. Corn this and corn that. Lots of rules on club bought corn and personally bought corn. Big time different than WI
 
I'm on my way to my taxidermist outside Charleston in a little bit. There are a lot of half assed taxidermists around here. Mine is outside of Moncks Corner, and she's awesome.
 
My brother has about 10 mounts from him. Look good to me. It's only a pig and it was cheap-$425.

He said 3-5 weeks. I'll let you know how it goes
 
I do my own taxidermy and his process is one that's out there, one of my tax friends uses a similar process with corn cob grit and been doing that process for 20 years. This is the same process for curing birds with some borax thrown in. I've also heard of no stitch capes as well, I use the short cut method and that involves only a short 6 in cut from the base of the horns.
 
I have worked in taxi shops for several years and I guess my question would be that if it's as good or better as the regular methods,why isn't everyone doing it
 
Tanning no matter what method can be done in a relatively short time. I have used 2 methods when I used to do taxidermy. When I first began I used a dry preserve which means I fleshed the cape out completely and then would rub a dry preserve like borax into the fleshy side of the cape until it no longer feels wet and as soon as I get this done the cape is ready to be used on the mount. When I mounted deer using this method I could do 1 a day by myself comfortably but if I was behind could get 3 done over about a 10 hour period fro?thawed cape to completed mount in drying phase. Of course the dry needs at least 2 days and I prefer a full week for the clay to all be set.

Other method I used is a formic acid tan. This method starts by getting the biggest majority of meat off of the cape and placing the cape in a formic acid "pickle" for at least 24 hours. If you go longer the cape gets stretchier but hair patterns may get "off" when trying to put too small a cape on too large a form. After the pickle you have to bring the ph down ans is done by adding soda ash to th pickle and is usually a 3 day process. After you get through with the pickle you can shave the inside of the cape with a fleshing machine as the "leather" will be plumped up and needs to be shaved down thin to prevent "drumming".

After the shave I let the capes dry down a bit and then I "stake" them by working the cape over a rounded wooden table edge by hand to break the fibers down and make it more pliable. Once the staking is completed I place the cape in a drum of dry sawdust that rotates slowly to remove the moisture and once this is done I can shake out the cape, do a final trim, mix glue and go to mounting. To get a cape ready in this method is about a 5 day process but you can do several at a time and after the first week you can have several ready to mount and the hair is "locked in" at this point so you have time to do things...

Dry preserve tends to "bleach" over time IMO but it is not excessive. Dry preserve can also crack if the deer is used in too dry an atmosphere such as around a fireplace. Formic tan seems to be better in these aspects.

I no longer mount deer for myself or others as I have a full time job and try to get things done on the Property when I am not at work and a taxidermist busiest time taking in heads and skinning them out...

Here are pics of 2 dry preserve deer I mounted in 1995, I thawed out of the freezer and mounted in the same day fleshing, turning ears, dry preserve and then mount...

e558a722ba50b48d7ecf1b0cbbf79344.jpg


3627e5cbc41b220af9d49d1e50be6ed5.jpg
 
Last edited:
As far as mounting deer with no stitching I am with Turkey creek... good luck with that. You would realize if you had ever caped your deer and cut out the skull plate that having no slice or stitching would be impossible...

Btw - here is the stitching on one of those bucks I mounted in 1995...pic taken right now...

f5db560c8d8068d18af2d092b40381f1.jpg
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

dogghr
The New Coyote and Other Predators..... Can You Win?
7 8 9
Replies
161
Views
27K
Bowhunter
Bowhunter
Back
Top