Lower cost taxidermists?

[EastWaViking]

Pay for a good taxidermy job or just forget about it. Anything else is a gamble of wasting even more money than the little extra it might cost to get it done by a decent pro. 

I agree, and even at 500+ dollars, once you figure in the cost of the form, eyes, tanning, and labor time, the taxidermist is not making all that much profit for a lot of work and expertise.

[Michelle_Nelson]

Why did you bother to salt the cape if the head was still in it?  Your not doing any good.  You are deffinatly on borrowed time at this point.  I doubt a cheap hack is going to ba able to save that cape.  Best take it to someone that know what their doing.  Like ASAP!

[Bean Counter]

Okay peeps, thanks to everyone who weighed in. I spoke with Nathan at Cascade Taxidermy of Puyallup and I may send my wife down there with the head while I go out to fill my antlerless tag. 

I bothered to salt the cape because I know how to do that much.  I don't know how to deal with eyes, nose, ears, etc without tearing them off.  I could have skipped the salting but I didn't think it would do any harm.   

Nathan told me to roll it up, put it in a bag, and freeze it until then.  He said that for a few days that would be okay.  From the gunshot to the freezer was only 27 hours.  It sat outside last night at 35-40 degrees, in the back of my canopy-covered truck (w/tinted windows) since. 

[Michelle_Nelson]

My point being why salt the main body of the cape and not the face?  The salt on just part of the cape isn't doing any good for the rest of the cape.

I just posted an entire write up on trophy care way befor the season opened!  It's a sticky in the Deer, Elk, and Other Big Game Forum!

[Bean Counter]

I must be the student that never learns

Thanks for posting.  I guess I'll read it before I get to shooting a 6x6 next year and I really want a good mount. 

[bucklucky]

No comment 

[deaddog]

My point being why salt the main body of the cape and not the face?  The salt on just part of the cape isn't doing any good for the rest of the cape.

I just posted an entire write up on trophy care way befor the season opened!  It's a sticky in the Deer, Elk, and Other Big Game Forum!

   wow why are you pissed. OH by the way bean counter, congrats on the 5x5. great job, the real trophy comes from the hunt, not the head.

[huntnphool]

Hey Bean, did I miss the picture in a different thread?

[Bean Counter]

huntnphool, I will try to post a pic later today. For advance notice, this wont win any awards and probably doesn't score too high.  But a 5 pointer is a 5 pointer, and I never thought in my 4th year of hunting, being nearly 100% self taught that I'd connect on anything but the legal minimum.   

I agree, deaddog.  We were actually on a 3 pt mullie opening day. Part of me actually wishes I had got that one instead--we hunted him all day long and nicknamed him Houdini.  He not only gave me the slip a few times but even a couple other hunters who I watched from atop a mountain try to track him down.  I took a few shots at him around sunset. I thought we may have had him, so we spent 2 hours looking in the moonlight--he gave us another disappearing act yet again.  Great memories.   

I put it in my coworkers garage freezer last night--triple wrapped in garbage/plastic bags.  I will spent the next day or two researching which taxidermist I think will be the best fit. Thanks to all who chimed in.  I appologize to those who feel as though I have disrespected this animal.

[huntnphool]

huntnphool, I will try to post a pic later today. For advance notice, this wont win any awards and probably doesn't score too high.

Now this may sound hypocritical coming from someone that has been passing bull moose after bull moose because they just wont score high enough, but its really not about the score. You should be damn proud and don't ever let anyone steal your thunder. The majority of hunters on this site won't tag a deer this year, any deer!!! You just put yourself in the upper percentile and I'm sure the "Green Monster of Jealousy" has already reared its ugly head somewhere. Congrats again on the trophy, cant wait to see the pics.

[Bean Counter]

Well thank you 

As it turned out, I actually secured access to this private land because I had a doe tag for the area.  It was my hope to fill that tag first, not my buck tag, as my doe tag is only good until this Sunday and I could get a buck in November.  So I'm grateful, but I think I'll need to head back there this weekend to get the darned doe!

My buddy and I were sitting in a blind in a field, waiting for the deer to come out of the timber off the hill in the evening.  They did, but the bucks actually came out first--and closer to us than the does.  The landowner, who grows wheat, doesn't hunt and wants all of the deer gone, but he does let another party on first in the season who he has known longer.  He wasn't too mad about me getting this buck as his other friends had already gone home for the season. 

I don't think you're hypocritical.  When you get a special draw for something it doesn't make sense to shoot the first moose that comes along.  Even though I'd probably have lower standards than you, I'd at least wait till I found one with decently developed palms and a few good points. 

[dbllunger]

Is your doe tag an extra tag, or was it just a special draw permit?  If not an extra tag then you burned your tag for the year.  I know there were extra doe permits in some areas, but I thought they were only later in the year.  I don't follow them, so am unsure.  Just checking, and if it is an extra tag please go kill a doe.

[dbllunger]

In the future save your capes and you can trade out most taxidermists some of the costs.  You can sell the capes outright for more, but an easy 50-75 bucks off is worth caping the deer out.  Most Taxi's will show you how to cape at no charge, just schedule with them when they have one to do.  A good green Winter/Rut MD cape you should be able to get 150-200 for it.  Just let your Taxi know you have one, and they have people wanting capes often.  I have a real nice cape off this deer still vacume sealed in the freezer.  I would let it go for 200. http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z243/trailertrash701/BlockedOut-2-1.jpg

[Bean Counter]

Yes, its a SECOND deer tag.  My buddy has four kids and runs his dad's business so I wont get on his case too much but we had to come home Tuesday and now I'm going to try to convince him to repack everything and take the 5 hour trip with me to kill a couple more deer.  Its a no brainer for me but as you can see my life revolves around hunting, not the toher way around