The first tannery I started using back in 2007 was the same Tannery Bucklucky (Charlie) was using. The work was excellent until one of his employees quit and the owner started doing all the tanning. Thats when in late 2009 and early 2010 I started noticing after getting some tanned deer capes back some were sheddy. At first I didn't think anything about it they mounted up fine and the hair was tight. After another couple batches I noticed the sheddy hair was getting a little worse. I've used 3 other tanneriues in the past and I knew this shouldn't be happening.
I approached the Tannery and the Owner and told him what I was noticing. He told me that I was the only one who has said anything, so it must be something I am doing. I got the next batch back and same thing. Got the same response from the tannery. Same thing for the next couple batches. The Owner said it has to be something I was doing.
Between December 2009 and July 2010. I repeatedly talked to bucklucky, and BLKBEARKLR asking if they were noticing the same thing. Bucklucky hadn't noticed anything and BLKBEARKR had all of his hides dry tanned so he didn't see anything. I called other taxidermists asking there advice and going over my methods for handling hides. The response I got from all of them was that my methods seamed fine and they couldn't think of anything out of place. I was literally going out of my mind because I couldn't figure out what was going on. I made a few changes to the way I was preping and salting my hides and sprayed my shop for bugs and mold just in case.
I'd say about late May or early June, BLKBEARKLR had wet up the first couple capes he had gotten back. One of them was a big Whitetail and as he was mounting it he was noticing the same shedy hair. Couple weeks later he had another one. This is when I started to think maybe it wasn't something I was doing. I talked to Charlie again and asked him if he was noticing anything and he still hadn't. Called the Tannery and again the owner said I was the only one complaining about these problems and it's something I am doing.
The last week of July I called bucklucky and told him I was on my way over to pick something up. He said good I need to show you something. He had just picked up a couple dozen capes and hides from the tannery and pulled 6 out to work on. When I got there and saw the condition of the capes I was pissed. I called BLKBEARKLR while I was at bucklucky's shop and asked him if he had said anything to the tannery about his capes. He got the same answer I got. Got to be something he was doing. That "he was the only one complaining about these problems."
I was instantly pissed. It had finaly come together that the guy knew there was a problem and was telling anyone that called to inquire about the sheddy hair that it was something they were doing. I told bucklucky, "that son of a bleep bleep bleep, will never touch another hide of mine!"
That's when I pulled my stuff and started the hunt for another tannery. I got several recommendations for tanneries and sent them some stock capes and paid extra for them to rush them back to me so I could see the quality of the product before I sent them customer hides. The tannery I chose was the best quality of the lot and did absolutely excellent work.
Normally I have my first batch of hides to the tannery by mid August. I didn't get my first batch of hides off until end of September.
In November the owner of the new Tannery called and explained to me that they had a guy quit about the same time I had started dropping hides off. They hired and trained this guy for a year (I think he got fired) and was gone. Now the Tannery was short handed. They had hired the guy and trained him so they could do a little more advertising and bring in more work. Well they lost the guy and ended up getting a ton of hides. He wasn't sure exactly if or how the loss of his employee was going to affect his turn around. He told me that instead of the 5-6 month turn around he was looking at 8-10 months turn around.
He asked me if I wanted him to ship my hides back. Well he had my hides for little over 2 months already and by the time I got them back and settled on a new tannery it was still going to take me 6 months to get them back. I felt it wasn't going to do any good to pull my hides.
Just to make this simple say you brought me a Deer head on January 1st 2010. It is more than likely going to get shipped to the tannery around February 1st 2010. 10 month turn around I got your hide back Nov 1st 2010. About 11 months after they were brought it. So I had 1 month to mount 1 years worth of work. That put me at a 2 year turn around. I didn't realize that this change was going to affect my 1 year turn around until late November 2010 after I had brought in the majority of my work for the year.
I am still using the New Tannery. There quality is excellent and the owners are easy people to deal with. In the spring of 2011 they went through there list of taxidermists that they tan for and anyone one who was a pain in the butt to work with, sent them crappy preped hides, didn't pay, etc they sent letters to and asked them not to come back. That brought them back to a 4-6 month turn around. Little longer than most tanneries but I would rather have quality then speed.
