Taxidermy Satisfaction Survey

[ICEMAN]

Ok, first off, not wanting to start a war in this thread.

I am interested in hearing from you guys as to;

1. Type of Mount
2. How long you waited to get your trophy back from your taxidermist?
3. Were you satisfied with the wait (length of time)?
4. Were you satisfied with the end result.

Please posts as many mounts and time frames you want.

Sample replies look like:

Deer shoulder mount
22 Months
Satisfied with wait
Satisfied with mount

Euro Elk Skull
6 Months
Not Satisfied with wait
Satisfied with mount

Waterfowl
14 Months
Satisfied with wait
Satisfied with mount

Bear Rug
24 Months
Satisfied with wait
Not satisfied with mount

Not looking for prices, taxidermists, or much of any other details. Hoping this thread helps guys understand what they may be getting into when they hire a taxidermist. Also hoping that the information may help the taxidermist understand the honest opinions of hunters.

Please keep taxidermist names out of this thread. Lets keep this anonymous.

Thanks for participating!

[deerslyr]

Great thread ICEMAN.

Mule Deer Shoulder Mount
10 Months (I paid extra to get it back before I moved, bumped me up 2 or 3 months, would of been more like a year)
Yes
Absolutely

[Mr Mykiss]

Elk shoulder mount
21 Months
Satisfied with wait
After receiving the mount I would've gladly waited another 36 months!!

[whacker1]

Blacktail shoulder mount in 1992
11 months
Satisfied,

Mule Deer shoulder mount in 2007
11 months
Very satisfied, better work
Same taxidermist is now into longer lead time, but still under 18 months

Bear rug 2003
13 months
satisfied

[jburkett]

2011 mule deer shoulder mount
21 months and two weeks
Very happy with every animal I have seen from the shop I use.  So happy in fact, I chose him again for my 2012 bench leg  even before getting my first buck back, now that I have my buck hanging on my wall I couldn't be happier with the work, price, or time frame.

2012 bench leg shoulder mount
14 months and counting
 No doubt in my mind that I will be very happy when I get him back!

A good friend of mine has one of those 300 dollar-3 month turn around shoulder mounts, it's at my taxis shop right now waiting for his turn  on the work bench.   ( to my taxi: you should post a photo of James deer, so all these guys can see what 300 bucks will get em)

[SquirrelHunter]

2013 Black Tail shoulder mount
quoted up to 6 months
Picked up in 4 months almost to the day
Couldn't be happier with it
Have a bird there and will go back for more

[starbailey]

A couple from way back-
 Blacktail shoulder mount
$300 ish
6 months
Horrible quality and never went back to that taxi.

Black bear life size
$1700.
2+ years
Horrible quality (taxi used a grizzly form) hair slippage, just horrible base work. I never went back.

Last 15 years-
caribou european
elk euro
Bighorn shoulder
Dall shoulder
Bear rug
Goat shoulder
moose shoulder
Goat life size
Bighorn life size
Ect, ect, ect, ect, ect, ect.
$275- $3500
10 months to 2 1/2 years. Most about 18-20 months. Some of the early life size mounts took me a long time to get a sizable deposit to have work started.
Great quality on all mounts and base work is what I choose to have done. (most have old barn boards for base wood as it fits our home decor)
 Once I questioned the eye angle on one shoulder mounted ram. He explained there is a certain amount of angle degree that he has to work with and he purposely  changed this rams to be a little more forward to give a little different look than my other rams. I didn't like the change and he offered to redo the mount at no charge.
 I will not take my taxi work to anyone else.

[kentrek]

Buffalo euro
3-4 months
perfectly happy about time/quality
Price was discounted to 90 since I did a lot of the defleshing myself

Cougar rug
8 months
happy about time but quality was horrible, would have gladly waited another year for better work
600$

[blindluck]

Mule deer shoulder muunt -altered
14 months
very satisfied Top Notch quality, PR, and workmanship
$725 Altered extra work

[huntnphool]

Far too many to mention individually
Prices varied with each, no issues
All took approximately a year to year and a half, no issues
Very happy with the final product on all

[6x6in6]

6 shoulder mount elk and 2 euro's done over the years.
2 whitetail, one shoulder, 1 euro done over the years.
1 mule deer in the shop presently for a shoulder.
8-14 months on all of them (euro's were around 4-5 months each).
The mule deer I have been told 10-12 months.
Very happy with all of them.

[scout/sniper]

A few of my favorites:

Teal double in flight
8 Months
Satisfied with wait
Satisfied with mount

Mallard drake in flight
8 Months
Satisfied with wait
Satisfied with mount

Blacktail Deer shoulder mount
18 Months
Satisfied with wait
Satisfied with mount

[Eli346]

The bear in my avatar is the only thing I've had done. It only took about 5 months and I'm very happy with it. Actually took a mule deer I got this year to have mounted to put on my wall above the computer also.

[YoterHunter]

3 black tail shoulder mounts 3 mule deer shoulder mounts . Every one back within. 7 months . Very happy waiting for my 2013 buck to get done. My biggest black tail yet.