TRAILS END TAXIDERMY dayton wa.

[HEADSHOT]

JEFF is amazing he is gonna fix my grandpa's alaskan bear for me and I cant wait to post the pics!   I will post photos of his african animals from his recent hunt over there. Was in his shop today and his work is unreal.... killer spring toms  being done up..

[Elkstuffer]

Jeff is a real good guy and an asset to the taxidermy community. He'll do you a great job.

[boneaddict]

 

[grizzlygibbs]

Is Jeff a younger guy that works for the DNR in the summer?

[Elkstuffer]

No, he's probably in his late 40's. He was in law enforcement back on the east coast before coming out here.

[grizzlygibbs]

I fought a couple fires with a guy down in dayton/pomeroy in his mid 20's that did taxidermy in the winter.  I was just wondering if anyone has ever heard of him.  I forgot his name

[GWA Hunter]

Met Jeff a few years ago when I brought him my 2008 WT. Here's a picture of the WT buck he did for me. Definately not a huge buck but was my biggest and I was proud! He's a great guy and does great work. My brother and I brought him our bucks from last year which was a lot bigger then this one! Should be getting them back in July. I highly recommend him.

[Rob]

Looks like a nice buck to me.  Good mass.  Very nice mount-I think I saw it blink.

[HEADSHOT]

i am sending my antelope to him in october if i draw thwe darn tag? he is for sure great guy...

[Rob]

The ears are interesting.  It is like he is in the middle of twitching them.  I like that as it makes it look lifelike.  A brave mount to try I would think as it could come out really weird looking if not executed right.

[CoryTDF]

Hello all,

Let me first start off by saying that it is in no way my intention to dissuade anybody from using this taxidermist. I do however wish to inform you of how my experience with Jeff ended up. First of all he is retried military "Coast guard" so when I brought him my first ever wood duck in 2004, I immediately had a connection with him. After talking with him for about an hour i asked him if he would be interested in possibly teaching me how to do birds. It took a little coaxing but he agreed to show me a few things. I paid him my deposit and left. A few days later I called him and set up a time to come out and learn some taxidermy. While I was out there we talked mostly about hunting and that he was new to the area and did not really have any duck hunting spots. Jeff is a friendly guy and it was obvious to me he was not a moron so i told him that I would take him to a few of my spots. He was exited and immediately made a statement to me that would set the tempo for the remainder of our friendship. He told me that if I took him out and showed him some places to hunt that he would “just charge me the deposit for that wood duck" I of course jumped at this offer and so began my adventure. Over the next month or so I took Jeff out hunting a few times he was a knowledgeable duck hunter and overall a good guy to have in the blind. Jeff called me one day and told me wood duck was done and I could come pick it up. I immediately went to my car and drove the thirty miles to Dayton. When I arrived at the shop he talked for a while and then he gave me my duck. It looked great except for the bill. I did not like it right off the bat. It looked as though a kid had painted it with a watercolor brush. I was not pleased but I decided I would just wait and see I could live with it. We finished talking and I went to leave he said “hey you gonna pay me?” I hesitated and said "um….I didn’t bring any money with me” I was hoping that he would remember what he had told me about taking him hunting. It became apparent that he did not remember so I thought that I would just remind him. I said “Jeff don’t you remember what you told me? You said If I took you hunting you would take care of that duck for me!” He shook his head and said no I said I would help you learn how to do this If you took me. I did not want to argue so I went to the bank and got the money. Strike one!
 2004 was a great pintail year for me and I had no trouble filling my freezer with possible mounts. I continued talking with Jeff about learning how to mount birds. We set a date and I brought him 5 pintails that I thought would make good mounts. He said he would hold them until I could make it out to start on mine. When I went out to choose one of my birds to mount I got a little surprise. There were only 3 birds for me to choose from. Jeff took two of the birds and had started mounting them for himself. I chose one of the birds and he proceeded to show me how to mount a bird. I was a little disgruntled but hey this guy showed me how to do taxidermy so I let that slide. Strike two!
 Over the next year I talked with Jeff periodically and kept our friendship in good standing. Jeff and I had talked about drift wood for mounts and where to get it. I told him that my dad lives on the west side and I could get him some. The next trip I took over I filled my trunk with drift wood and brought it to him. He had also mentioned that if any of my friends or myself ever shot a deer and didn’t want the cape that he would gladly take them off my hands. I had him show me how to properly cape out a deer using his preferred method and over the next two deer seasons I gave him several capes. Keep in mind every cape I gave him was used on somebody else’s mount and sold to them for around $100.
My father shot a nice white in the Colville area in 1981. It is the biggest deer he has ever killed. He had a neck mount done and it has been a center piece in every living room he has ever had. The only problem with the mount was that his friend, a moron, ran down to the dead dear and cut its throat. The taxidermist did a good job covering it up but it always bothered my dad. One day I got the idea that would have Jeff redo the mount for my dad. I called him up and talked to him about what needed to be done. He told me that he needed the mount and that he would need to get a new cape for it. I then brought up all the capes I had given to him and asked if we could work something out with my dads mount. Jeff told me that he would find me a cape and just charge me the normal price for a mount. I agreed to this and the plan was set into motion. It took over a year for him to even find a cape and almost another year for him to finish the mount. Needless to say I was not happy with the time frame. I saw many mounts get put in formant of my fathers and make it out the door much faster. When the day came that I was to pick up my fathers mount it was hanging high in his shop. It looked good. I stayed and talked with Jeff for an hour or so handed him the money and he went and got the deer. I had another friend with me and he handed it to him. I gave it a very quick and very foolish once over and finished my conversation with Jeff then went home. When I got home and sat down with the mount I was devastated. I know that Jeff is capable of good work but I have to say this is terrible. First of all the deer that the cape came from was *censored* in the neck. The bullet hole was sewn together and then hair sprayed to keep the hair from poofing out every ware. The stitching was showing in the bullet hole and the top of the head in between the antlers. The cape had about a dozen scares on the neck and face. The eyes bulged out and the tear ducts are not recessed. The more I looked at it the worse it looked I couldn’t handle it so I called Jeff. I told him that I did not want to seem rude but this is the worst mount I have ever seen and that I know that he does better work than this. I explained that it is not like he did this for free and that I paid him the same rate that everybody else does and got an 1/8 of the quality. This is where things started to go bad! Jeff quickly tells me that I shouldn’t have paid him if I didn’t like it, and it was that bad. He said I could bring it to him and show him what I thought was wrong with it. I agreed that I was foolish to have left without really looking over the mount however, I considered him to be a friend a person I had done favors for and who I had taken hunting. I had foolishly believed that we had more of a relationship than businessman and customer.  When I brought the mount it him he of course tried to tell me nothing was wrong with it. He took out a can of hairspray and flattened out the hair around the bullet hole. I told him that it was unacceptable and that I felt cheated. Jeff made it very clear that he would not refund my money but that he would remount it if I wanted that. However, he would have to wait until he got another cape and he was not going to buy a new one for this mount. The only issue was that he didn’t know how long it would take. Well it had already been two years and I was not willing to wait two more. I talked it over with my dad and he decided to call Jeff. That phone conversation was interesting as Jeff cussed my dad out. After all was said and done we decided that we would just have to eat $450 and have it redone buy somebody else. Strike three your out!!!  
I guess all I was trying to say is that Jeff Monyak is capable of good work his trophy room in his shop is very impressive. However, if his work is only good when it suits him I guess everybody else is potentially in a position to get screwed. He has turned out some very nice work and I can’t really say that he is bad at what he does. But I will say he is no longer a friend of mine. He cheated me and used me until I took a stand and then he showed his true colors. I myself will never use him again. I will attach some pictures of the deer when I get home today.  

[Pathfinder101]

I have not met Jeff, but I have seen CoryTDF's wood duck and the deer mount in question.  I agree that the duck's bill is poorly painted, and the deer mount looks like it has downs syndrome. 

[HEADSHOT]

ouch! I would like to say some people have there good days and bad days but I went over and could find anything wrong with his work? sounds like a bumm deal? I still wanna have him do my praire got being its on the way home and the work I have seen was bad at all specialy the price....

[HEADSHOT]

I think his work is great just looked at more photos???

[boneaddict]

Thanks for the testimony Cory.  Well written, and exactly what we need to hear on here.  Thanks for taking the time to explain all that.  If you get a chance you should post some pics.