Coues Whitetail are my favorite

Yeah I like the bottom one as well ! Great work thanks for sharing . Are you self taught ? Or did you go to a school ?
 
Thanks, I kind of did an apprenticeship at a local taxidermy shop in California til I moved. Then I joined the Arizona Taxidermy Association and attended a few seminars. Lots of tricks to the trade. I try to limit myself to 25 animals a year and this year started turning guys away at 30. I do just enough so I can go on one cool hunt a year. Heading to Greenland next month for musk ox.... Ed F
 
Thanks, I kind of did an apprenticeship at a local taxidermy shop in California til I moved. Then I joined the Arizona Taxidermy Association and attended a few seminars. Lots of tricks to the trade. I try to limit myself to 25 animals a year and this year started turning guys away at 30. I do just enough so I can go on one cool hunt a year. Heading to Greenland next month for musk ox.... Ed F
Curious, how many animals per year do you think you would be doing if it was full time job?
 
Man, I love Mule Deer, but Coues Deer definitely take the beauty prize. The next good one I get I’ll have mounted. It’s funny, where I hunt Coues they are up in the mountains and the Mule Deer are down in the bottoms, which is opposite of what you’d normally find in a place that has both. Makes them that much more fun to hunt though!
 
Curious, how many animals per year do you think you would be doing if it was full time job?

Hundreds.... Think about it, do you know a taxidermist that isn't overworked and has less than a one year turnaround? Even the worst taxidermists with the worst reputations are still IMG_2459-1.jpg overworked. Sad but true. If you look hard you'll find the good ones and there are plenty...

Kellen... you should have mounted your Coues. Go shoot another one, I need more capes....

Here is a sneak peak of an Arizona mule deer I just mounted... mounting a bigger one right now... Ed F
 
Hundreds.... Think about it, do you know a taxidermist that isn't overworked and has less than a one year turnaround? Even the worst taxidermists with the worst reputations are still View attachment 34435 overworked. Sad but true. If you look hard you'll find the good ones and there are plenty...

Kellen... you should have mounted your Coues. Go shoot another one, I need more capes....

Here is a sneak peak of an Arizona mule deer I just mounted... mounting a bigger one right now... Ed F
Wow, I guess people knock them out pretty quick after doing it for awhile. Agree on how busy most are, I often have people tell me I should use their guy for birds because it's half the cost and much shorter turnaround. I can't find a polite way to tell them that I wouldn't want their mounts in my home.
If I can ever get a mule deer that doesn't score like a Coues I hope I make the cut off, you do beautiful work.
 
Kellen... you should have mounted your Coues. Go shoot another one, I need more capes....

I suppose I still could.... did you use the cape from that one?

That’s a toad mule deer! Love it!
 
I have been thinking for a while and have been looking into going to taxidermy school. It’s hard with a full time job and family so I will have to do the course in sections. So this time next year I am planning on saving my time up at work taking a couple weeks off and going to learn shoulder mounts.

This is the school I’m looking and spoke with about going to.

http://www.artisticschooloftaxidermy.com/
 
Cool... I looked into taxidermy schools too. There are a lot of them around and it's usually a taxidermist doing it on the side. I walked into a local taxidermy shop (friend) and asked if he'd mentor me... with the caveat that I was moving out of state and not going to steal any of his business and I would do some remodeling at his shop. He said cool and it was a great experience. I got a few guys to trust me on their mounts. I'm going back to his shop in a few weeks to mount a lifesize Dall sheep.... I'm scared to death.

I'm glad I went this route. I continue learning by visiting local shops and going to taxidermy seminars. Good luck on your adventure. A good intro would to hit up a local taxidermist and offer to work for free a few hours a week (cleaning the shop, errands...) in exchange for a learning experience. BTW... there are very few taxidermists who earn a good living. The better ones are artists and not very good at managing a business... that's my experience anyways. Ed F
 
Great work there! Thanks to Steve Rinella, the coues news got out.
 
Yeah where I live there is only one taxidermist and he is a firefighter as well and so he wouldn’t be willing to show me much if anything. Other then that there is no one in less I want to drive a few hours one way and then even then I doubt they would help out being that they don’t know me. Yeah I have found that to be true for the most part.
 
I have a full time job as well as a family so I am more so looking to do it on the side out of my home, and have a cap like yourself and really spend the time on them and have more quality then quantity while making enough to put towards hunting equipment (upgrading) and hunting trips.
 
The first one is 35 and this one is 38... greatest width. Beautiful bucks but as crazy as it sounds I prefer the Coues bucks. Ed F
 
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I love when a taxidermist adds the muscle tone into the animal . How hard is it to do so while do the taxidermy work ?
 

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