# Taxidermy



## bowman23 (Nov 19, 2009)

does anybody know the answer to my question?


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## GenesisAlpha (Jun 26, 2009)

Depending on where you are at and if a school or a willing taxidermist is close will be the first hurdle.

How long from a school might be how much do you want to spend or from a taxidermist in business might be how much free work you will do for him and how fast you learn the trade.

You must be able to look at wildlife and be able to relate what you see to the work............very artistic ability helps.

Good Luck


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## bowman23 (Nov 19, 2009)

thanks, it is something i want to learn how to do i think it will be fun


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## scrapewatcher (Apr 14, 2009)

how long you go depends on how much you want to learn and how fast you pick it up. just deer or fish and small game. i would say at the very least 2,000 hrs.


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## larsen-4 (Jan 6, 2010)

the class offerd here in MT last eight weeks for shoulder, life size, birds, and fish mounts! or you can do two week course on just one of them! its real spendy tho but it teaches you competition mounts his students have won many!!!


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## bowman23 (Nov 19, 2009)

thanks well i was going to talk to a local taxidermist and see if i could get with him. i am going to ask him if i made some plaques for mounts if he would teach me how to do deer shoulder mounts.


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## solocam79 (Jan 3, 2008)

get over on taxidermy.net alot of great people are over there that have very valuable information i jusr started watching and helping a local guy on gameheads im attending second nature taxidermy in august in montana cant wait


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## bowman23 (Nov 19, 2009)

ok i will and that sounds cool good luck


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## bowman23 (Nov 19, 2009)

so if i did get a apprenticeship with a taxidermist will he want me to pay him for sharing his time or money for supply's.


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## mmtcougar (Feb 22, 2007)

I apprenticed, and got paid $4/hr(tells how long ago I started), but the first year I worked off the peices I mounted so I made nothing. The couple years after I made a little more but still had to work off full price of mounts I was doing myself to learn. Learning slowly over time working with a taxidermist is the way to go in my opinion. I know a couple guys that went to school and their learning curve to get to commercial quality peices was a lot longer than the couple years I apprenticed. I think sometimes schools are feeding too much info too fast for a lot of people to absorb and remember it all.


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## bowman23 (Nov 19, 2009)

thanks for the reply


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## skidrow (Feb 4, 2010)

i bought the viedo from van dikes i have mounted 4 deer now the first is the hardest but after that it gets eaiser. i am not the best but i do save my self 1000,s if you know what i mean.


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## bowman23 (Nov 19, 2009)

thanks i have seen those. do you have any pics of the deer you did


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## bowman23 (Nov 19, 2009)

any pics of deer people did their self


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## bowman23 (Nov 19, 2009)

does anybody have pics of deer they did?


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## Jamz (Jun 30, 2009)

Like Solocam 79 said taxidermy.net is an excellent place They will help with any questions and if you want they will critique your work and let you know what you need to work on, a great bunch of people on there. They would suggest you get some good videos, books and reference first though. Jamz


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## bowman23 (Nov 19, 2009)

thanks


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