Again thanks for all the mail I received from you guys!I see that this is the place to come for any help or questions that I may have.
Have ordered some videos and training books to help me get started. My question is about turn around time on mounts. I understand that in the learning process it will take me longer to get things right and that I will become better with practice, but what is the average time that it takes for some of you to complete a deer shoulder mount, deer life-size, small game, turkey, etc., etc. Thanks for your input. P.S. This is one great site!
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You need to include ALL time spent on each order. include time talking to the customer, ordering parts and supplies, skinning, mounting, and finishing.
Most taxidermists can mount a deer in 8 hours, a fish in 4 hours, a duck in 6 hours.--but that's really not important or applicable to you. You need to figure your own time, and maybe use those figures as a reasonable goal to reach later.
Also Note that the information above is NOT turn-around time---it's the time spent on each mount.
Most folks refer to turn-around time as the time it takes you to return a mount to a customer.
Most of that time will be "freezer time"
My advice to you about that will be to tell a customer the mount will take AT LEAST twice as long as you actually think it will. with a MINIMUM of 3 months time. That will save you the future headache (it WILL happen eventually) of a customer looking for a mount at a promised time, when it's still in your freezer because you were too busy.
so, tell them 3 months, and if you finish in 2, well, they'll be extra impressed.
Good Luck
Dave
Set your own time,(3months) (6months) (1 year) whatever...but deliver when you say! note it on the receipt! Just speaking from experience...Dan.
I just wanted to respond to the post to ask a secondary question to the post. I do fish and do them quite well. I waste no time, Nor do I waste Quality. However I cant see doing a Fish in 4 Hours?...Not counting the drying time of course. To do a fish well, and I'm talking proper excavating of the skull, fleshing, cheeck meat, trimming fin bases (properly) Not to mention carving the body, sewing it, doing the fins properly, sealing painting and glossing the fish. Then attaching it to a quality piece of driftwood, or otherr base...how do you or anyone do all that in 4 hours?.
I mean no discrimination on my fellow Taxidermists. But, some of you have a different way of doing things, some good some bad. Just wondeering on certain subjects the usual..."Who, What, Where, When Aand sometimes Why...Still 4 Hrs. Sounds more than quick.....
Sonny,
I don't have the tenure of many of these guys, but I've drawn some conclusions about the importance of turn around time, as well as other factors, both from the standpoint of a taxidermy customer and as a taxidermist. Based upon my own experience, most customers (especially those seeking their first mount) are concerned about price, turnaround time, and appearance, in that order. They don't want to take out a second mortgage on the house to have the deer done. They want it back yesterday, and they can't tell the difference (generally speaking) between competition vs. commercial grade mounts. My policy has been to take in only what I can finish between now and nest deer season. I figure that if I have Joe Customer's deer to do and the next season comes around, he'll do something stupid like kill a bigger deer detracting from the thrill of the one in my freezer. I tell all customers a year on deer. The last one is usually done at about six months into the period and they're all very happy to get it back "early".
If you want to do a fish in 4 hours,(or less) don't skimp on removing flesh properly. But I wouldnt even consider sewing a fish, stapling takes about 5 minutes, I also buy all my forms from a good supplier,(Rinehart has excellent forms) they cost between $5. and $20. No mess, No time carving, No buying foam. A real timesaver. Just a thought.
Is that an acceptable turn around time? I took a monster walleye to a very renouned taxidermist four years ago and still havn't gotten it back yet. When I see him and ask about it, he always says he hasn't had time. This guy has been a top winner at the NTA and World shows, is a show judge, has been showcased in Breakthrough, and has been called one of the best in the country by many. With all the talk about poor taxidermist's giving the industry a bad name, what about the best one's giving the industry a bad name.
Yes, I know by now that I've kissed that fish and all the money I paid goodby a long time ago, but the point is, don't make the customer wait just because you can. This experience was a main reason I decided to get involved in taxidermy. I have vowed not to make my customers to wait for excessive periods of time. Maybe I can do this now because I am part - time, but, one of the joy's of taxidermy is seeing the smile on a customers face when he picks up a well done mount, and that smile is always bigger when he didn't have to wait a long period of time. Allot of guy's are more worried about keeping a full freezer than making their customers happy. I say, make your customers happy and you will never have to worry about having enough work to do. Just don't sacrifice quality for time, rather, experiment and find quicker way's of doing things while performing high quality work.
I must really be slow as it takes me this much time just to properly skin and flesh a large fish!
Just a follow-up----I'm referring to bass primarily---(that's my main business)
we mount in groups of 5 or 10 and average for each bass about---30 minutes for skinning and cleaning, 30 minutes for mounting and carding, 1 hour for "paint prep"(eyes,fins, repairs and shrinkage), 30 minutes for painting, 30 minutes for base, habitat, and nametag work, 1 hour left over for customer BS.
for my shop, 4 hours is a very comfortable figure.
If you want to improve your speed and technique, Archie Phillips has a great video on skinning bass, we use a modified(and more thourough) version of his "5 minute" method.
Bye
Dave