I've been reading on the net about taxidermy, and am interested in learning. I read somewhere that squirrels were about the best thing for a beginner to start with. I ordered Russell Tinsley's 'Taxidermy Guide', and he says birds are the easiest to learn with. That's an okay book, but seems a little outdated, so I got 'The Breakthrough Bird Taxidermy Manuel'...
Interested in some opinions on which would be easier to learn on, the squirel,or the bird (probaly go for something easy to obtain, like a crow).
What I am REALLY intested in is learning how to rug mount a coyote. There are alot of them where I hunt at, and I need to thin them out. Would this be a good beginner project, or should I get a few under my belt before attempting something like that?
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forgiving of mistakes in my opinion, but those squirrels have a nice tough hide that you dont have to be too gentle with as with some birds.
take your pick,get some references and enjoy!
hey, you're lucky brian. i wish i was in an area where i could do some coyote thinning.
good luck , don
Not much to the rug deal. You skin the yote, remove all the red meat, paws, split the lips, turn the ears and salt. When dry, send it to a commercial tannery. Order a rugshell form (closed mouth will be easiest) and you only have to worry about doing the head portion. Squirrels skin easy, but they'll break your heart. Birds don't keep secrets. If the wing symetry is off, they look like crap. If the feathers aren't continually groomed, they look like crap. If you don't get all the meat out of the wings, the smell and look like crap. If you can't find an artificial head, the incision is tough, cleaning the skull tougher, and the sewing back is rougher and it still looks like crap. Pheasants are the easiest of all birds as they have little fat surrounding their feather "roots". Sea ducks are full of fat but have the toughest skin of all ducks and can be fleshed with impugnity. I'd still take the yote.
Most of the Taxidermy publications written in the past all say to start with birds - chapter one is almost invariably bird mounting. In the old days mammal forms wern't as readily available, and a small bird could be mounted using a ping-pong ball as the body - assuming that one could add cotton to fill out the appropriate spots. There was actually a publication titled roughly "The wine cork method of mounting small birds".
However these days the birds most available for mounting are ducks and geese, and the techniques to degrease, wash, and fluff are difficult to master. Blackbirds, any of the species, if you have depredation permits, are actually amoung the easiest birds to mount. Other than those, if you had access to bobwhites, I would suggest you try these, or perhaps non-fat ringnecks as George suggested, but I would agree that a mammal might give you a better starting point.
Are you having a crappy day?LOL
I was just using the parameters Brian applied. Think about it. Of the choices, which one really takes the LEAST effort on the part of the taxidermist. When I started, I boiled bone and used buttons for eyes, but that was labor intensive and we didn't have professional tanneries to do the shaving, tanning, and tumbling. All a taxidermist has to do is rehydrate the finished facial area, insert the shell, tuck and pin with a little glue. I've been mounting squirrels for 45 years and they still give me the creeps. I think their the hardest animal to get RIGHT that we have to do anymore.
Once you mentioned that many people don't know the difference between their, there, and they're. Even you make mistakes every so often, but we still love you!
People who think they know everything are particularly annoying to those of us who actually do. LOL. Thanx. I saw that only after I hit the send button. I'll pay contrition by spending an extra 10 minutes in the dictionary tonight. LOL