If I just wanted to do a shoulder mount and not do the tanning myself how would I prep the hide and where/who would I send it to?
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To answer just your question, you could contact Carolina Fur (listed above under "Links") as they recommend a place for fleshing at an additional cost of course.
BUT, the bigger problem lies in a question. What are you trying to prove? All of the real work in taxidermy begins with the initial preparations of the skin. Anyone can slop a skin over a form with some degree of success today, but you'll never be a taxidermist until you learn all the processes that have to be done before that point. If you're not ready to tackle that part of taxidermy, I'd suggest you find another hobby because pretty soon, you're going to want to mount other things that you're going to have to do yourself anyway. Your question implies putting the cart well ahead of the horse.
To answer just your question, you could contact Carolina Fur (listed above under "Links") as they recommend a place for fleshing at an additional cost of course.
BUT, the bigger problem lies in a question. What are you trying to prove? All of the real work in taxidermy begins with the initial preparations of the skin. Anyone can slop a skin over a form with some degree of success today, but you'll never be a taxidermist until you learn all the processes that have to be done before that point. If you're not ready to tackle that part of taxidermy, I'd suggest you find another hobby because pretty soon, you're going to want to mount other things that you're going to have to do yourself anyway. Your question implies putting the cart well ahead of the horse.
To prep the hide, all you need to do is,,,,,send it frozen, next day air in this heat, to the above mentioned tanner. Dont try to flesh it, salt it, unless you are going to tan it yourself. If you dont know what your doing, let someone that knows how, do it.
If this cape means something to you trophy wise, send it out. If you want to learn how to tan, do your research, get a second cape to learn on, then a third cape to do right, then do yours.