I'm starting to do some taxidermy. I'm working on my first red fox now. I'm planning on taking in several jobs once I retire in a few months. I was talking to a friend that had thought of doing taxidermy full time. He said when he talked to a friend that had been a taxidermist for a long time he said if you like to hunt forget taxidermy! He said your busiest time was during hunting season!
How do you all feel about that?
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I love to hunt and that is part of the reason I only do fish. It's fairly regular year round too...
He is right , to a point.
I am always buisy the first week of bow ( Michigan ) then I get a couple of weeks that I can get out in the mornings and on the weekends . but come November Forget it . If you can hunt around your shop that helps, Or if you have a helper ( my wife in my case ) that can take things in can help also. Also I have my Cell phone set up with my buisness so I dont miss calls , I have 7 other taxidermist in the phone book in my area and if you dont ansure that call they will call another number . Hope this helps . Its not that bad . I always have venisin in the freezer and I never have to worry about having a nice mount to look at.
doing it as a hobby and doing it full time. I am guessing that having too much to do will be the least of your worries, especially your first year. I doubt you are looking at 100-300 heads a year like some of the people on here do, but if you are lucky enough to pick up a dozen jobs or so they will be very easy to schedule in around your schedule. Just put your cell on silent, make sure you have good voicemail(and a friendly greeting), and call em back after you get out of the woods. But this is just assuming that you are doing it for the fun of it and not trying to make a living out of it.
If you are going into the retired mode, do what some part-timer's do (myself included).Only take in the maximum amount of work you feel comfortable with. Twelve heads a year a few fish and a few mammals are all I can handle right now. Enjoy your retirement!
I pretty much write off hunting muleys since it's our busiest season, but we're fortunate to have a lot of exotics in TX, so we hunt during the off season for those. Plus you can write off a large part of the hunt if you mount the exotics and use them in your display room.
If you make time to hunt with your present job, chances are, you'll do the same as a taxidermist.
If what you want to do, is hunt, then be a guide or a professional hunter.
I are a taxidermist; yesterday I couldn't even spell it and I shoot 50-75 upland birds [pheasant, quail, grouse] a year and I do opening weekend of elk and turkey and hunt 4 states, two or more times each year.
SEE HUNTING is a hobby; TAXIDERMY is my job, all that being said, I still pick up road kills on my hunting trips [vacations] haha.
Now George if you want me to waist one of my trips on seeing you [and joining the nta] at a convintion;I'll need some major kissen UP.
if your a successfull taxidermist, if ya like hunting, ya better be successfull at that too, the first day! because after that its all over. lol, actually it depends on what you want. you can either limit your work load to make time for hunting, if your work load is out of hand your price can dictate the amount you take in,if your working your ass off and dont have time to hunt and want too, your doing something wrong, which could be a meriad of things. it wont take many pcs. to make a retired guy busy! lots of luck
I am only part time, and with my real job I get the standard 2 weeks off a year and weekends if I am lucky. And then they piss and moan when you put in for time off. Atleast if you work for your self you are not asking anyone to go, you just go when you can make it work. I plan on being fulltime someday.
They are going to be hunting the same times you are, unless you are one of those all dayers. And you will not BOOM overnight, unless, you happen to be one of those lucky SOB's, good taxidermist or not, that some people just happen to be.
The people we have in here, and we are small, enjoy the hunting that we do and have to show also.
You get up at 4 AM, hunt for 3 or 4 hours, come in and work, go back to hunt, then come back and work more.
We don't have set hours, none of our businesses do. It may start at 5 AM and go to 10 PM. All according to how much "work" you want to put in to it and WHEN the work comes in.
As for "retired", I can tell you from experience with my aunts and uncles that are now "retired", you will wonder how you ever got anything done when you worked a real job.
I see my family about as much as I did when they just came home for visits. I told my aunt that I wouldn't see her much more than I did when she lived off, and she couldn't believe it........til she "retired". They are all so busy running and enjoying life, the have no time for socializing.
So enjoy, hunt, work and don't forget to live life to the fullest. God didn't promise you tomorrow!