I've had little or no hands on taxidermy experience
but a good eye for detail and am interested in doing
native Texas mounts, specifically whitetails.
I know of a local taxidermist who claims eighty percent
of his business is whitetails. He does average quality
work, that is every so often a mount will look rough,
but he works six days a week and appears swamped.
He also claims he can crank out two deer a day.
My questions are, can a taxidermist go to a good school
and be primarily a whitetail 'specialist'?
Being in Texas one can expect to do a fair share
of exotics, hogs, coyote, bobcat and Colo. elk which is fine
but I would have zero interest in fish or birds.
Just wondering if someone could make, say, 65k a year
focusing on a shorter list of animals.
Btw, w/out being in a rush how many deer does a good taxi.
turn out in a week?
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Robert,
You can go to a taxidermy school (college) and get a diploma in taxidermyhaving completed all their courses (Different animals, birds, fish, tanning, business magamnt, etc) and STILL do any mount you want...specialize in any one or all. OR you can hook up with someone that is already established and do a one, two or seven day "school" at their establishment in only what you want to do. It would be your business so you do what YOU want. Personally I don't do fish. I MAINLY do Whitetail & they are local & also clients that bring them back from a hunting trip. Birds are hit or miss and I really didn't care much for doing them until I found out how Stop Rot can aide in the process all the way around (thats another story).
A loacl guy here in NC said he took in 200 deer and 50 bear a year. He contracted out his birds. He was fulltime, but he quit a couple years ago and went to farm management. I am parttime and will limit myself to 20 deer and whatever else comes in (a few snakes, a couple bobcat, fox, squirrel and coyote). When I retire I will still be parttime but my time will be more towards taxidermy than anything else because for me THAT is leisure.
I pick & choose the mounts I accept just like I pick & choose my clients. I have done taxidermy for 20 years and although there is competition locally if they want to take it to a "buddy" that can do it for xx amount of dollars instead of what I charge I will gladly help them get it back to their truck.
Good Luck with your endeavers.
I know many Busy Taxidermists that are working 6 to 7 days a week and still can't make a living,swamped more than a year behind and are not making a living at it. It's about pricing , work ethic, you can claim to work but still waste you time, and quality,
WHATEVER you do doesn't make a difference, charge 80 to 120 per hour and WORK it like you have a boss ready to fire you if you screwing around on the job.
And if your not cranking out a good quality, real good deer in 4 hours , prep cape, mannikin sizeing and alteration, sewing, set skin and hang on the wall to dry your not going to make it. The biggest price hackers in this industry are ones that Specialize in deer, Snap-on guys that bought a video and only do deer. There are taxidermists that are good to great but charge $500 and up for them and they don't make the good money till they get the second one of the day on the wall.
Keep you day job ... your not going to make that kind of money without a heck of a lot of experience and productivity and a decade or two of building a clientele
i to live in tx, east tx that is,i mount one deer a day im not behind i also do hogs exotics bobcats any thing here in east tx and have a few friend who have there own shop and they do just fine i like to work monday thru friday you wanna see how much you can make get to work dave
I do big game mammals only. No small game, no fish, no birds. Basically if I hunt them I mount them. I dont know a walleye from a sparrow! And I get more work than I want!
thanks for all the feedback.
Hogger, are you setting your price and paid
what you're worth?
Funny how here in Texsas a fat cat will pay 10k plus to a hunting
ranch to be 'put on'a trophy whitetail, pay an obscene extra after
the deer has been graded and priced on the hoof for every
inch, point beyond a 140 class, and then price shop or play one
shop against another to save fifty dollars mounting it.