Just watched the 4 hour video series with Mark Mclain on mounting a whitetail buck. His instruction is for commercial work. What if anything would he do different for a competition mount. Just curious.
STEVE
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A few things would be correct inner nostril detail. Correct ear butt shape. Correct eyelid and brow shape and placement. lifelike finishing work. Meticulous gooming. Correct is the big thing with competition work. When you take a deer to a competition be sure to have it critiqued by the person who judged it. The info you gain from this crtique is worth far more than the money you spend in entry fees.
For a professional Taxidermist all mounts are done as if they were going on a show.
If you don't you will not be around long.
That is BS a commercial mount and a Show mount.
There is a huge difference between a comp mopunt and a commercial mount. I have sen comp mounts that took ribbons at the worlds and at the NTA convention. The amount of time spent just doing the nasal detailing on a whitetail would put you in the hole financially on every mount of you took as much time on a commercial mo8nt. I am NOT SAYINg not to do your best on a commercial mount, but the extra attention to detailing that isneeded to win at the major levels in Comp just cannot be done and still make money commercially. i know guys who won second places at the NTA who spent weeks, just detailing the nose, never mind the eyes, tear ducts, grooming, ears, ect ect. Some comp mounts have hundreds of hours in them. If you figure it out by the hour, you may be able to do sabout 4 deer a year, that would take ribbons at that level. Can you feed your family on 4 deer a year? Untill you see der mounts that have won blue ribbons at the Big Shows, you'll never realize that the time spent to get that ribbon, just cannot possibly be dedicated to a commercial mount and make any money at it. many of you may agree and some will disagree, the ones who disagree will still be the ones trying to get above a third year in ands year out!
8 hours -vs- 40+ hours. There has to be a difference, or you will not be in business very long. I would also disagree with Alex. Good post wetnwild.
There is a big differance. Not only in mounting, Tending, and detailing, But in some cases the materials used. In my shop Comertal Mounts get speed septums. $1.50 each. Competition Mounts get septum inserts $6.30 each. The best of everything, Things the average customer would not notice, Posibly even understand if pointed out.
There is a lot of difference in the two when you are going for that BOC, or chasing the blue ribbons. I have been that route but have drawn a line where it stops at.
I use Ear liners, IQ eyes, replacment noses, McKenzie or Mears forms, Epo-Grip 2 part, I also now prescultp the ear butts with Apoxie, set the eyes in apoxie, This deer mount will not take a blue ribbon do to lack of detail, but even in the bigger competitons it will take a middle scoring red in the Professional division, this is the standard 8-12 hour commercial mount.
My birds have taken several mid-scoring red ribbon at Regional and higher shows. Some have repro. heads. Many have clayed heads without hours and hours of sculpting.
Same for my fish, but several of them have taken reds at the WTC and even a blue at the NTA all in the professional division.
I feel its not that you have to put hours and hours into each mount, but develope a system for yourself, a get it down PAT system.
Follow and refine your ideas until, you get it down pat. Your own system, step one, step two, step three.
The next thing maybe what holds many people back from being able to charge a good price.
They get lucky one or two time, follow a certain judge to many shows. You learn exactly what the judge is looking for and you are mounting closer to the judges standard than you are to developing a judged standard.
By judged standard, there are the things that all judges look for, its basic good taxidermy, clean mounts attention to detail, wiehter its ear butts, nose bumps, burr junctions. Over spray, good looking fins not dried ragged look etc.
A quality commercial mounts should be able to be close to a red ribbon mount, not a blue, but red!
are among the things that differ comm v. comp. Or about 3 or 4 feet of viewing distance. "All" comp mounts are done with how the judge will see them in mind. Comm mounts are for a customer, who may or may not even know what a septum is and probably can't spell caruncle or nictating membrane. All the basic features; eyeset, earbutts, lips, etc. must be "right" on both mounts. Just a lot more time and attention to detail is required for competition, as stated above, roughly three to four times.
With the little competition exposure I have had I would say the big difference is time. I pretty juch use the same techniques/products for both I just take a whole lot more time when doing it for a comp piece.
DaveT
Any taxidermist who does "competion quality" on all of his mounts better be getting over $1,900 for a deer head or he is going to go broke. A good comercial mount takes me about 9 hours which includes caping and finishing. A "competition" mount takes about 40 hours and many times I do not get what I want to put into a competition and do another trying to get what I am after. So very rough figures I get $470 for a good comercial deer and if I do the math to make close to the same wage I would need to get about $1900 for a competition mount. You will go broke if you do not develop a good comercial mount and a great competition mount and they must be treated very differently.