I must admit, from the get go, that I do not know a lot about taxidermy....in fact, very little, other than I know what looks good and what doesn't.
I have a friend (I know, that sounds generic) who has run into a few problems with a beautiful strawberry colored bear that he got during a hunting trip to Idaho.
At first he took the hide to the taxidermist in order to have a rug made; the taxidermist encouraged him to, and then convinced him to go for a full body mount instead.
The taxidermist sent the hide to a tannery in California. When the hide came back the taxidermist there were several holes in the hide.
He shot the bear one time with a 7mm, but the hide now has 20-30 holes in it, as well as several bald spots, each about 5-6" in diameter. In the back of the hide you can see where there are some fleshing marks that are so deep the hair follicles had been cut.
Upon review by other taxidermists in the area they stated that they believed the problem was caused by the fleshing of the taxidermist and not the field dressing of the outfitter in Idaho or the tanning process itself.
Any insight? Educate me if you could please :)
PG
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The fleshing can be part of the problem, but those "bald spots" are slippage and slippage is caused by spoilage. Bears can be especially tricky, and when you get fall bears in, they can be nightmares. Bears killed in hot weather are just prone to have problems with hair slippage.
We talked earlier about guns for bears and IMHO, the 7mm is too much gun for a black bear. It's fast and hot and unless it breaks bones, prone to allowing mortally wounded bears to run. In this case, it sounds as if the round DID hit a bone if there was no exit, but I'd almost bet there was a bruise on the other side of the skin from the energy lost. If it was, that area is almost a given for slippage. Busted guts or offal from field dressing also accelerate slippage when it's allowed to contact the exterior skin and hair areas.
The extra holes are either from the fleshing or inexperience in the shaving. This is not that unusual, though certainly aggravating.