Deer Shoulder Mount Time?

From the point of skinning,fleshing, tanning , prepping, prepping form and setting eye and rack to mounting then 2nd 3rd and 4th day adjusts then finishing to send out the door . I have 12 hands on hours on a head . That doesn’t include waiting on client when dropped off and telling him I don’t want to hear is hunting story then ordering supplies then texting clients there Mount is done and finally waiting on clients again for pk up and telling them I don’t want to hear there hunting story , if you do add bout 5 hours to that .

 

12 hours hands on working time is about my average: logging in, measuring, fleshing, tanning, final prep, mounting, tweaking and grooming while drying, and finish work. Some take a little longer, a few flow a little bit quicker.

 

The hell with time and you shouldn’t care one bit on it.
Your goal should be doing the best quality work you can produce.
You’ll get so many different hours and that might throw you to think I need to be here and start to rush cause your behind.
Here think of this : my average paint job on a fish is 8 hrs . Do you think I’m slow? Or do you think I’m wasting time? Hmm neither cause I’m getting paid for quality
Once you learn this , time won’t matter
So don’t worry if your hours behind whT is said here , worry about your quality of work. Speed comes with practice. Enjoy

 

I have 10 hours in a shoulder mount. I use a pressure washer to flesh, and dry preservative. This includes 30 minutes of customer time on each end. Most of the deer I mount get scored for a Big Buck contest sponsored by a local radio station, so I get to hear all the hunting stories while I'm measuring.

 

This has come up before and are in the archives. Every thread on this that has come up in the past, echoed what has been said here. 8 to 15 hrs start to finish.

 

Obviously, history isn't important anymore, LOL!!!

 

16 to 18 hours

 

Time depends on cape. If its jacked up could add several hours.

 

VERY TRUE!!

 

Maybe its just me and my lack of computer skills, but I find the current archive system very difficult to use efficiently. The old forum format was much more user friendly, of course that topic too has been hashed out extensively.

 

I rarely bother with the archives because of that. I pretty much quit referring people to them because of the difficulty of use.

 

If your trying to figure out what you should charge for a deer head , you and only you can figure that out . You have a lot of factors that go into it . Cost of shop , materials, insurance, SS , electric, labor , profit , advertising. And as some will tell you , your experience and what you can get for your area . I’m $825 , I don’t get every deer from every call but I’ll do less work for the same profit most get for 2 heads so I do half the work and I’m good with that .

 

The way most taxidermists price deer is to find the rate of their closest competition charges and charge less.

 

I am with you Glen! I charge 800.00 for a shoulder mount Whitetail. After 45 years, much becomes habit, which is a time saver for me. However, I don't allow time to control the process

 

Take an honest look at your work. If you are low to medium grade then charge average price based on other taxidermists in your area. If you are top shelf then charge for it. If you are the best in your area, or one of the best, then you should have the highest prices. Charge a fair price for YOUR quality of work.

 

I don't tan my own, I send them out. My price of $725 includes 10 hrs of labor, material, my overhead (my overhead is calculated at $8.60 per hr X 10hrs = $86) and a 15% profit margin. I own my property and vehicles so I have no car payments or mortgage but I still pay utilities, insurances, etc,

 

Not bad as long as it works for you , what most don’t consider is the building/rent . It doesn’t matter if you own the building/ property where your shop is . You still need to think of it as your renting shop space , just as if you were renting that building out to someone else , you wouldn’t let them work or run a business on your property for free would you, or if you had to rent a building to work in , you would figure that cost in then wouldn’t you . By doing such you make more money by paying yourself rent and your taxes will have another deductible.

 

I'm only reinforcing your comments 13 Pt, my point was to re show Nitrosteel what he should consider when pricing out his shoulder mount.
I totally agree with you and we all have different overhead costs. I own $16M in real estate so I really don't need the money for my fulltime hobby but I won't do taxidermy for nothing. MY overhead is $1500 month so MY overhead is $8.60 an hour. Like Joey says, most have never done the homework to figure out pricing and charge what everybody else charges.....