Taxidermy [Archive] - Kentucky Hunting Forums

screamin6x6

11-24-2007, 01:46 PM

There's home study courses all the way through collage courses. I did alot of research on all of them and decided to go with the workshop route. I decided to concentrate on whitetail deer first and ,when researching online, 2 names kept popping up as being the best in the world at mounting deer and gameheads, (Joe Meder and Bill Yox). I contacted Joe and scheduled my training with him. I'm sure the experience I got from his course cut out years of trial and error if I did things on my own. I am considering breaking into turkeys next and have decided that Call Morris in Missouri is the guy I want to learn these from. Like I said before, there are many ways to learn taxidermy. I just felt that I couldn't go wrong learning from multible time world champions to start with and cut the learning curve as much as possible. This is expensive but worth it. Taxidermy.Net is a great site to start your search for what the best route is for you.
P.S. Get ready to give up alot of your hunting time if you decide taxidermy is what you want to do.:)

mrdux

11-24-2007, 11:06 PM

Cally Morris doesn't do one on one training. I've talked to him several times at the NTA and WTC but he has enough on his plate without training. I've even urged him to do a video series but he just directs folks like me back to Breakthrough issues 66,67 and 68. He is amazing and as funny as they come.

str8 shot, there are some good schools out there and some not so good. I attended PA Inst of Taxidermy in 2003 when Jason Snowberger and Kent Stryker were instructors there. They both left soon after and my opinion of the school dropped considerably. It was an 8 month course that cost me about $25,000. I would not attend there now. Jason runs a school called The Academy of Wildlife Art near Altoona, PA. Gary Bruch and Tim Jordan also teach there. IMO there is not a better school out there now. I also went to Klamath Falls,OR to study in a 1 week workshop with Stefan Savides. I honestly think you would do best by getting a basic overview of all aspects of taxidermy then attending the one on one workshops like screamin mentioned. Joe Medor is one of the best for gameheads.

Taxidermy is a hard business to make a lot of $$ in. It takes a large time frame to develop a client base and get your work out there. Most new taxidermists price themselves out of the business by not charging enough for their work and worrying what the guy down the road is charging. If you do top quality work and treat your customers well you can be successful but it won't be soon after starting. I'm lucky that my wife has a good job with good insurance so I can concentrate on building my business rather than trying to figure out how to make the bills at the end of the month. I could care less what my competition is charging. I would like to say I don't care what my competition says about me but that isn't so. I care but it doesn't change the way I do business. I charge what I charge and if someone thinks it is too high, they can take their work down the road. There is always someone out there who is advertising deer heads for $250. They don't stay in business long and they usually end up ripping off their customers. I hear the horror stories weekly. I end up being the one they bring their trashy work to and hope I can make it look like they think it should have in the first place. Most of my new clients this year have not even asked my prices when they call. They want to know about my workload and my lifetime guarantee. I got 4 new customers in today, one from Ohio. None even asked about the price. They either pulled out the plastic, cash or check and paid the deposits and are prepared to wait 12 months to get their deer back. All had heard or seen my work from customers. It makes you feel good to know you are doing something that people appreciate and don't mind paying for. I've had to pay my dues and will continue to do so. You can make money in taxidermy but don't try to do it with low prices and tons of work. You'll burn out and burn down and nobody will benefit from it.