Deer Mount prices

Seems high to me. I know I don’t pay anywhere near that for very nice mounts!

The guy doing mine is $550. He's done the last 2 for my son and my last one. I've been very satisfied.

I know the material cost to do a deer is over $150 and closer to $200 buying the better stuff. Of course buying clay, paint and other stuff in bulk helps a lot. Paper cardboard vs plastic, Glass vs plastic etc..

$775 in the same city as me. Paid $450 in 2011 on Tammy's deer and $550 in 2012 for mine.

He won a bunch of awards on his mounts from 2011 to 2017 and the prices reflect every win.

Source
www.bowhunting.com/article/taxidermy-fees-by-state/

I could do a shoulder mount for probably $150 in materials.

Talked to a couple of Taxis in my area, $750-$850 for a shoulder mount this year. I paid $650 for my last buck from the 2021 season. I get that they have to make money but wow, seems a bit steep. At this rate I will be doing euros only.

I have dune some taxidermy for my self. I was not extremely fast or slow but from the time I start to finish I had about 20 hrs in a deer. That was over a period of time;not all at once.
You bring it in then I have to finish capping out head then split ears nose and lips. Right there I had 3 hrs. Then I have to flesh the hide removing all meat from between lips ears around nose and rest of hide(another hour) then salt hide. If you don't tan the hide you pack,ship,pay shipping,pay tanning,pay return shipping (easy 100 bucks) if you tan your self add 2 hrs in time + cost of tanning supplies. I used a liquid tan that is $120 a gal now. 5 deer max per gal. You can cut your cost by useing a dry chemical tan but it is not as good and will deteriorate a lot faster than a wet tan product. Now you order your form,eyes,ear liners.manican prep(sticky stuff that sticks to the slick form to help glue hold hide inplace) and pay shipping on that which has gone thru the roof.
You should have hide glue,bondo,clay,pins,superglue,epoxy,special thread,special 3 sided extremely sharp needle and some other odds and ends.
Now you prep the form to put hide on it by snading and cutting nose holes,lip slots putt eyes in with clay and form eyebrows and make it look right. The eyes alone can take 45 min easily. Once all prep is done it took me min 3 1/2 hrs up to 6 hrs if the deer fought me in every thing(makeing the nose look right,lips look right,eyes even and Semitrical ears correct, horns correct all parts of hide in correct posision and hair laying proper. Now sewing the hide and makeing it as invisable as possible. This is a short list.
After you have it mounted you have to check it every day for 3,4,5 days to make sure as the hide drys it does not pull or move in a manner that screwes up the eyed,nose,ears,lips or any thing else.
Now it is dry you do finish work to make it look great. 1 hr there.
So it is mounted you have overhead (lights,heat,water(believe it or not I used a bunch of water. I washed and wrenched each hide a minimum of 4 times) and you pay full fica tax and fed tax and county tax and state tax and tax tax.
Granted I was not fast at mounting critters but I did my best on every one to make them look alive.
It will take me a bit but I will post some I have dune






































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The bear had 10 foot of stiching. The fawn had 8 feet of stiching and very delicate because of short hair requires lite thread which breaks easily.
The fawn and bear were 12 hr days to mount with every thing prepared as much ahead as possible.
The fox,coon and coyote were solid 8 hrs to mount

Onebentarrow