My input is this,
I brought a cape and head to one of the better taxidermists in my area about 3 weeks ago. We spent a good bit of time talking and me learning about his business. It was a slow morning and he is a very sociable and likeable fellow. During the hour and a half or so I spent there, at least six more people came in and dropped off capes, a bobcat and other "stuff". The "check in" process was being handled by his flesher while we drank a cup of coffee and chatted.

His process goes something like this,
He fleshes and cuts the horns within two days on every cape he gets. The hides are packaged and when he gets a certain number, go to a tanner for processing. The rack goes into the drying room to wait for the cape to return.
He works, from what I could see 10 or so at a time, each at a little different stage of completeion, doing a little on each one a day. As one is completed, he starts another.
He took me into the rack drying room. Oh my goodness. Looked like Santa's worst nightmare. A small narrow room, maybe 4 feet wide and 25 or 30 feet long, sawdust all over the floor and 100 watt lightbulbs along the wall to provide constant low, dry heat. Never seen so many horns in one place. All neatly hanging on rails along the wallwith a big tag with hunters name, type/style mount and other infoattached to each set. Very orgainized, clean and efficient. Was at a minimum 300 to 400 sets of horns in there, could have been more it was impossible to count.

This particular guy does 400 to 600 deer mounts a year, that does not include turkeys, fish or anything else. He is widely sought and well known for a quality product. His prices are very reasonable (better than most).

I am sure there are people out there that are doing more mounts than him, but this is his policy. It is up front and honest.
If you get a cape to him by the end of deer season plus a week or so, he will have it back to you by the start of bow season in October, or November at the latest. That is 7 or 8 months. To me, this is more than reasonable, especially considering the quality of his work, price, and the number of mounts he does. He does hire people to flesh, splitand do some of the meat labor, but he does all them mounting, gluing, painting and artwork that makes a quality mount.

So, after seeing his operation, quality and turnaround time, I think that any taxi that is saying 12 to 24 months is plain full of poop.
R
Hank