Elkcrazy8

If mounts are being done in very fast order, I would be asking more serious questions about the process. I happen to know of a person who takes in mounts and claims that he knows everything about tanning hides and such. Trying to speed things up and making the quick buck (no pun intended here), he does his own tanning and does not send it off to the tannery. I got one of those quick jobs, and my one and probably only fair chase cougars is in a continual state of shrinking with the eyes coming out.

This same person did a couple of deer heads, in short order again, and the lips began to seperate and the hair started slashing. If the taxidermist sends it to the tannery, the wait time will usually be a little while. If he does it at home or in shop, it can and will usually be faster. I would want to make sure that he knows what he is doing before dropping off a trophy of a lifetime.

I by all means am not implying that when a mount is done fast, it is done wrong, I am just saying to dig in a little deeper and make sure that the guy knows what he is doing before taking the fast route,
There is guy in town who mounted a deer for me, it took over a year, the guy was a paramedic and worked a full time job. He only does a few heads a year a it is more of a hobby. The work was awesome and well worth the wait. He took the time and pride in his work and was not rushed by mass production.

I also have spent my fair share of time caping, skining and fleshing for a couple different taxidermists, and do know some of the nightmares that they encounter along the way, hotspots, knife slices, improper cuts needing repaired, and last but definatly not least the ever so popular steaks on the hide scenario. These allhave to be done to get back to ground zero just to work on it.

I don't buy the bit about biting off more than you can chew. If you were a person trying to feed your kids, would you turn work away, or be honest like Bill and tell the customer that it will be a while. If you don't like the wait, then go somewhere else.

I live in Idaho now, but grew up in the town next to Bill Yox, and beleive me, his reputation preceeds him, I heard about him years ago, and never a bad thing was said. I took a pheasant to one of the mass producers not far from Bill, I am sure that he knows who it is, and a year later, my two month wait time pheasant ended up in the trash after the feathers fell out one by one.

Do what you want with your trophy, but without proper research in the process that the quick ones have, you are taking a risk..........