RE: Time and Money???
I'm glad your thinking of this now and not after.....
A quality mount statrs in the field....
In fact most things that go wrong with the mount later,are caused by the person who field dressed it not the Taxidermist......
So read up on how to properly field dress an animal for mounting ,and even go to the specialist, and and get him or her to show explain to you how to do it..
Know what paper work needs to be filled out to make this legal......
Its important to know what measurements need to be made,and and know how to skin the hide off the animal and salt it........
It is always nice to think that your near a freezer or Taxidermist, but more often than not,your days away from from any of those and its often warm or worse, closer to hot.......
If you can, practice on something...
As far as choosing a Taxidermist....
Its like choosing a doctor.
Look at mounts that others have, ask lots of questions......
Its an art, you get what you pay for........
Generally the waiting list is over a year,the longest I've waited was just over 2.
But boy was it worth it.....
And probably somewheres between $400.00 - $600...
Expect to put a down deposit of at least $200.00 as soon as you take it in.
In fact I don't know of any Taxidermist that doesn't request this.......