Alsatian, to answer some of your questions first of all, $175 for a crate is a heck of a markup. Cost should have been discussed up front. I'm sure if he did that to many customers, he'd have a lot of angry customers complaining about that.

Here is probably a better way to save some money while on far-away hunting trips. 1st learn how to correct take the cape of the skull(green-skin it). It sounds easy, but make sure you know what you're doing, because there are plenty of places around the eyes, tear ducts, lips, nose, etc, where it's easy to mess up. Plus there a few places where extra skin is needed for the mounting process for tucking. If you see a person do it once, it's not too bad. Just make sure you read up on it.

Once you have the skin of the deer, freeze it and send it next day air back to your wife or taxidermist, near your hometown. I would not recommend turning the ears, lips, nose, or doing any additional detailed fleshing, because it is a complicated task that does require experience and detailed knowledge on what to do. Plus, as a taxidermist myself, most taxidermist would rather do the prepping for the cape themselves to tailor it the way they want.

Shipping the cape back to your hometown will take an extra hour out of your hunting trip, but will save you a lot of money in the long run, especially in your case, where the crate costs $175 and shipping $50. Otherwise you've got one expensive goat. Good luck