Not happy with my mount
 

I'm no expert, but I know whats right from wrong, especially when it concerns me. Deer do not have pink nostrils, and their eyes don't look like this.

To me, it seems as if the form was to big for the hide, and as the taxidermist stretched it on the form, it pulled the nostrils almost inside out, and the same for the eyes. The nostrils should be closed more and the eyes shouldn't have so much gray around them.

And on top of this, the ears seemed to have been sliced when removing the hide from the actual deer, and you can actually see the form for the ears where the ear was sliced.

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

How much did that mount run you?

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

$350 What do you guys see wrong with it? I'm going to call the guy and get him to fix it.

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

the mount is dry now there isnt much he can do with it. the clays is dry around the eyes now. did you check out any of the guys work before you took it to him?

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

All i can say is i would demand my $350.00 back + the cost of a cape or he could order one and i would go to another taxidermy.and if that didn't work for him i would get pics of acceptable deer and take him to cival court.

this deer that i have posted was mounted in the 70's and your's does not look much better i would be upset too.

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

Definitly not good but I've seen alot worse. Can't domuch about it except have him paint the nose more. A shot of buckskin and then dark brown leaving a touch of pink in the back of the nostril. Thats about all you can do ecept take it in the butt and do some better research and looking next time you find a new taxi. WCL

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

Not much you can do other than have him subdue the nose. I've seen worse but obviously the taxidermist hasn't spent much time in the field or even looked at a lot of whitetail deer pictures.

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

Paint will fix the nose and the pic is too small to really see what you are talking about with the eyes and ears. Why did you accept the mount in the first place? I dought you will get any money back but remind the guy who did this work that word of mouth advertizing is the best advertizing you can buy and you just bought some for him.

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

First off, the pic is a bit hard to go by. If you can post a picture of the whole mount and closeup of the face region we could help you better judge the mount quality. As others have said the mount from that pic doesnt seem to be the worst Ive seen by no means but could use some improvement in areas. The eye shape does seem a bit off and the ear butts need more detail & shape. As far as the inner nose goes...deer do have pink inside them but maybe not quite as high of a tone as it has.

As far as getting your refund most likely not, this is a prime example of why it is very important to look around before you settle on a taxidermist. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. However, I will say some $350 taxis can do just as good if not better work then one charging $450+ and vise versa. You just have to get out and look and know what a good quality mount is from a bad. Check out real pictures of deer and see how they reference compared to your mount. Pay close attention to eyes, ears, and nose as that is what brings out a quality mount. Find one that TANS the hides not DP (dry preservative) Also find out how many years they have been in the industry and if they are part of their states taxidermy association. More then likely if they compete for ribbons it tells yah someone that stays up to date on their latest tricks & techniques thus resulting in higher quality work.

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

The ones I've seen he has done look fine.

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

Chances are you are stuck. If you failed to say anything the day you picked it up and paid for it I think there is little you can do about it now. I have 25+ deer mounted and if there is anything I don't like about a mount I point it out right then and now. Even after going thru 7 or so Taxidermist and using the same one now for 17 years I look it over 100% before I pay for it. I would never take anything home I wasn't happy with or thought didn't look right. If you see a problem and point it out and then it isn't fixed you might have some recourse.

Goatslayer........

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

its to late now,the time complain is before you pay the taxidermist. my guy gets 395.00 for a shoulder mount deer with half up front .the other half paid when its done. when i go to pick up a mount i check it out real good before the final payment. call him ,point out what you think is wrong and see what he does.

cheap mounts are usually just that,cheap mounts. i have a friend that killed a 9pt 2 years ago. i told to take it to my taxidermist,at the time was charging 325.00. he said he was taking to a guy that would do it for 250.00 and he did. he waited 15months and got a mount that if i didn't know better i'd guess it was 20yrs old. it was the worst job i've ever seen. the taxidermist should paid him for his trouble it was so bad. atleast this past yr the guy that mounted it got put out of business by the game wardens for selling illegal mounts.

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

Man, you guys have some cheap taxidermists. The taxis in my area are getting well into the $500s and up and over $600 for some of them.

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

I am a part time taxidermist and I would need to see several pics to be 100% sure of what I am about to say. It looks like the nostriles are to big, ear butts are to small atthe bottom and the inside ofears are to white. The eye looks a little uneven or out of round at the bottom but sometimes you do that pose on purpose if its a flehmen or a snort\weez pose. Honestly though I have seen farworse for 350.00 He can fix the nose color and darken the ears but other than thatremounting with another cape it all you can do.

Good luck

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

You can post close-ups if you wish, but they aren't needed to see that the mount looks terrible. However, you onlypaid 350.00 for it so you kinda got what you paid for. Yes, the ears look terrible, as well as the eyes, nose, etc. I would also bet there are things wrong with the mount that can't be seen, at least not yet.It is possible that some of the things that are wrong with it could be repaired, but I'm convinced the taxidermist that mounted it is NOT capable of making those repairs. Even if some of the things were fixed, it would still be low quality. If it were me I would bite the bullet and have it remounted with a different cape. It's an expensive lesson, but I'll bet next time you do way more research when choosing a shop. Good luck.

P.S. I get 475.00, and feel like I'm on the low end of the price spectrum of quality shops. Several shops I know of charge 500-600 for standard shoulder mounts.

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

Exactly. I paid $550 for the last one I had done back in I want to say late 80's, early 90's. The guy had all kinds of ribbons though. He went thru a divoice and his wife torched his shop. He has since rebuilt but I don't need any more monts unless it's a 180 or so;)

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

Reference photos of live deer will show you that deer do have pink nostrils when they are alive. Maybe not 100% of them, but a lot of them.

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

You are right English, deer do have a fleshy pink color inside their nose. Some may not know this, because after death blood no longer flows and the skin will look almost white. The reason USA noticed something wrong w/ the nostrils wasn't the color as much as it was the shape and size. That part is so far off that the pink in the nose sticks out like a sore thumb.

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

Id demand my money back for that type of p*ss poor work. Like you said deer do not have pink nostrels and those nostrels are definitely pink.

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

I definitely think you are correct in being unhappy with your mount. Hope it can be fixed to your liking.

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

Yes it is a poor mount.... I've seen worse. There is nothing you can do now to change the way that cape was done. Maybe a little air brushing here and there..... that's about it. I second everything Timberline Taxidermy has said. He is right on the money.

I've got 9 bucks, a ram, and a antelope mounted (a lifetime of hunting) and I've used two taxidermists. After the first guy died I really looked hard at lots of taxidermists before I found the second guy. Both had prices on the high side at the time each head was done. I could not be more pleased with their work. My first head was done in 1976 and you would not be able to pick it out from the others. Be picky, ask to see their work ahead of time and make sure the cape is going to be tanned. Moose

RE: Not happy with my mount
 

did u go talk to him?