I've seen on forums where guys will get a deer back in a month or so. I've always had them average 6-8 months and seen a year or more.

What's the average time. What kind of time goes into each step? Tanning? Actual mounting time? Drying? Painting?

Thanks.

Average time depends on a shop. Part time, dp, in shop tanned, commercial tanned, ect...."Typically" the more quality a shops work the longer it will take. Most keep a log so that they don't exceed a year and are done and ready to take in more by the next years season. Seems the typical turn around for a quality shop is 8-12 months give or take. The ones who take longer need to charge more so they don't get so back logged IMO.

Time frame for mounting a deer.... (Don't know about DP as I will never use it)

Tanned in house...
- Cape, turn face, flesh, and salt = 1 day
- Pickle = 3-5 days (i do 5)
- Shave cape and thin face and place in pickle again for atleast 12-24 hours= 1 day
- Neutralize cape and tan... ready to mount or freeze
- If mounted= 1day for this step and last step
- Dry and adjust things as they dry = 7-10 days. (get about first 3 days for adjusting it)
- Fill and paint = 1 day

All in all it takes me about 2 1/2 weeks for the whole process of one head and about 14 hours of labor time into it. Some guys are faster in labor than that. I wait till I tan my capes before ordering forms and usually order a few at a time........ For those who use Commercial tanned capes you can skip steps 2, 3 and 4 and replace it with 2-4 months waiting time for return and some other prepingsteps once the cape is returned....... Keep in mind there is many heads being worked on at one time and that is just the time frame in which one heads needs over time to be completed. WCL

Thanks for the reply. I know my guy sends his hides out to a tannery in California to be tanned. Takes longer and is more $$$ but they look good and last.