hunting out of state. taxidermy?

[bobby7321]

hello. headed to NM 2A next week.
im thinking of i bag a wall hanger, what would be my best route as far as taxidermist?

should i take it to one there locally where i hunted, or bring it back to CA?
I know the CWD precautions and rules, so one benefit would be not having to worry about that.


I also don't have a relationship with any local taxidermists, so not really partial either way.

any advice?

im hunting NM 2a (aztec, farmington area)
and i live in Visalia (tulare county, fresno area)
so if anyone has taxidermist suggestions, those are welcome too.

thanks.

 

[D13er]

I worry about leaving things behind with someone I don't know and I always worry about shipping something like a mounted head. I have lots of friends that leave them behind and get them shipped and never have problems. I would leave something I could live with losing. I wouldn't let a booner out of my site, not in todays times of "crazy" trophy collectors. You could have a local taxidermist completely cape and prep the head for you to bring home for a fee if you had the time. Freeze the cape, don't salt it and bring it home.

I can't imagine that Fresno, Visalia, or bakersfield doesn't have a taxedermist that would please you. Ask at your local gun shops.

JB

 

[kilowatt]

LAST EDITED ON Oct-28-06 AT 02:57PM (MST)[p]bobby,

JB gave you some good advice. If you want you could also contact a MM member named "nmtaxi" and talk with Dan, he is in Albuquerque.

Brian

 

[maddog58]

check with john cotta at cotta's taxidermy in exeter. he does great work and can tell you how to take care of your trophy to bring home. tell him his big buck killing buddy (we just got back from nevada) sent you. he did a european mount on my buck and it looks great.nice to hear from another visalia boy
howard

 

[csutton7]

besides the taxidermy fee if you leave it you will need to ship it back or go get it, which adds to the cost, possibly a couple of hundred bucks.....it is best to bring it back if you can IMO.....chris

 

[JohnnyLegend]

B7321,

From our experience, we always bring our trophies back home and use our local/regular taxidermist. Nothing wrong with using a local taxidermist where you are hunting and there are many good ones out there, but we prefer to bring ours back with us and we always fly. This year, both my brother and I went 2 for 2 on mature 6 pt bulls and I caped them out and we brought both the meat and capes back in coolers with dry ice , since we killed on the last 2 days of the hunt, did not have to worry much about the capes going bad. I like my local taxidermist persoanlly and prefer doing busines with him, as he is quite good and then the economics come in to play. It can cost anywhere from $500 to $1,000 to ship a animal after crating cost and then the freight cost. Of course, elk are more and the distance factors to the freight. The shipping costs are usually down played, but beware they can be surprisingly high. A buddy of mine killed a nice whitey back east here a few years ago and used a local taxi and then had it shipped to his home near Portland, OR and I believe it was about $700. NM to CA, will be alot less, but the shipping cost can be substantial. One of my buddies in Montana is a taxidermist and he wanted to do one of my elk and quoted me around $500 for crating/shipping and that was in 02'.

Best of luck, hope this perspective helps and have a great hunt.

JL

 

[bobby7321]

yeah thanks for all the info guys. im leaning towards bringing it home. i do plan on bagging a few more trophies over the years so i guess its the perfect time to start a relationship with a local taxidermist.
thanks!

 

[bobby7321]

thanks howard. i'll check him out maybe on tuesday. does he have a showroom in exeter?

 

[canyoncrosser]

Life Like in Madera does a good job and has a decent turnaround time.

 

[SAM]

B7321,

When checking out taxidermist,Look at the quality first,then price & turnaround, in that order.you will be looking at your mounts for years.

RS

 

[maddog58]

sent you a pm