Taxidermist hoard

[Bryan Wright 0]

It is crazy. I called a taxidermist about a month ago and he said he would give me some scraps that he had left over. Check out what he ended up just giving me.

 

 

 

There is a mix of different kinds of deer from white tail to mule deer. There is some buffalo in there some fox some elk and some other animal I have never even heard of. I just love this hobby. I also posted on CL that I wanted to get some pheasant skins and one guy gave me two whole pheasant skins he got most of the scrapings off all I am doing is letting them sit with the borax on the to dry them out some more.

 

 

[letumgo 0]

OMG, that is an awesome haul! Looks like a lot of great material too. Nice score buddy.

[Bryan Wright 0]

Thanks I forgot to mention there is even some wild boar in there. The patch of buffalo is nice. He decided to keep two large bufallo pelst that he had in his scraps and a decent fox pelt. I did get some really good smaller fox pieces and a tail. As I trim these to more managable sizes and wash them I will post some close up pics of what everything is. There is so much there it was mind blowing and he was just telling me if I didn't take it he would throw it away.

 

I told him I was going to make him some presentation fly's and mount them in a shadow box or something like that. Any ideas on what I should do for him (he doesn't fish)?

 

And of course I am going to pimp him out. So if you need a taxidermist in the Omaha area let me know I will set you up with this guy.

[rockworm 0]

"Ask and ye shall receive." Wow! There's enough stuff there for a couple of generations of Wrights.

[Mickalo 0]

Bryan,

 

yea I know what you mean. I stumbled across a taxidermist about 10 miles from me. I contacted him last year and since then I gotten tons of stuff, mainly wild birds, pheasant, quail, grouse .... etc, some deer fur.

 

Bird hunting around here is like a religion. A few months ago got a bunch of beautiful gray & red squirrel tails & scraps, great dubbing material.

 

The guy is retired now but still does some side line work so my source may dry up soon .....

 

Mike

 

 

[Bryan Wright 0]

Yeah I need to find a good taxidermist that does birds. This guy seems to only do the big game. you never know though he might do birds and just didn't have any feathers to give me. I will have to ask him.

[Guest]

Great score!!!!!!!!! You can always find someone who wants to trade some feathers for some good fur pieces.

 

Fatman

[FishAholic85 0]

Wicked deal!

And nice car too!

[Bryan Wright 0]

Wicked deal!

And nice car too!

That car is my baby.

 

2003 Lincoln LS Sport V8 280 HP best steering I have ever felt.

 

I love that car has every bell and whistle you can get on a car (in 2003). At the moment it is sitting my garage waiting till have some extra money to fix it. The #2 coil is not working so it is missfiring horribly, and I need to do a cooling system flush when it reaches tempature it dumps the fluid. Almost like it is not going through the system. I have put a new water pump, thermostat adn housing on it. I just got it back from being diagnosed and it passed the block test. So I am thinking a good flush might get things back to normal for me. We'll see.

[perchjerker 0]

Bryan:

 

Unless you have dried, caked blood on any of the pelts, I would not wash them. Being that they came from a taxidermist, they should be vermin free and reasonably clean.

 

If you wash untanned hides, the skin will get soft, and they then should be properly stretched and dried (no need to add salt or borax). This is just a lot of extra work for no real gain, unless the skin has been folded and dried in the folded position. I will not bore everyone here with my horror story of dealing with a near-full skin of a yearling elk that had been salted, folded over on itself three or four times, and well dried. Suffice it to say, that getting the skin flattened out so it could be cut up was no fun!!!

 

Taxidermists can be real goldmines, as you found out.

 

perchjerker

[Bryan Wright 0]

PJ,

 

well, the hides are all tanned (one or two are just salted) but they are pretty dirty. They really need a good wash. I will test this out on a small clipping of each type before I wash the whole thing to see how it goes. Tehre are some that were burried down far enought that they are fairly clean. But who knows how long this stuff was sitting in this box literally collecting dust.

 

Thanks for the fair warning now I will take my time and test before washing the whole lot.

[perchjerker 0]

Bryan:

 

You should, perhaps, first ask the taxidermist how to properly clean them.

 

If they are just 'dusty' dirty, I would vacuum them, as opposed to soapy water. Since the typical American home no longer has a clothesline in the backyard, that eliminates hanging them over the clothesline and dusting the 'oldfashioned way; with a broom'! Another possibility, if you have access to a high pressure air hose, is to blow the dust off.

 

Don't ask me how I know; but, you really don't want to be wrestling with wet animal hides. You don't just throw them in the drier to dry them.! You need to have some means of hanging them, 'head' end up, to drip/sun dry. Your tanned hides may loose the suppleness in the process, and getting them supple again is time consuming. And in the case of elk and moose hides, it may take you and twenty Nubian slaves to pick the thing up when totally wet!

 

 

Good Luck!

 

perchjerker

[Bryan Wright 0]

PJ,

 

Perfect Idea I have a whole house vacumm that we only use in the garage and it has a lot of power and would clean those up very well. You always have such great ideas. :thumbup:

[getholdofjoru 0]

Good idea, I've never thought of giving them a call.

 

Will be especially nice if you get some of that deer belly hair!

[Bryan Wright 0]

Yeah he didn't have a lot of belly hair but there is some in there. Most of the dear he had was from the shoulder completely around to the neck in one peice. Think of the scrap you would have when doing a neck mount.