Taxidermists and deer manikin choices

Discussions about learning taxidermy & picking taxidermist.
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Mountain Man
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Taxidermists and deer manikin choices

Unread postby Mountain Man » Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:28 am

1. Does your taxidermist try to steer or push you toward a certain line of forms, such as McKenzie, Meder, Coombs, Matuska, Revolution, etc., or certain poses, and if so which ones?
2. Or, if you tell him what you want (pose such as upright, semi-sneak, etc.), will they do want you want or do they still try to steer you to what their preferences are for poses and line of manikins?
3. Do you tell the taxidermist how you want the ears positioned (forward, back, one forward and one back, or somewhere in between, or agressive depending on pose) or do you tell him do whatever you think looks best?


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Re: Taxidermists and deer manikin choices

Unread postby Spysar » Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:12 am

My taxy will do any form I want. He never steers me into anything I don't want. In fact it's quite the opposite, I'm always asking him what is possible, and if he can do this or that. With the ears, all I request is that he does something interesting, and never give me a mount with "mickey mouse" ears.I usually like when one is one way and the other is listening behind him. Anything but the alert look with both ears pointed forward.
A buck will see you three times, and hear you twice, but he's only gonna smell you once.
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Re: Taxidermists and deer manikin choices

Unread postby dan » Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:21 am

The best mounts I have gotten have been when I let the taxi-artist do his thing. A lot of the time I will say just make it look cool.
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Re: Taxidermists and deer manikin choices

Unread postby Mountain Man » Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:40 am

Spysar wrote:My taxy will do any form I want. He never steers me into anything I don't want. In fact it's quite the opposite, I'm always asking him what is possible, and if he can do this or that. With the ears, all I request is that he does something interesting, and never give me a mount with "mickey mouse" ears.I usually like when one is one way and the other is listening behind him. Anything but the alert look with both ears pointed forward.


Spysar - Good for you to take control.

One of the reasons I asked these questions is I know taxis that really push a certain line of forms and then certain poses within that line of forms. With me, I would do whatever they asked me to do. I do have preferences as far as a specific line of forms but whatever a customer decided I then chose that pose from the line of forms that IMO was the best option for them. For the record my favorite forms for WI deer are the Matuska Competitors Choice b/c they were sculpted based on measurements from wild deer killed in WI (A lot of other forms are sculpted from captive deer - like Meder, and I assume Jody Green since he also has captive deer). The best feature of the Matuska forms IMO is the full muzzles - if you look at a McKenzie form, and this is not my opinion this is fact, the majority of McKenzie forms have noses and muzzles that are too small for midwestern deer. If I use a McKenzie, the nose and muzzle get widened on every one before mounting.

For ears I also like to do each ear in a different position - that is unless a customer told me to do them both forward or both back. A deer's ears are almost constantly moving and therefore are commonly at different positions as opposed to both back or both forward. One other reason to do them in different positions, and IMO especially for competitions where symmetry really matters, is that with different ear positions a taxi doesn't have to worry about symmetry.
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Re: Taxidermists and deer manikin choices

Unread postby Mountain Man » Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:47 am

dan wrote:The best mounts I have gotten have been when I let the taxi-artist do his thing. A lot of the time I will say just make it look cool.


dan - based on that statement IMO you would be the perfect customer for a talented taxi to make your trophy look the best it can.


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