Nothing in the world is perfect, there is always something just off center compared to the other side. In the animal world there is always off. On antler game-elk, deer , etc. one side is perfect and the other side of the rack maybe laid out a little to the left or right or the horn is up higher on the main beam or its the tines that are different. On horned game-antelope,goats,etc. are different for those horn shells are removed to clean the meat under the horn and are placed back on with glue and are arranged back to almost perfect but some do grow just like antlers. Now it’s the taxidermist job at Capp’s Taxidermy Studio LLC to make them almost perfect when they are placed on the form for mounting by placing wedges under the skull cap to align it so it looks normal. All animals have something out of place, just look close at your pet,even people are like that-one eye is lower that the other,etc..so nothing is perfect . There is one record book that measures animal horns,skulls and antlers and in their world it must be perfect or you get a deduction on the final score and I think that is just wrong. The main record book that I place my entries in is SCI and they measure everything and that’s the way it should be for nothing in the real world is perfect.

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Decisions,Decisions,Decisions, what to do . When you bring in your critter to a taxidermist like Capp’s Taxidermy Studio LLC  you have to make a decision on what you are going to do-reality you have to make that decision when you harvested the animal but that another blog.Are you going to do a shoulder mount for the wall or a pedestal mount-alone or with a habitat with it or a floor pedestal or a table one. Or are you going to do a rug-open or closed mouth  and what 2 colors of felt,backing are you going to do-most have the wife pick out the colors to match the room it will be going in. Or finally you can do a life mount,open or closed mouth, running, bedded, walking, climbing. Habitat can be rock, water,logs, sand, and on and on. Then on all but the rug,which way are you going to turn it, left, right, straight or something custom. The shoulder mount will take up the less room but a simple life mount will take up less room than a rug. But in my opinion you can do what you have the room for but if you have the room, do a life mount. Its requires a lot more attention to details but if you want something WOW, then this is it but only if you realty use your imagination and do not just have it there staring into space, make a work of art out of it. have it bedded with a kill by it and small game sneaking in on it or have like a mt goat bedded with blue grouse walking by it and the goats head looking down but the eyes watching them, or have a bear running on river rock or in water with it splashing up with a fish in its mouth.  Mt lion or a leopard climbing a branch or rock with a kill its it mouth. Make them great for you will have a lifetime to look at them and If done right like  by Capp’s Taxidermy Studio    LLC you can have WOW….

Warm water fish or cold water fish, it matters when you are mounting one. Warm water fish do not have much oils in the skin and fins and the skin is a lot thicker than a cold water fish. Warm fish are pike, walleye,bass,perch,etc and they are all white colored meat,very good to eat. For color, they have a lot of green and yellows in them and do not change shape or color when spawning like a cold water fish. They are mounted the same as all other fish here at Capp’s Taxidermy Studio LLC with a hand carved body,a custom molded fiberglass head,hand painted glass eyes and all painted with a airbrush with lacquer and a completion gloss top coat. With the cold water species, like trout and salmon these fish are very oily and must have the head , of course,and fins removed and glass ones are placed in their areas on the skin(fin replacement is on large fish only or on all salmon). They have lots more color than warm water fish and all turn different colors and shapes when spawning and that is what most clients want their fish too look like , even if they are not caught in the spawn time. They both take time to dry out right so it does take months to get them back, why, cuz they have to dry, fins will curl if not done right,and then it’s just working them into the rotation. If you want one within a couple of months then I would say to get a repo one of the fish,warm or cold. So I guess that whatever species you are fishing for and catch a good one,take care of it stated in fish mounts below these post,and have it mounted by a professional taxidermist so you and everyone can enjoy it…

When hunting aboard,it’s a complete different world from hunting and shipping your trophies to the taxidermist from north America . First thing is to decide on what you want to hunt . Then if any of those trophies are a CITIES permit animal then you must apply for the permit ,3months before you go. Then go to the taxidermist and they will give you a international hunting packet which here at Capp’s Taxidermy Studio LLC contains papers for the USDA, customs,shipping tags,etc that you help you when hunting and shipping your trophies back to the USA and to the taxidermist. Once you are there and start harvesting game , they will bring your trophy to the skinning shed and that is where you will give them your shipping tags-2 per animal,one for the skin and the other for the skull or horns. Then your trophies will be brought to a taxidermist to be dipped and packed for the shipment to your custom broker, this will take awhile,it’s not like hunting here when you can box your game and take them on the plane,etc with you. Here it will take 3 to 16 months to get your turn to be shipped . South Pacific is the quickest at 3 months and the further you go inland in Africa, the longer it will take to get here. For your CITIES permit animal,elephant,leopard,croc,etc you must have the export co. ship them before the permit expires which is one year or you will have to reapply and start all over again. Once the trophy care is paid for, they are shipped by air freight on commercial airlines to a USDA port and then on to your custom broker in the port that you have picked,clears customs and all is paid for on this end it then is shipped by freight to your USDA taxidermist or to the tannery that your taxidermist uses for USDA . And its only go to a USDA tannery if you harvested swine-hog- or primate- baboon. It can get very complicated so be patience and contact your PH , taxidermit and your broker when questions come up. The final cost usually runs around $1200 to $2400, depending on the weight and that’s for all, customs,USDA,air bill and ground shipping. If you take three plains game or 12 plains game,it usually cost the same in shipping so you want to have fun and spend some time hunting and enjoy that country, you may be back to hunt again or you may never see that country again so have fun.

When shipping in trophies to the taxidermy shop like Capp’s Taxidermy Studio LLC,you must do the following. On game animals You must skin out the trophy and use fine salt and if you want and have a freezer in camp, then freeze them too, if no freezer then you will have to roll up the hide with the salt inside and place the hide out of the weather and get it off the ground ,place it on an angle so the hide can drain. If you are out in the bush for sometime, then you will have to start to dry out the hide and then you can fold the hide so it can fit in a box for shipping. On birds , you can place them in a woman’s pantyhose , that way the nylon holds the feathers down tight to the body with no damage and then they must be frozen. On fish, you can do two things, one is to take a photo and measure length x width and put it back in the water or you can or the real skin mount-only on some types of fish- and place it in a cloth,and freeze it or keep it on ice-2 days top. Or if you are without a freezer , you can bury the fish in salt and it will be good for 3 or so days. If the items are frozen without being salted then you must ship by next day air,FedEx or UPS. If the item is freshly salted then you could go with next day air or 2 day air- its a little cheaper. If the item is dry salted then you can mail it by whatever for it will not go bad but use one with a tracking number. For all frozen or freshly salted item you can use a waxed fish box or a real cooler, place inside with some newspaper and duct tape the hell out of it so no leaking occurs. For all other one can use a regular box. Once the items are mounted and ready to be shipped,it’s measured and a box is custom built for the item or items out of plywood-for UPS- and for larger mounts it’s built out of 7/16 wafer board ,the mount is then screwed into the wood on the crate and then cross bars are placed by the horns so nothing moves,once the client receives the crate,it does take awhile to unpack. All shipment are then shipped out by a major freight lines. Capp’s receives a major discount that is passed on to the client so it’s not as large a bite out of the pocketbook.The best thing to do is to contact the taxidermist before you go for the shipping packet and after you come back so they can be on the watch for the shipment…..

When have a mount done I try to tell the client to spruce it up instead of have a mount just looking into space, have it in action and with something else in with it. One with a shoulder mount you can go with just the mount on the wall like 95 percent do or you can add some habitat with it. Like grass or colored leaves, small driftwood or weathered limbs with moss on them and some different size rocks, some ice or snow or whatever the habitat was where you harvested the trophy. I have done deer eating apples of a limb or hogs with cactus . On life mounts you can do a lot of different things,like having bears fishing in a stream, running through water closed mouth or with a fish or a bone or have a larger predator chasing a smaller predator or having a mt. Goat bedded with blue grouse feeding around it. Bring in your trophy into a professional taxidermist that will work for you and has the experience for these types of mounts like Capp’s Taxidermy Studio LLC and have them tan it and while it’s getting tanned, you can decide on how you want it done by deciding on the space you want to take up, by going to the search engines and looking up the species online and on what other game you want in the scene. You want to use your imagination for you are going to be looking at this mount for a long time and you want it look at every time and go WOW, what a mount !!

When a hunter harvests a animal with a above average size antlers or horns, they should have them measured for one or two of the record books. I, myself , I like SCI book over Boone and Crockett book . One reason is that SCI does not do deductions for one side different from the other side,that is what the real world is. B&C takes off for not being perfect and it’s only for North America game,SCI is a world book. They are pretty close in the way they measure North America game and in the final cost. But I myself I’m prejudice for I’m a master measurer for SCI, which means I passed courses in days time and I can score and do score game that makes the top ten in SCI record book. The book is there for the main reason of showing where the game was taken in world,by whom,guided or not and when so when looking into an area you want to hunt, you can look up if any trophy size game came out of that area. Once you have made the minimum score , marked the way it was taken,bow,gun,etc..,then you pay a low fee and you can also buy a medal medallion — bronze, silver or gold–depending on the score or the game, and once it clears the scoring committee you are in the book. Then you can brag that you have taken a book animal. And not many have. So if you want to get in the books one must have luck,be picky and only take mature animals, and you must have it scored by a measurer like Capp’s Taxidermy Studio LLC. Go hunting and have fun and maybe you might get lucky and take a big one.

This is the banner link for Capp’s Taxidermy Studio LLC that is given free to other web site for exchange for their. The secret to a successful web site is web traffic. The more hits you get, the better racking on the search engines. On most the popular search engines my site – www.african-montana-taxidermy.com is on the first page but for the main search engine my site was on the first page but its now on the second page and that is why you have to do things like trade links,blogs,facebook,post pictures,etc anything that will get traffic moving through the sites. You have to run your sites like you run a business,professionally. If you look at mine you will see its first class all the way but most sites do not have a link page and if they do its text only and I think the banners are much more professionally looking-a picture is worth a thousand words. And when you ask other site to trade some will never reply,some say already have a taxidermist which right there is no way to run a business, who cares if you have one, its free, and the more professionally looking sites you have, the more traffic you will get to the sites, and maybe 1 out of 1000 hits just might want to use your service and thats a big win for your business but some will never get it and stay boring. The trading of banner links is the best way to advertise, most are free but if you want a lot of traffic on some site they will charge you. If you do that, do the research and see how many hits they get a day and if the location and price is right,do it on a trail move and see if it works. On my site ,I can go to the back panel and see where the traffic comes from and see which links work and the ones that don’t. Most of all my links are located on many hunting/fishing sites all around the world and I know for a fact that some of those sites have book hunts/fishing trips thanks to my site and vice versa. So it does work, you just have to work on it and just because you have a site, does not mean you can take it for granted but we all do. So if you see this on another site,click it and come in for a visit….

That phrase best describes myself. I am always going against what the majority thinks. In the hunting/taxidermy world, most think that you can only go or do local game. Take for example a few years ago I traveled down south and harvested a very nice alligator and mounted it swimming with fish swimming around it on a pedestal
,(can be veiwed in the gallery at www.african-montana-taxidermy.com). Then it’s displayed behind my counter and some people that come in will say who would ever go hunt something like that–talk about closed minded people!!!- and I hardy ever tell those people that it was I . But the truth is, it was great for business cuz I had some great clients in and saw the mount and went that way to harvest one and had a great time, so they get a great trophy , memories and I get in new business.I have done that type of business quite afew times where others will go on those types of hunts and bring the trophy back to Capp’s Taxidermy Studio LLC.I enjoy doing that, I like the new adventures,different cultures,people and usually bring home critters that people from my part of the world never seen before. You have to think out of the box and go against the grain. Life is to short to be dull and boring all time. I work Hard for my money ,like a lot of my clients do, so I get to decide on how I would like to spend it and I like to be a adventurist . Who cares what others think, when I decide to go on the next adventure,I never say a word to anyone other than my family and they cannot say a word to anyone. When some clients see it up and being mounted, that when they say who,what and where and my policy at the studio is I never say who the trophy belongs to,its just a security issue. So my advise is to go against status quo and live your life ,it’s to short to please everyone, go have an adventure….

If you like to hunt for big game,for big deer,elk or for the big 3– moose,sheep,goat then you must apply for the limited tags available in your state and if you are really hardcore,then you apply for other western states too. If you draw a tag then you hire a guide or go on your own and go on a great adventure . Do your research,call the biologist in that area,scout if you could and have fun. Most the hunters I know always apply for thier own state and would never apply for other states for many reasons like no time,the money,etc. The clients that do apply for other states other than thier own many go after one or two species like the three different sheep or elk. The fees for most the states are small amounts until you draw and some states are all fees up front and that can get very expense. Most states give out bonus points and that is why we all apply. And then with the points and a lot of luck, you draw that tag and the adventure begans. Then you have to research and find a great taxidermist for that once in a life time trophy by calling,looking online like www.african-Montana-taxidermy.com and following through with the one to decide to use. Remember you cannot complain if you do not apply so apply for everything you can afford to do. Good luck.