taxidermy newb

[lightflight]

I didnt see a taxidermy section...so excuse me if this is missplaced.


It is my first year getting a bear tag. I have never had any previous taxidermy work done.

I would like to preserve my first bear hide upon success.

I live in socal and im looking around for taxidermist but see that most of them send out the hide to tanneries and just act as the middle man.

So I have been looking at maybe just cutting out the middle man and sending it direct to them.

My main concerns are fleshing. I don't know what i'm doing so for my first bear i would rather someone with experience do this.

What would be your recommendations be to a complete Newb like me. I just want to preserve the complete bear hide. dont want a rug just soft hide that I could whip out and show the kids. I would like to just send it somewhere with confidence

 

[mtwarych]

My suggestion is to go ahead and have a professional taxidermist to flesh and send the hide to the tanners.

The reason I suggest this is the taxidermist knows the proper way to flesh and preserve the hide to ensure the hide doesn't go rancid or spoil to the point of hair slippage. The taxidermist will also flesh the paws out and wire the claws so they are not lost during the shipping/processing part.

Also, like I did with my first Cali bear, (taken near the Paradise/Forest ranch area East of Chico CA) I had the taxidermist boil and bleach the skull. I believe the money paid for the rug and skull work is well worth the trophy I got in return.

I am sure that if you do research into the process of prepping the hide for tanning you will be able to do it yourself.

One thing I just thought of but may be no worry is, can a person ship animal parts without certain permits/licenses? I don't know for sure. You may want to find out before you do anything else.

Just a hint. When you do take your bear, make sure you find a stick and force the mouth open as far as possible so when you get your tag validated, the biologist can get to the pre-molars as easy as possible.

Good luck with your bear. Bear hunting is a blast. I am not sure if people in Cali can still run bears with dogs but if You can, it is an absolute blast working with well trained dogs.

ETA: Make sure you speak with a taxidermist to find out how to skin the bear to make sure You make your cuts in the right place or You may ruin Your hide, I can explain this to you but it is much easier and safer to see how it is done Yourself.

 

[wwbrown]

I worked in the fur business as a fur buyer and I have fleshed thousands of animals enough to know that there is a steep learning curve for fleshing and I would not have wanted to learn on a memorable animal of my own. Think about most rugs you have seem they include the head, teeth, and claws, do you know how to skin a bear keeping the correct amount of cartilage in the ear and not keeping the lips with the rest of the skin.

Use a taxidermists if you want a quality job done.

 

[200plus]

Yes you need to let a taxidermist do the job. You will be pleased with your trophy and will have something that will last a long time. Good luck.

 

[Barrelnut]

A lot of tanneries only deal with commercial accounts (taxidermists) anyways. I agree with every one, take it to a local taxidermist and explain what you want. You could probably get a soft skin with hide on like you see a lot of coyote furs done. To save cost, you can easily boil the skull yourself. Look on Youtube for videos on boiling bear skulls. It's easy. Fleshing a bear hide, not so easy.