A friend, who is not a member here, asked me to post this. I'm leaving out his name and that of the taxidermist (for now anyway) My friend is thick skinned, so have at it!

******

About 4.5 years ago I went on a lion hunt with Randy and Josh Epperson. Long story short we worked hard and killed a great lion. It was one of the best hunts I've ever been on. My wife and I had always wanted a life sized lion mount for our home so I took it to XXXXX. I just got the lion back after a 4.5 year wait.

So here's the deal... I am asking for as many people as possible to post up their TRUE and HONEST opinions of the quality they see in this mount. If you like the way this lion turned out please express what you like about it. If you don't like it then please do the same. Please, no holds barred I am asking for your true impression and don't want any fluff or candy coating. So if you took the time to read all this at least take another few seconds to say what you think!!!

For what it's worth I'm not going to express my opinion now so I don't come across as leading the comments one way or the other.

Thank you!

Photo in the field:


Finished mount photos:

Was he the low bidder?

Remount ... with a different taxidermist.

The fact he is asking for honest opinions leads me to believe he's not to thrilled with it either.

quote:

Originally posted by Outdoor Writer:
..... TRUE and HONEST opinions of the quality they see in this mount. .....

Yuck!

FFS tony

please tell me this is a joke, i think i would shoot the guy that did this to my trophy, and let me wait 4,5 years to recive it at the same time.

damn

peter

P.S i dont like anything about it, it look like it came from a cartoon, i do like it in the just down photo nice broad head, just like the cat i would like to take in time.

Get your money back.

Tony, you can't be serious? What a disaster! I think the 'artist' needs to be named. I know I would be in tears if I received such an abomination.

Are you kidding me, Tony?

That was actually a mount recently picked up from a taxidermy shop?

Chris and I will be calling you to get the scoop on this jewel. My heart goes out to the hunter and the animal for this atrocious end result. Hopefully it is not to late for a remount. That cat was a beaut in the trophy picture...damn shame!

Mary

I would sue the "taxidermist" that did that to my lion, that is only after my Uncle Vint from Chicago payed him a visit for my money back. That mount is a disgrace to taxidermy.

Pitiful!

peterdk has it...I would shoot the taxidermist.

troy

This is up you get when you go to a taxidermist that has never seen a live lion in a tree or mounted one before and the really sad part is that this so called taxidermist thinks this work is the best there is.. ..I have treed over 130 mt. lion in my years now and have mounted up over 4x that number and that one looks like he ate something really bad..
I had a leopard hunter take his cat to a home town taxidermist that dose great work on deer but he has never done or seen a lion or leopard but he was cheaper than I-but let my studio mount all his plain game-- and it looks alot like this cat....you get what you pay for...What a waste of a great cat,,very sad.
Want to see what cats look like, go to my site..

Heavens to Murgatroyd!

If it were the taxidermist's first cat, good try and poor job. If this was not the case, shame on them for taking so long and producing such a poor quality "stuffing." There is so much wrong with this mount where do I begin? I'm sorry for your friend. What a sad case for such a great lion.
regards,
David

Wow, what a shame! Such a magnificent animal and such a travesty. Please remount in a manner which befits a true reflection of this great trophy.

quote:

Originally posted by Charles_Helm:
Heavens to Murgatroyd!

Now that is funny and so is your cat if this is a joke.

If its not a joke Please out this clown that calls himself a taxidermist

That is one of the worst cats I have seen anywhere.

You said be honest...

The hunt pic shows a lion that doesn't look particularly large but has a massive head. As far as the mount, well you know. I won't say it in fear that Peterdk will tell me to get out, apparently he is the only one allowed to comment negatively on others work.

Folks, this is NOT a joke. It was delivered last week, and Tim took the photos 20 mins. later.

Now here's the somewhat humorous part; the mount you're looking at above is the SECOND attempt when Tim complained about the first one. (photos below)!!!!

Tim killed it 4 1/2 yrs ago and received the first mount in June 2009. The taxidermist promised to fix it and make it right. He didn't pick it up until Oct. and finally completed it AGAIN several months later. He told Tim, "You're going to love it."

To top it off, the taxidermist sent him the following e-mail this morning:

"Tim - That lion is an awesome mount, you had it preplanned to say you didn't like it. You sent the kids back in and those words were out of your mouth before the door was completely open."

The first attempt:

And the lesson is.....don't bitch about your mounts, because if you think that your "taxidermist" can't do worse, think again.

That guy needs to find another line of work. But lemme guess, he "dusunt like workin' for anyone."

Tony,
I thought this was a joke until I read your second post and realized that you were serious.
Words fail me. Seriously, this is probably the worst I have ever seen and what a waste of a fine animals life.

Why are you not posting the name of the...I won't even call him a taxidermist, since it would be insulting to taxidermists.

Who is he??

Frank

The word is ---> Cartoonish!!! (Charles you nailed it!).

What is interesting is that although bad, at first glance the initial attempt looks dare I say better...a revenge mount the second time around perhaps?

The taxidermist is not from the Raystown Lake area in Penna, is he? Check out this “piece of work”



I had her remounted by my current taxidermist, but this was a shockingly bad mount. The taxidermist made follow-up promises that he never fulfilled. Sometimes you just need to write it off and move on…and trust that what comes-around-goes-around. Apparently he was raided by the State Game Commission some time later.

quote:

Originally posted by Leopardtrack:
Tony,
I thought this was a joke until I read your second post and realized that you were serious.
Words fail me. Seriously, this is probably the worst I have ever seen and what a waste of a fine animals life.

Why are you not posting the name of the...I won't even call him a taxidermist, since it would be insulting to taxidermists.

Who is he??

Frank

What Frank said-

OMG! I am truly sorry for your despair over that mount, and can completely understand it.

I'm used to seeing a poor mouth, or ear liners in backwards, or some minor flaw but that is criminal.

I am lost for words. We all must remember that taxidermy is a business without any kind of standards. It's a "art" form. But it really is a buyer beware business. There are times when you become aware too late. This is one of those times.
A sure indicator of poor quality is low prices and low prices are the bastard stepchild of "no standards".

I forgot, the rock sucks too !

The sad part is that when the "hacksidermist" was finished, he stepped back, took it all in, and said, "Yep! That's the look I was trying for!"

The first one looks better but they both look like cr*p!

Another thing. If a mechinic screwed up your vehicle real bad would you bring it back for him to fix after he screwed it up or would your "common sense" tell you ,he couldn't do it correct the first time how in hell is he capeable of fixing it ? Why bring bad taxidermy back to the "taxidermist" that performed the first abortion ?????????????

Well look on the bright side....at least there are no "hot dogs" in the neck!!

Sorry I couldn't resist

This post has bled over to this site too?? Lord...

Tony, I believe your buddy TAM has more than enough votes against the dude now to ruin him (the taxidermist how created this travesty) if that is what he's after.... He deserves it. I bit my lip the first time he posted the pics of that crap a year or so back and didn't say a word while the others all patted his back and told him "great trophy" ect.. Too PC.. he knew he picked up a piece of shit.. all he did when he took it back to the same guy to get it redone for the 2nd go-round was polish a turd..

FILL YOUR BATH TUBB FULL OF WATER AND THROW THE CAT IN you might be able to get the cape off if not it wont look any worse when it dries down.

I am no expert on judging other than it looks like shit, But all the experts need to explain exactly what is wrong, and point out the flaws rather than just trash talking it, any novice can see its trash, This will help all of us understand why it looks the way it does, and maybe next time one of us goes to the taxidermist and sees a mess like this we will collect the mount and cancel the CHECK.

IF IT TOOK 4 1/2 YEARS TO PRODUCE THAT ABORTION, A STILLBIRTH WOULD HAVE BEEN PREFERABLE. almost nothing is right in that mount but the worst mess is the general lack of proportion in the head and neck. a glance at the original photo shows just how screwed up this mess is. a cursory glance at this "work of art" would leave one to believe that this was done as a joke.

What did he do with the lion? Your friend got something else back...

There are so many things wrong with this picture on so many levels it's hard to begin.

#1 This can't be an abbertation of the quality of work this guy does. Didn't your friend bother to ask questions and look at examples of his work?

2. The time line is so far askew as to be questions. The idea of 4+ years indicates he either has lots of other suckers (oops! clients) who are ahead of him OR he's doing it ultra "part time". No reputable shop is going to be longer than at least half that time.

3. If it had been me, he'd have never gotten a second opportunity. It's evident the guy ordered too small a form and made the hide fit. Taboo in taxidermy right off. Even if they "don't make a form tha size", a qualified taxidermist is going to alter a form that will fit.

4. The taxidermy market has levels of competency directed at all incomes and when you look for one, you have to decide price versus quality. Quality work takes time and doesn't come cheap (in this case, I guess that rule is violated). Even from the rocks the mount is on, this guy is no more than a novice at best or a hack at worst.

Tony, there are some exceptional taxidermists on here who can fix that clusterflock and you should suggest that your friend cut his losses and contact one of them for a quality remount. I'm just hoping he packed the hide instead of cutting it to fit that gadawful pose he used.

I'm not an expert on taxidermy, but here's my opinion.
I'm really sorry for your friend. This cat doesn't look good at all. It must be easier to list the number of negative aspects than positive in this mount.

I really hope he'll be able to get his money back. A good taxidermist can probably do a remount that such a lovely cat deserves!

Good luck!

I have a lot of empathy for you, having a few "horrendomas" on my own walls. This thing belongs in the other thread on here called "Bad taxidermy". If money was an issue here, never more true was the saying "you get what you pay for"......especially with cats it would appear.

From Tim on another site:


"I just want to clear up the question I seem to be hearing the most, which is if he did such a bad job the first time why would you take it back? Greg McBride at Trails End Wildlife Art was my friend for many years, so first off I was trying to be nice and not ruin a friendship. However, friendship aside, after the first mount I spoke with three different high quality taxidermists in Arizona and none of them wanted to touch the mount. There was to much risk that they would loose the hide and/or they would never be able to do the mount enough justice that they would want their name and good reputations attached to it. So my wife and I made the decision to go ahead and let Greg McBride try and fix it on his dime. But that's not all, at that point we also had such little faith that Greg could make things right so we decided to book another lion hunt with Randy Epperson and get another lion to have mounted by someone that had a track record of producing quality lion mounts. Hopefully that helps some of you understand that I'm not just an idiot that had complete faith in Greg to do it all over again. We saw the writing on the wall and covered our butt in other ways.

For what it's worth... Yes I did kill another lion which I am having mounted life size by Mark Plunkett.

And finally, I did find a taxidermist that was willing to try and get the hide off the bad mount and start over. There are some risks involved and we may end up doing some sort of wall pedistal mount instead of a life size, but it's better than nothing. Once he gets the hide off he will look it over and we will discuss our options and go from there."

Tony,
Tri-State Taxidermy in Houston just soaked and re-mounted a lion, Ben stated going in that there was a high probability that it wouldn't work but in the end it came out awesome. Truly as good as any original mount I have seen. Ben said there was one spot back on the rump where the skin would not hold a stitch, but other than that it came out good, all things considered. Anyways, just a ray of hope for your friend.

quote:

Originally posted by 505 gibbs:
Tony,
Tri-State Taxidermy in Houston just soaked and re-mounted a lion, Ben stated going in that there was a high probability that it wouldn't work but in the end it came out awesome. Truly as good as any original mount I have seen. Ben said there was one spot back on the rump where the skin would not hold a stitch, but other than that it came out good, all things considered. Anyways, just a ray of hope for your friend.

This is MY opinion only, but consider that a remount now would be the third one. I'd bet there are already some flaws from the first remount that are not too evident in the pix.

Anyway, another taxidermist is going to give it a shot. So we'll see the results a few months down the road.

P.S. - I hope the "awesome" Ben used is different than the one used above.

looks like he used a form for a coyote.....