I have a beautiful 6.5' bear rug already so with the 5'9" bear I just shot I am thinking to just have it tanned instead of doing a full rug. The taxidermist said though that when a hide is tanned it shrinks and when they go to make a rug they will stretch it back out before putting it on the felt. Apparently they do not stretch it back out if it is only going to be tanned. Is there any reason why the tanned hide could not be stretched out but not rugged so that it is back to its normal size? Rufous.

The onle reason I can think of, and I speak under correction, is that it takes time to stretch the hide back out and if a rug is not the end result perhaps it is not cost effective for the taxidermist.