Ok,My partner and I made another great Brown Bear Hunt last Fall in the Cold Bay area,both took good bears....Taxidermist on board got our bears,promised,well,alot of stuff..did he come through,Hell no! ..Now,finally the 10'3" gets delivered 7 months late,wrong position,2k more than original quote and the damn thing smells awful?!We roll it out the garage daily to"air out"...Has gotten a lil better..Now for the Best part,it may Not be the right bear?Not sure,but Bill my partner swears his suspicions may be correct?!..What do we do,what can we do?Considering a attorney that my be familiar with this kind of unique case and could possibly help out...Anyone been here before?Thanks!!(My Bear still there and no contact with this guy in months) PS.Bills First Brownie and he is 70 and this has really taken the fun out of his once in a lifetime hunt/bear!

Hopefully someone will come in with some help for you Kid .... I feel bad for you 2 . Is the taxidermist in Anchorage ???

Thanks! He is in Homer

I hate to be the one with the bad news. But you have no recourse.as long as the taxidermist's delivers your bear mount. Even if hes 2-5 years late! There are no government rules as to smells, quality of work even a time line. All he has to say is hes working on your order. I know of an Alaskan taxidermist that even billed all of his clients saying their mount was done. He never delivered their mounts!
Every time the troopers were able to track him down he simply said hes "Working" on their mount and expected to finish it soon.
This went on for years!


As to the smell, it gets worse!
Brown bears have lots of bacteria on them. If your bear hide was not fully skinned out (Skull, claws, lips and ears turned out and salted )
in the first day, you can have serious problems with hair slipping and smell. ( I will take some heat for saying this) I think its more likely the guides fault for the smell. If a hide is properly skinned and salted and dried they will not stink!. Your bear hide might have laid around for a days on the boat,at the taxidermist and at the tannery. This only becomes a problem when the hide are not fully skinned ,salted and dried.

The smell you have coming from your mount probably mold. I had the same problem with my bear mount. After years of fighting it I got rid of it because of problems with mold allergies

I don't know if I would accuse the guide of anything concerning this bear mount since they believe it is not their bear to begin with. Post the taxidermist' business name if you would so I can warn my friends about this clown. I've got some friends in Homer that might know him as well. Do you have any before and after pics of said bear and how does the mounted bear measure out?

I have a friend who's an attorney, and a hunter. I haven't talked to him in awhile, but I'll try and get in touch with him.

I have received several good PM's from some good memebers on this...Basically we are screwed as we didnt get a contract(didnt think we need one,nver even crossed our minds,but thats a hard lesson!) ...Anyway,the Bear is smelling a lil less and the distance between us makes it to difficult to pursue this.I may post his name later,but not yet...He is in Homer...Thanks to all of you...PS.Get a contract when you get your Bear