3-2011 GOBBLER BACK FROM TAXIDERMIST WHATS YALLS OPINION ON THE JOB? **UPDATED**

[TANK]

I killed this one last year on opening morning. 22lbs, 10 1/4 beard, 1 1/8 spurs. I took him to a full time taxidermist and told him I wanted him mounted full strut, "blowed up".............This is what I got back. I want yalls "HONEST OPINIONS" on the job. I paid the guy $575.00 for it. Its not my best turkey, but the reason I mounted him was because of the bronse coloration on him. You can tell in the first picture what I'm talking about...............               Be Honest!!!!!!!!!!!


I TALKED TO THE TAXIDERMIST ON THE PHONE AND HE WANTS ME TO BRING IT BACK TO HIM. HE SAID HE CAN TAKE THE TAIL BACK OFF AND LOWER IT ON THE FORM AND BRING IT TO A 90 DEGREE ANGLE, ROLL HIM BACK WHERE HES NOT LEANING FORWARD, AND FIX HIS LEGS WHERE HES STANDING TALLER & STRAIGHTER..........YALL THINK ITS WORTHA A TRY, OR WILL HE SCREW IT UP MORE?

[TANK]

Sorry about the 3rd pic..........I ain't to good on a pooter! lol

[harvester]

It looks fairly good but It ain't full strut. I wouldn't be happy if I wanted a fulll strut bird. I would have left it there since it wasn't what I asked for unless he came down on the price. Where are the feet?

[Mailman]

It doesnt look like full strut to me. I took a bird to a taxidermist yesterday. I'm getting full strut for $750. But I saw 3 of his mounts. 1 full 1 half and one just walking (standing) that one was pretty cool. Is his beek painted red? cant tell from pic. Hard to tell from pics but to me that mount didnt do the bird justice. Sorry for the negative comment.

[TANK]

I feel the same way you do. I'm debating calling this guy back and trying to get some of my money back........ and no his head in my opinion was the best thing about him. What your seeing is his snood.

[Wrangler95]

Looks great,congrats!!

[turkey slayer]

I feel the same way you do. I'm debating calling this guy back and trying to get some of my money back........

i would be going over to his shop and demanding my money back. sorry but that thing looks like snit.

Looks great,congrats!!

did you even look at it?

[bowhunter84]

It doesnt look like full strut to me. I took a bird to a taxidermist yesterday. I'm getting full strut for $750. But I saw 3 of his mounts. 1 full 1 half and one just walking (standing) that one was pretty cool. Is his beek painted red? cant tell from pic. Hard to tell from pics but to me that mount didnt do the bird justice. Sorry for the negative comment.

i agree. it's not a bad mount but it's not the best i've ever seen either. me personally i wouldnt be pleased with it

[hobbes]

I normally don't do this here because post up birds they're proud of and you dont' want to say........."hey it looks like .............".  But........you asked.  First off.........there are much, much, much worse birds posted up here that guys are thrilled with that I wouldn't hang in my garage.

Second........You need to post a little better photos for a good critique, but right off I can see that the bird is not balanced on the limb.  A real bird will be balanced on the limb or they wouild fall off.  Unless the poor photo quality is throwing me off, from straight on it looks like the bird should fall off the limb to his left.  

Third........... the tail and back feathers are positioned strangely for a strutting bird.  Again, unless I am being deceived by the photos, the tail would have to be detached from the tail bone for it to end up that high above the bird.

I can't tell much about the grooming due to the blurry photo, but considering the condition of the dead birds neck........I would suspect that there are some issues there on the mounted bird that likely are not his fault.

Is taht a wire in the front taht is showing to support the bird?  

The bird still appears to be clean and probably shows well on the wall, but anatomically, there are some problems.

[lightsoutcalls]

I'm no taxidermist, but I'm trying to figure out that last picture... what's up with the big void between the tail feathers and the mount...?  Seems like it should be fuller in that area?  Although the bird I had mounted a year ago has similar issues in head coloring, it looks like the colors came straight out of a paint by numbers set.  As I said, my mount looks similar, but I really look for more natural coloration in the head, and asked my taxidermist to do a better job of blending colors or making them more natural/subdued than looking like a paint by numbers job.  
I'm getting my bird from last season done gobbling on a limb.  Now I'm kinda concerned what I might end up with...

[LX_Trkyhntr]

That mount is the #1 reason I haven't had a gobbler mounted yet.  I have seen so many mounts that were "okay".  I just don't wan to waste that much $ for something that is "okay".

However, I have recently found a taxidermist that does a GREAT job, and will not cause me to take out a loan to pay for it.  Now I just have to kill one that falls into my pre-determined size range to get mounted.

[BHMTitan]

I would not be pleased w/ that mount, does not look realistic at all.  I killed a nice gobbler w/ a similiar coloration, see it here:
http://oldgobbler.com/Forum/index.php/topic,6745.msg82452.html#msg82452

I'm about to send it off to be mounted also.

[Number17]

Absolutely terrible.  Never saw one quite like that.

[Muskie03]

Yikes. Bummer.  Sorry Tank, that one has got to hurt a little. It was such a nice bird. It looks like a goofy cartoon turkey from the 1970's.

[barry]

Yikes! Sorry my friend, for that kinda money it should look better.