His written taxidermist test and five judged mounts complete, Randy Osman received a box containing the final portion of his state-certified licensing exam.
In it were 20 duck eyes.
“I had to match each of the eyes to the appropriate duck species,” said the Sunbury outdoorsman. “Fortunately, I am a duck hunter.”
The licensing process to be a certified Pennsylvania taxidermist has become much easier in the 20 years since Osman’s experience, but that hasn’t changed the industry’s attention to the finest details in bringing dead animals back to life.
“Taxidermy has come a very long way, with an increasing number of products to make each mount much more lifelike,” said Joe Harris, a 30-year taxidermy veteran from Danville. “Just the glass eyes alone have evolved quite a bit over the past 15 years. If you compare the artificial options now to the real deal, it is just incredible.”
Longstanding legacy
Pennsylvania has one of the largest state taxidermy associations in the country, and has for many years, according to Vince Spellane, president of the commonwealth’s affiliation.
“We literally have some of the best taxidermists in the world,” he said. “They continue to fare well in national, international and world-level competitions. It is no coincidence that there are an abundance of taxidermists in Pennsylvania considering that hunting and fishing have become one of the state’s largest revenue generators.”
Behind the state associations longstanding success is the willingness of those involved to continue perfecting their craft, Spellane added.
“The industry continues to advance thanks to associations such as ours sharing knowledge and updates on the biggest changes and advancements,” he said. “For example, one of the biggest changes within the past year is the use of static fibers — those originally used in model railroading to produce foliage — to enhance taxidermy habitat and for re-creating velvet on antlers.”
Despite practicing taxidermy longer than many of the speakers at various seminars he attends, Harris still enjoys going as a way to learn new techniques and continually improve his efficiency and final product.
“You might have been doing something the same way for 25 years, for example, on your turkey mounts, but then you go watch some guy who specializes in turkeys and maybe you pick up one tip that helps make you better,” he said. “We may not need more taxidermists in the state, but we can all benefit from better taxidermy. Taxidermists are good at helping each other. Anyone is welcome to give me a call and ask advice, and I’d gladly share some tips and tricks.”
Humble beginnings
Osman’s interest in taxidermy began more as a curiosity than full-time work venture.
“I had a lot of mounted stuff in my house at the time. My buddy and I were trappers, and we had some of the tools needed for skinning and fleshing, so we started working on our own things,” he said. “We enjoyed it and decided to learn as much as we could in the hopes that we could eventually earn some money for hunting trips.”
Two decades later, Osman’s Brush Valley Taxidermy handles hundreds of mounts a year and he has hired his son as a second full-time employee.
“It is something I love to do. I always enjoyed working with animals and hunted and trapped my whole life,” he said. “There is something very cool about bringing an animal back to life — in a way. We re-create its pose, its look and some of the habitat so people can appreciate the beauty of the animal and its surroundings.”
The one downfall, he admitted, is that the business’ busiest time is during the hunting season.
“Now, I do most of my hunting during the archery season,” he said.
Osman takes pride in the attention to detail that goes into each piece.
“We spend a lot of time researching and making sure those details are correct, because they can make a huge difference in the final product. We’ve gone to places like Cats of the World (sanctuary in Penns Creek) and take pictures to capture those details,” he said. “For example, a lot of people don’t realize that the inside of a deer’s ear is pink, not white.”
Harris got into taxidermy at a young age, inspired by his father and brother who did it as a hobby. He attended the Pennsylvania Institute of Taxidermy, focusing on the process of restoring the animals as a form of artwork, and now employs several full-time taxidermists.
“Anyone can wrap a deer hide around a form and call it a deer mount,” he said. “It takes quite a bit of learning and development to get good at this.”
Quality takes time, money
The biggest complaints from hunters when it comes to taxidermy involves the wait time and the cost — elements both Harris and Osman strive to minimize where they can without sacrificing quality.
However, each mount requires quite a bit of attention from the moment the animal is brought to the studio, Harris admitted.
“When someone brings a deer in to be mounted, we have to take care of the cape first thing at the studio, which includes fleshing it down, salting it and getting it dried,” he said. “That can take a month to a month and a half.”
Next, both Harris and Osman send out their deer capes to tanneries.
“You can try to cut corners here, and some do with a dry rub and skip the tanning, but dry powder doesn’t really tan them — it doesn’t chemically change the skin and that can lead to cracks and other issues later,” said Harris.
According to Osman, the tanning process takes time, and he doesn’t get the cape back usually for three to six months.
There are numerous deer forms, Osman said, adding that he goes through 110 pages of just deer form shoulder mount options that he will later incorporate with the fully tanned capes.
“Once you get everything attached and tucked in properly and looking good, it needs to dry, which is usually a two to three-week process,” he said. “Then, you finally get to the epoxy and paint work and fine-tune all the detail elements.”
Both Osman and Harris tell customers, on average, to expect a mount to take about a year, and the final cost factors in the amount of labor, but also all the components.
“You can pay $8 for a pair of eyes, or you can pay $28 — yes there is a difference in price, but there is also a noticeable difference in quality,” said Harris.
Osman charges, on average, $575 for a deer shoulder mount, and while some may balk at the price, “I have about $300 in cost for the form and products needed for the mount, and that doesn’t factor in many of the other elements and the amount of in-shop labor that goes into each piece,” he said. “Yes, there may be people who can do it cheaper, but many times, you get what you pay for — and when you have a trophy mount, you want it to last.”
Osman also encourages those who use him to bring their mounts back in for any special cleaning needs or tweaks.
“It helps me to see how they are holding up over time. Maybe I’ll see an issue, and then I’ll look back to what type of glue I was using then and make changes so I am always trying to improve,” he said. “I want my customers to be happy with their mounts for the long haul.”
Certain types of mounts also require an additional level of attention, Harris added.
“Birds, in general, take a little extra care — especially a grouse or woodcock which can have very thin skin,” he said. “You have to clean out all the fat and meat. We then do a shampoo and bone drying process on each one. Keeping all the features in through all that can be a challenge in itself.”
Notable trends
One growing trend in the industry is the increased interest in the European skull mount.
“Some may not have the money for a shoulder mount of a deer, so the skull mount is gaining popularity,” said Osman. “It involves the skull and antlers being cleaned and then, if desired, colored. We have our own hydro-dipping, and it is really popular as guys get skulls or really anything dipped in patterns such as camo or the American flag.”
Spellane has seen a variety of changes in the industry.
“There definitely has been an increase in women in the field of taxidermy, and an increased interest from the youth,” he said. “There is also an increased abundance of information on social media and the internet.”
That information, Harris admitted, has really transformed the industry.
“You look at mounts from 30 years ago, and they were building whole faces with clay and paper mache — some didn’t even look like the animal they were supposed to be,” he said. “Others, however, were done beautifully. Considering what they had to work with, the good ones obviously came from the hands of a masterful artist.”
Taxidermists offer tips for proper field care, preservation
The single most important factor in how your mount ultimately turns out, according to Danville taxidermist Joe Harris, involves field care.
“You see the photos — everyone grabs their buck by the antlers and drags it out to the truck, but you really have to watch what you are doing,” he said. “A lot of hair can be lost from the shoulder region alone — which doesn’t help when we are doing a shoulder mount.”
That includes not using a drag rope around the neck of a deer you plan to later have processed into a shoulder mount.
Randy Osman, owner of Brush Valley Taxidermy near Sunbury, suggests hunters plan ahead to help protect a potential trophy.
“I tell people to get one of those kid’s sleds that you can roll up and take along — and then use that to put your deer on to drag out to protect the hair,” he said. “I can’t fix what isn’t there.”
Vince Spellane, president of the Pennsylvania Taxidermist Association, urges efficiency in getting your potential mount to the taxidermist.
“The more it is handled or exposed to warm temperatures or bodily fluids, the chance of bacterial growth increases as well as the chance of degradation of the specimen,” he said.
Even when hunting in cooler weather of the later seasons, harvested animals need to be processed efficiently, according to Harris.
“You wouldn’t go buy a hunk of chicken and leave it in the fridge for two weeks before eating it,” he said. “Coolness slows the process, but it doesn’t stop it.”
If taking your harvest to a processor, make sure they have the knowledge to handle your specimen in a way that allows your taxidermist to preserve your trophy, according to Spellane.
When attaching the appropriate tag in the ear of a harvested deer, Osman suggests using a large diaper pin vs. slashing a hole in the ear that later would need to be repaired.
When preserving a fish for mounting, Osman recommends against wrapping it in newspaper or paper towel, as many suggest, because it can draw moisture out of the skin and cause freezer burn.
“Take a T-shirt or bath towel, make it wet and then wrap your fish in that,” he said. “Then you can place in a sealed freezer bag — I always tell clients to double-bag them and make sure all air is pressed out.”
Finally, it is important to know all hunting laws, including the newer regulations on Chronic Wasting Disease and deer transporting.
“We’ve had to turn away two or three deer every year because someone shot them in other states and don’t follow protocol for chronic wasting,” he said. “Know the regulations, and find a taxidermist in the other state or region where there is chronic wasting and have them cape and prepare your animal for legal transport.
“I am not losing my license over someone else’s lack of knowing and following the regulations.”
Choosing a taxidermist: A tale of two treasures
My first squirrel and my first rabbit sit side by side in my basement — mounted reminders of the rich history of hunting I shared with my dad when he was still alive.
Both are more than three decades old — the squirrel shot while we lived in New Jersey when I was in third grade, the rabbit from our upper Northumberland County family farm two years later.
The squirrel still looks like it did the day I fired up my modified youth .410, missing only the acorn that once was wedged in its mouth. Thirty-year-old acorns don’t hold up as well as quality 30-year-old squirrel mounts, apparently.
The rabbit, however, is in rough shape. Its ears fell off a number of years ago. Its poofy cotton tail dropped a short time later. It’s like those chocolate bunnies you get on Easter which seem to lose their ears and tails before everything else.
Both mounts were stored together in the same conditions for decades — the only difference was who worked on them.
The rabbit was preserved by a Lycoming County taxidermist that is no longer in business — and that was back when licensing was conducted through the game commission and required a stringent testing program including a written exam, judged mounts and additional testing measures.
Today, according to Vince Spellane, president of the state’s taxidermist association, all you need to become a licensed taxidermist is $100 and a little postal service patience.
“You make a request to the Department of Agriculture. The license fee is $100. Once the fee is received, they send you a license,” he said. “There is no longer any testing that takes place.”
In other words, even though I’m not competent enough to glue my own rabbit’s ears and tail back on, for $100, I could still be a licensed taxidermist.
So how do you know that the professional you’re entrusting your cherished trophy — and hard-earned cash — to is legitimate? Randy Osman, of Brush Valley Taxidermy near Sunbury, and Joe Harris, of Harris Taxidermy in Danville, offer the following tips:
• Ask friends who are happy with their mounts who they used. Word-of-mouth is one of the most efficient screening processes.
• Check out websites — many local taxidermists have photo galleries and testimonials available online.
• Visit the potential taxidermist in person. Talk with them, ask questions, check out the animals they have on display. According to Harris, your gut feeling about someone can be a valuable deciding factor.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for a reference list.
• When looking at a taxidermist’s works, pay close attention to the details — how life-like are the smallest of details, are there cracks or other blemishes on the older pieces?
• Check with the PA Taxidermist Association at www.pataxidermist.org
