I ' ll assume that since you're now looking for a taxidermist, you've studied the species that you're after, the area that you're going to hunt, and made all of the necessary arrangements to make it a pleasant and safe experience. If you're not from BC, the use of an experienced guide definitely makes this process much easier for all concerned.

At this point though, I still feel that I should stress the importance of proper handling of your trophy once it's been harvested. There are many "Skinning" and "Butchering" sites, books, articles etc... readily available to hunters, and they are excellent sources of important general knowledge, but still a few problems continue to pop up more often than they should. These are rarely listed in the articles, and are just about always discussed once it's too late.

• Always take lots of reference pictures before you skin your trophy.
• Always skin a bear right after you take the pictures. "Actually all animals should be skinned ASAP", but bears especially, are more susceptible to hair slippage if the skin is left on for any length of time. Also, the hide should be salted "or" frozen the same day.
• Always make sure that you skin well behind the front shoulder, and down to the knees of the front legs, for a shoulder mount. (Check out the "Skinning" link, above on this page if you're not sure how it's done). Take care to flesh "ALL" traces of meat from the inside of the cape.
• Always for a life-size mount, take three measurements of the carcass, once the hide has been removed. Firstly, from the tip of the nose to the front of the eye, secondly from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail, and finally around the chest.
• Never salt a hide and then freeze it; salt won't freeze. It's one or the other. If you want to be safe, bring it to me ASAP.
• Never roll the head of your trophy into the middle of the hide if you decide to freeze it, because it will take too long for it to freeze, and later, to thaw.
• Never store or transport a hide in a plastic bag as it won't be able to breathe.
• Never skin the hide off of the skull if you don't know how to do it properly. Again, if you want to be safe, get it to me ASAP.

Here's another problem that can happen to your trophy after it's been mounted; thankfully it's quite rare. Small hair-eating mites can infect it if preventative measures aren't taken. Even the best tanning doesn't stop this, and it's apparently capable of happening anywhere in the world, so I also offer a product called "Mount Shield" that should periodically be applied - simply for prevention.

I would especially like to mention here that I use "Ron's Wildlife Services" out of Richmond BC, a tried-and-true trophy shipping specialist, to ship your trophies back to you. Please check out the link provided above for his information. Also feel free to give him a call for an estimate on your shipping costs.

I hope that you enjoy my work, I sure do. If you are interested in my service please let me know by phone at 1-250-489-1727 or via email.

Thanks a lot, Dan Van Zanten