The Taxidermist's Wife: duck hunting

Mounting a Standing Duck

Common Goldeneye

Garry's favorite taxidermy project is bird mounting. Here are the basic steps to mounting a duck. The bird is skinned with a belly incision, fleshed, washed and dried.

This photo shows the dried skin, artificial body made from a tracing of the bird carcass. Garry hand makes his artificial bodies from excelsior. Most taxidermists buy pre-made foam bodies. The head is a cast of the real skull and bill, made from urethane plastic. Glass eyes are added to the artificial head. The bill is painted. The duck in the photo is a Common Goldeneye and it's bill is black.

Leg wires are added and the belly seam is sewn. Pins hold the feathers in position until dry (about 2 weeks). The leg wires hold the bird to the branch in this mount. After drying, the colors are restored to the feet with paint.

Common Goldeneye (Drake)

Pheasant Hunting - October, 2015 Kimball, South Dakota

Pheasants Mounted for Curt's Client

In late October, 2015, Garry and a few friends traveled to Kimball, South Dakota. They spent some time duck hunting and then met up with some more friends from Wisconsin and Illinois who were pheasant hunting with Curt Korzan at his lodge, Grand Slam Pheasant Hunts. Curt offers a first-class hunting experience to groups of up to 20 hunters. They had a great hunt, as usual, with Curt. Garry has mounted a lot of display mounts in the lodge and offers bird mounting taxidermy services for many of Curt's clients.