BlackRiver Taxidermy

01/07/2025

Sorry, kind of political….but can you imagine if Canada merges with US as the 51st? What easier tag opportunites that could provide potentially! I know, I know….but that’s how my brain thinks sometimes.

01/03/2025

1/2-mount chocolate phase black bear with a wicked chest blaze leaving the shop. Congrats to this young man on this hell of a big bruin!

01/02/2025

12/28/2024

Shop is closed until the new year.

12/25/2024

Many of you know I’m a full time firefighter as well as a taxidermist. Working this Christmas and what type of unique meal do you do for your crew when youre a wild game ‘foody’ (yes, there’s a pending cookbook coming eventually)….You order a whole alligator and prep it for the Traeger for Christmas dinner.
Tail is split and both the body and tail are packed with cornbread stuffing, dry rub applied….lets go!

12/24/2024

This is SOOOOO true. Very good information for those who have questions about turn around time and the general taxidermy process!

12/20/2024

Big mountain zebra leaving the shop. Called a flat rug, the hide is rehydrated and the face flattened with a rolled felt edge and backing added to protect the leather. Love how these turn out and thank you to the returning client for entrusting me with your trophy

12/18/2024

Floor pedestal ready to head out the door. This bull comes at the hand of a veteran whom I’ve known for many decades. The hunter had some very specific ideas and requests for both the mount position and habitat which was all custom made in house. Congrats on an incredible trophy and thank you for your service to this country!
High Timber Dreams.

12/18/2024

Updates from the recent WDFW meeting

Recap from last DFW Commission meeting of 2024.
The main focus of the meeting was the proposed staff cougar and bear hunting framework for 2025 and 2026. Both staff recommendations were voted forward by the commission for the department to create a CR-102, with public comment likely to take place in February and final decisions to be made in April.
Bear staff recommendations include keeping the August 1 opener and a two bear bag limit in all units, except for Willipa Hills due to higher sow mortality rates. New side bars to reduce the season by half month increments have been endorsed in cases where harvest surpasses 8% female mortality rate (intrinsic growth). Recommendations also include making killing sows with cubs illegal and creating a new mandatory bear tooth submission date. New staff science reaffirmed the current hunting structure has not been detrimental to our bear populations.
For cougars, staff recommendations passed through offer more overall opportunity than what has been provided for the 2024 season. Recommendations include managing between the 10-16% intrinsic growth rates. In management units that have exceeded the 16% growth rate, harvest will be capped at 10%. In units that stay below the 16% rate, a cap of 16% will be set. Conflict kills will be included in the cap and those numbers will start to accumulate on April 1st of every year. Units with high conflict, especially those in the Northeast, may not see a cougar season in the near future.
There is some degree of peace for now with the near unanimous decision to move forward with staff recommendations. But it is probable that we see pushback on some of the opportunity positive recommendations from strong portion of our commission and demands from the anti-hunting crowd to add further limitations. Commissioner Smith has already began revealing her hand and pushing back on the August 1 start date with her argument focused on non-hunting recreationalists who may not want to be on the landscape with hunters in the summer. Be prepared to stand up for your opportunities in the coming months. The fight is not over.
A huge thank you to all the hunters who participated and engaged!

12/13/2024

I succumbed…after a lot of requests for hats, here they are! Check out this awesome new logo design by Jessica L Van Horn which was put to a leather patch and affixed by Black Hills Rustics. Chose to go with a low-profile ‘trucker’ style hat and yes….they will be in camo as well. Production in process but had to post pics of these two prototypes. Oh yeah, new order is sweatshirts are in too for anyone looking for Christmas ideas. We also offer gift certificates as well to be used on future projects or current mounts in the shop!
I’m a sucker for Christmas and this time of year! Lots of pics coming up of projects hitting the finish floor!

12/03/2024

Monsters! 3 incredible Sonoran mule deer headed out the door today from a returning client. No photo shopping here, they are as big as the appear in the pic.
Been a while since my last post…the month of October was BANANAS with animals coming in. Not much was done in the shop except processing, logging, and caping trophies. What a blacktail season!
Will be posting a video in the next few days about the TitanOutdoors ‘Hunt for the future’ youth hunt for those interested for their kids, age 9-15 to experience an incredible hunt and experience. Stay tuned…..

11/26/2024

Shop will be open today from 2pm-5pm. Closed tomorrow through the weekend for the holiday. Back open on Monday. Everyone have a great Thanksgiving!!

11/16/2024

Here’s an article for you anti-hunting commissioners at WDFW who claimed this when they took spring bear away. Ironic that all you sportsmen know this but we are not ‘biologists’ so our word is nothing to them.

Here you go, Lorna!
The notion that black bears emerge from hibernation in the spring as lethargic is fiction. Humans have anthropomorphized this state of torpor where the bear fasts, minimizes activity and energy loss, and preserves muscle mass through urea cycling, an increase in growth hormones, and metabolizing fat reserves. Upon emergence, black bears are alert and ready to resume their lives of the top of the food chain, focusing intensely on replenishing energy and fat reserves lost during hibernation. Their metabolic rate surges, heart rates increase significantly, and (in boars) testosterone spikes in early spring. During this time black bears travel extensively, foraging vigorously for high-quality food sources, and exhibiting heightened activity levels. They are far from lethargic; instead, they’re actively engaged in survival, restoring fat stores, and reproduction.
The basis of removing Washington’s spring bear hunt on this concept of lethargy was based in anthropomorphic interpretations of hibernation and how it affects the animal, instead of in the science of these uniquely and incredibly evolved and adapted creatures. It was an abuse of our scientists, sound wildlife management, and the department mandate to maximize hunting opportunity.


Read this great article by Michael Stadnisky at bloodorigins.org.
https://bloodorigins.org/spring-awakening-bears-emerge-to-forage-intensely-lethargy-is-a-myth

11/03/2024

Friendly reminder….if you have a game head your looking to euro but it’s going to be a few days or even weeks before you can get it to the taxidermist, please freeze or even put in refrigeration. There isn’t a smell that bothers me, however heads that have advanced decomposition or maggots require several extra steps before being put into our beetle enclosures. If a head is brought into us covered in maggots or the skin is falling off there’s an extra charge secondary to extra steps we have to take…fyi
Good luck to you elk hunters out there! Couple dandies showed up today already!